Rethinking the Role of Village Poverty Relief Teams in China

by+Wang+Xiaoyi

What role and functions should development experts and officials perform in poverty reduction？ This is a question haunting various poverty alleviation and relief organizations. In its practice of implementing “precision” poverty relief measures， the Chinese government has dispatched some 480，000 officials to 125，000 poor villages around the country to help locals shake off poverty. The move， based on the advantage of Chinas political system， is considered an effective approach in poverty reduction. It not only reinforces government investment， but also increases human resources in fighting poverty. The results of the policy， as well as problems arising thereby， merit reconsideration.

From Government Official to Village Ambassador

The Poverty Relief Team in Lianhua Village， Huajiang Town， in southwestern Chinas Guizhou Province， has set a good example. The head of the team， Zhou Qibing， was formerly an official in the Immigration Bureau of Anshun City， Guizhou. The bureau is a “pairing assistor” of Lianhua Village. In 2011， Zhou was sent to the village as head of the Poverty Relief Team. “Pairing assistance” is a poverty relief mechanism unique to China. The mechanism links government departments and state-owned enterprises（SOEs） with specific poverty-stricken villages and defines the poverty reduction obligations and objectives of those government departments and SOEs. Through sending officials or employees to their pairing villages， the government departments and SOEs can learn of the different demands of different villages， thus realizing precision poverty alleviation.

Whether an outsider can be accepted by local villagers as their leader depends on whether he or she can bring them tangible benefits. When Zhou arrived at Lianhua Village， some farmlands of the village had been rented to outside investors at low prices to plant pitayas. Zhou believed that renting their farmlands was unhelp- ful for villagers to increase their incomes and could even impede sustainable development of the village. Then， he organized locals to form a farmers union to plant and sell pitayas by themselves.

Villagers faced three major challenges. The first was lack of funds for initial investment. As a government official， Zhou is familiar with supportive policies for farming. Thus， he represented the village to apply for funds from local agriculture authorities， which were used to support villagers in pitaya planation.