China bends a bit for anti-poverty project

from UK Reuters

A new project in China is making gains in fighting rural poverty. This story profiles a part of China that has been unaffected by China's economic boom. - Kale

By Alan Wheatley

BEIJING - A pilot project with a difference is making a dent in rural poverty and, more significantly, giving villagers a voice in the development of a pocket of southern China bypassed by the country's economic boom.

What sets the scheme apart is that public funds to tackle poverty are being channelled through non-governmental organisations, a first in China.

In a country where NGOs have long been regarded with suspicion, this is nothing short of a seismic shift, according to the Asian Development Bank, which is meeting their overheads with a modest grant.

By sanctioning the project, Beijing is displaying the pragmatism that is a hallmark of its economic management.

More than 20 million people live under China's official absolute poverty line; many of them live in hard-to-reach clusters that require targeted help, and the government wants to find out whether civil groups can be harnessed to tackle the problem.

The sums involved are small: the NGOs, working in cooperation with local governments, have 500,000 yuan (37,020 pounds) to spend in each of 16 mountain villages in the interior province of Jiangxi.

But the stakes are potentially high: if the project is seen to work, its backers hope it can become a model for 148,000 marginal villages concentrated in central and western China.

The trial runs until October, but the initial evaluation is positive; 82 percent of respondents to a survey were very satisfied with the planning process compared with just 21 percent in villages where projects are being executed by the government.

The vote of confidence is important because the ADB says there is convincing evidence from across Asia, from India to Indonesia, that aid schemes stand a better chance of succeeding if local people are involved in their design and implementation.

"This project has much wider implications not only in the field of poverty reduction but in a number of areas," said Professor Li Xiaoyun at China Agricultural University.

"It's made an effort in what I call making space and providing opportunity -- making space for government and civil society and poor people," said Li, an expert on poverty reduction and rural development who is evaluating the scheme.

LIMITED ROOM FOR MANOEUVRE

Still, civil society is a fragile plant in one-party China.

Liu Shaokun found out the hard way just how little space the state would grant him: last month the teacher was sentenced to a year of "re-education through labour" after photographing schools that collapsed during May's earthquake in Sichuan.

Many of the 87,000 killed or missing were schoolchildren trapped in buildings that parents say were shoddily built.

In Jiangxi, the project NGOs were alert to the risk of corner-cutting and trained villagers to monitor contractors to make sure they built a road according to agreed specifications.

Chris Spohr, an ADB economist in Beijing who is managing the Jiangxi experiment, said enlisting NGOs and empowering local villagers can contribute to President Hu Jintao's goal of a "harmonious society" and is in tune with Premier Wen Jiabao's constant refrain of the need to "transform government".

The two slogans encapsulate the imperative of rebalancing China's economic model so wealth is shared out more equally, growth is more sustainable and the state is more responsive to people's needs.

"I can't say in all 16 pilot villages that everything ended happily, but the initial friction and resentment gave way to a recognition of the benefits," Spohr said.

CHANGE OF HEART

Some local officials admit they were aghast at the outset at the prospect of losing control of development funds.

"At first I didn't get why we should open up our government resources to share with these NGOs. I mean, that was originally the government's money -- why should we give it to them?" said He Yuanmin, head of the Poverty Alleviation and Development Office of Le'an County in Jiangxi.

"And when we let them do these things, we're essentially giving up some of our power. I couldn't understand that at first," He said.

But He said he came to realise NGOs could complement his office's strained resources and that, by working at the grassroots, they can more easily bring out local people's ideas.

He now wants the pilot project extended and hopes some local NGOs will spring up to carry it out.

"Not all of the power can be in the hands of the government and the Party. We should loosen our grip and let society take part in the conduct of government," he said.
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