POVERTY REDUCTION BRIEFING 2013-II

I. Chinese Academy of Social Sciences today released the Blue Book of Contiguous Destitute Areas: the Development Report on China’s contiguous Destitute Areas (2013), pointing out that contiguous destitute areas will be government’s main battlefield to combat poverty in the new decade.The report said that China’s poverty distribution has demonstrated new features,showing a trend of scattering at the country level but concentration in specific regions,namely, the absolute poor concentrate in remote mountainous areas, ethnic minority regions, old revolutionary base areas, provincial border areas, etc. According to the report, providing equal public service in contiguous destitute areas is an important measure for reducing human poverty. A survey shows that in 2011, people who still lived below the latest poverty line, 2300 yuan, were some 220 million, accounting for 12.7% of the population with rural household registration. The poverty rate in the
contiguous destitute areas was 28.4%, 15.7 percentage points higher than the national average. Poor people in these areas made up more than 70% of the national total.
Source ： yicai.com, 20-03-2013
II. New factor of poverty alleviation and development: all the central administered  SOEs  under  the  State-owned  Assets  Supervision  and Administration Commission of the State Council participate in the targeted poverty alleviation for the first time.In November 2012, according to the requirement of the new Poverty Alleviation and Development Outline (2011--2020), eight ministries and commissions, including State Council’s Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development Leading Group, CPC’s Organization Department, United Front Work Department, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, issued jointly the “Notification about the Participation in the New Round of Targeted Poverty Alleviation by Central and State Organs and Related Institutions.” The notification adjusted the scope of participating units and also the working methods. It can be seen from the issued list of pairs of government units and their targeted poor areas that the in-depth participation of central administered SOEs under the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council is a new factor of poverty alleviation and development at the government level. The in-depth participation of more institutions and organizations including central administered SOEs helped China achieve for the first time full coverage of the key counties in the national poverty reduction program in 2012, and will have more comprehensive influence on the poverty reduction and development of the poor areas in China.
Source: the 21st Century Economics Report, 17-03-2013
III. Sinopec’s key poverty alleviation program in Gansu was launched a few days ago.Currently, all the construction projects are going smoothly and are expected to be completed in mid-May. In the afternoon of February 3, 2013, Xi Jinping, the CPC General Secretary, visited Dongxiang County. He told the local residents that the Party and the government will provide further assistance to improve their life.Sinopec fulfills its social responsibilities, sparing no efforts to help carry out the local poverty alleviation program. After a survey into the local conditions, Sinopec decided to invest 20 million yuan to build for Bulenggou village a 20-kilometer main road, the completion of which will greatly reduce the cost of transportation, and at the same time bring great convenience to local residents.
Source: people.com.cn, 20-03-2013
IV. Commissioned by the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, China Philanthropy Advisors (Beijing) Co., Ltd. officially released the Survey Report on Pupils Short of Shoes in Poor Areas on March 20, 2013.The report is pioneering in the field of domestic public welfare and will hopefully provide an important inspiration for innovating the public welfare model. According to the field research in the report, a large number of children in poverty-stricken areas lack shoes. It is quite common to see children wear only one pair of shoes for two years, brothers and sisters share one pair of shoes, and children get new shoes only when the old pair is worn out. Although our donations are constantly increasing, a lot
of children living below the poverty line still need urgent help. The society, maybe driven by “collective unconsciousness,” failed to give adequate attention to these impoverished children. This shows that unless charity work is fully implemented,financial and material donations, no matter how much, won’t really help improve the situation.
Source: gongyi.sina.com.cn, 22-03-2013
V. On March 21, the party secretary of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Li Jianhua came to Guyuan to investigate ecological immigration, poverty alleviation and development. Li Jianhua pointed out that Guyuan should develop characteristic agriculture and industries with local advantages with existing resources, do more in attracting investments, and promote poverty alleviation and development through projects. The municipal government should improve the management of new villages, develop industries with high profits, and create new ways of generating profits. It should take a broader view, come up with new ideas of development, innovate the ways of helping the poor, and do a good job in ecological immigration while helping other poor people get rid of poverty and become better off. It should put more effort into reducing poverty through education and technology, and constantly enhance vocational education and training so as to improve people’s ability of self-development. The municipal government should also strengthen the building of
grass-root Party organizations, create new methods for social management, fully implement the Party’s ethnic and religious policies, strengthen the management of religious affairs in accordance with law, and promote solidarity, progress, common prosperity and development of all ethnic groups.
Source: government.cn, 23-03-2013
VI. Thirty-six counties and cities in Anhui, Henan and Hubei provinces are included in the regional poverty alleviation plan for extremely poor areas.The Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation Plan in Dabie Mountain Area (2011-2020),which is jointly formulated by the Poverty Relief Office of the State Council and the National Development and Reform Commission, has been officially approved by the State Council. Thirty-six counties and cities in the provinces of
Anhui, Henan and Hubei are included in the plan. Data shows that the poverty rate of Dabie Mountain area is 22.6%, 12.32 percentage points higher than the national average. Every year, about 56,000 people return to poverty due to illness, disaster, etc.According to the plan, by 2015, the number of impoverished people in Dabie Mountain Area will halve, and by 2020, both urban and rural residents’ income will grow in pace with economic aggregate, the growth rate of per capita net income of farmers will be higher than the national average, and the area will achieve the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects together with other parts of the country.
Source: Economic Daily  ， 19-03-2013
VII. Recently, the People’s Government of Hunan Province introduced Implementation Outline for Poverty Alleviation and Development of the Rural Disabled in Hunan (2011-2020).The outline mentioned helping 500,000 poor rural families with disabled members increase income by 2015. Poor disabled people with the ability to work will be the key target of poverty alleviation and development. By 2015, community rehabilitation and rehabilitation assistance for the disabled will cover most rural areas. Most rural disabled school-age children and adolescents will receive compulsory education and
the enrollment rate will reach 90%. In terms of specific measures, anti-poverty models that have proved to be effective such as “companies + farmers” and “micro-credit to households and individuals” will continue to play a role, and new poverty reduction approaches will be innovated; practical technical training for 50,000 rural disabled people will be provided; and job opportunities fit for the disabled will be developed.
Source: rednet.cn 19-03-2013
VIII. In the afternoon of March 22, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province held a video and telephone conference to arrange the task of investigating and making the province’s new list of low-income farmers and key villages of poverty alleviation.The identification of low-income farmers has started throughout the province.Zhejiang Province will select key administrative villages in its poverty alleviation program from villages in 26 underdeveloped counties, cities and. Villages with a higher proportion or a larger number of low-income farmers, weak collective economy, and poor conditions of production and living, and those, also suffering from the above conditions, that have experienced collective relocation or have seen a large number of their residents relocated over the past five years, will be put on the list of key counties. After the primary selection of low-income famers and key villages of poverty alleviation, the government will send investigation teams to each household to conduct questionnaire survey on the villagers. In this way, the government will
get basic data, analyze the causes of poverty and discuss poverty-reduction measures.The survey data will also be built into an electronic archive.
Source: Zhejiang Daily, 23-03-2013
Organizer: Beijing Normal University China Poverty Reduction Research Center

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