A new concept and drive to reduce poverty

To help build a moderately well-off society, the authorities at all levels should pay equal attention to the impoverished groups' housing, potable water, transportation, education, medical care and social security demands during the process of targeted poverty relief.

The authorities should also expedite the process of poverty alleviation and pay attention to the quality of service they render. If officials are unable to increase the funds for poverty relief or achieve a breakthrough in institutional innovation in a short time, they should strike the right balance between the quantity and quality of poverty relief and development work.

Since the government leads the poverty relief and development strategy in China, it will also play a dominant role in targeted poverty relief programs and the fundamental role in poverty alleviation planning, resource allocation, implementation and management. But it is also important to ensure that low-income families and poor communities play their respective roles in the entire process.

Giving every impoverished household access to poverty relief programs is the intrinsic requirement of targeted poverty relief. But it doesn't signify directly distributing poverty relief resources to every impoverished family. Given the actual situation in impoverished areas and condition of families, in some cases the desired effects of poverty relief may not be achieved if we directly hand the resources to them.

For instance, the direct distribution of resources among impoverished families in areas with high numbers of poor households could lead to waste of resources and the failure of poverty relief projects if local development is not improved.

The author is a researcher at the Rural Development Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.