Follow-up Support Work for Poverty Alleviation Relocation in Ankang City

Xiaomin ZHANG

Party School of Shaanxi Provincial Committee of C.P.C (Shaanxi Academy of Governance), Xi’an 710061, China

Abstract Poverty alleviation relocation is an important measure to realize the complete victory in the fight against poverty. This paper summarizes the achievements and experience of poverty alleviation relocation in Ankang City, Shaanxi Province. They mainly include three aspects: party building, employment, and people’s livelihood. Then, it analyzes the problems faced in the follow-up support of poverty alleviation relocation in Ankang City. From three aspects: focusing on the construction of grassroots organizations, promoting the employment of the relocated households, and improving the management and services of the resettlement community, it comes up with measures and recommendations for follow-up support work of Ankang City’s poverty alleviation relocation, to ensure that the relocated households live and work in peace and contentment, and provide reference for Shaanxi Province and the western region to consolidate the achievements of poverty alleviation and promote the rural revitalization strategy.

Key words Poverty alleviation relocation, Party building, Employment, Community governance, Ankang City

1 Introduction

TheProposalsoftheCentralCommitteeoftheCommunistPartyofChinaonFormulatingthe14thFive-YearPlan(2021-2025)forNationalEconomicandSocialDevelopmentandtheLong-RangeObjectivesThroughtheYear2035reviewed and approved at the fifth plenary session of the 19thCPC Central Committee stated that we will establish a robust long-term mechanism for consolidating and expanding poverty alleviation achievements and will effectively provide follow-up support for people relocated from inhospitable areas. Poverty alleviation relocation is an important measure to win the battle against poverty, an important part of the "Five-pronged Poverty Alleviation Measures" (developing production, relocation, ecological compensation, development of education, securing basic needs through social security), and also a fundamental way to solve the problem that "the unique features of a local environment failing to give special characteristics to its inhabitants". In areas with vulnerable ecological environment, barren land, and limited space for industrial development, it is necessary to implement poverty alleviation relocation[1]. Its basic idea is to innovate the way of capital acquisition for poor households through relocation[2]. Based on the micro-survey data, farmers were 89.35% satisfied with the implementation effect of the poverty alleviation relocation policy[3]. However, due to many factors such as ideas, concepts, economic foundation, social capital,etc., the relocated households are prone to fall into the situation of unstable livelihood[4], face unemployment, social integration difficulties[5], as well as market risks and psychological dependence risks[6]. Therefore, after victory of the fight against poverty, it is necessary to further consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty alleviation, establish and improve a long-term mechanism for preventing return to poverty, and strengthen follow-up support for poverty alleviation relocation[7]. In the follow-up support work of poverty alleviation relocation, it is necessary to pay attention to the transformation and development of the livelihood of the relocated households[8], and the employment of the relocated households should be the focus of the follow-up support work[9]. In addition, the problems of complex community governance and difficulty in integrating the relocated households are also very obvious in the resettlement community for poverty alleviation relocation[10-11]. The follow-up support for the poverty alleviation relocation should revitalize the various resources of the relocated places[12], and to promote the relocated households to improve their social adaptability in terms of living, production, and social integration, and gradually integrate into cities and towns[13], to support the sustainable development of the relocated households for a long time through education, health care and preferential tax policies[14].

Existing studies have shown that the academic community’s attention to poverty alleviation relocation has continued to increase. Extensive research results have been obtained, but there are few systematic researches on specific regions, especially the lack of research on follow-up support for poverty alleviation relocation in southern Shaanxi. As the "source place" and "main battle field" of Shaanxi’s poverty alleviation relocation project, Ankang City has contributed a lot in the history of immigrant relocation in Shaanxi Province and even the whole country. In April 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out during an inspection in Jinping Community, Pingli County, Ankang City, that "only being well relocated and resettled, will the poor households live and work in peace and contentment". Ankang City has achieved the "multi-win" effect of increasing farmers’ income, industrial prosperity, community prosperity, and social stability through strengthening the construction of grass-roots organizations, stabilizing the employment of relocated households, and doing a good job in resettlement community management and services, and effectively provided the follow-up support for the relocated households, which is of great significance to strengthening the follow-up support for poverty alleviation relocation in Shaanxi Province and even the western region, consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation, and promoting the rural revitalization strategy.

2 Achievements and experience of poverty alleviation relocation in Ankang City

2.1 Achievements of poverty alleviation relocation in Ankang CityIn Ankang City, there were 10 impoverished counties including 4 severely impoverished counties. Since the 13thFive-Year Plan period, Ankang City has reduced a total of 548 000 people living in poverty, built 1 364 poverty alleviation relocation resettlement sites, and relocated 268 400 households (941 000 people). Only during the 13thFive-Year Plan period, Ankang City’s poverty alleviation relocation resettled 105 300 households (335 000 people), including 124 000 severely impoverished residents, accounting for 22.6% of the city’s poverty alleviation population. Ankang City has built 629 schools, 636 medical facilities, and 553 new community factories, absorbing 20 500 jobs, including 6 740 poor households. It has effectively solved the housing problem of the rural impoverished residents and made great achievements in poverty alleviation relocation.

2.2 Summary of follow-up support experience for poverty alleviation relocation in Ankang City

2.2.1Ziyang County promoted party building through the integration of four forces. Ziyang County closely centered on the follow-up support work of the party building to lead the poverty alleviation relocation community, made precise efforts in organizations, positions, mechanisms and guarantees, and actively explored a new model of party building leadership. (i) Building party organizations in an all-round way. Ziyang County issued theImplementationPlanforStrengtheningtheConstructionofPartyOrganizationsinPovertyAlleviationRelocationResettlementCommunities, to achieve full coverage of party organizations and party work in all resettlement communities by means of independent formation, nearby joint formation, and affiliating to party organizations. (ii) Making precise effort to build service centers. In accordance with the overall layout of "5+1+X", Ziyang County has established a party-mass service center, set up a "one-stop" service hall and corresponding service organizations such as groups, social security, and the elderly, and established an activity center for the elderly, left-behind children, and mutual aid associations, to better manage and serve the relocated households, and improve the ability of the relocated households to integrate into the new environment and adapt to the new life. (iii) Constantly making effort to build mechanism. Ziyang County actively implemented the "Party Building +" model, combined the resettlement community party building with industrial development, community governance, cultural construction, entrepreneurship and employment, and public services, to guide the relocated households to participate in community affairs management under the leadership of the party organization, and build a beautiful home together. (iv) Gathering forces to strengthen the subsidies. Ziyang County strictly implemented subsidies for resettlement community cadres and party building funds, and increased the construction of party and mass service centers in relocated communities, to consolidate the foundation of resettlement community services.

2.2.2Shiquan County stabilized the employment through providing three aspects of support. In order to do a good job in the employment for poverty alleviation relocation, Shiquan County concentrated on industry, entrepreneurship and employment, and actively expanded employment channels. (i) Strengthening the industrial support. In township resettlement sites with more than 500 households, Shiquan County developed service industries such as catering, entertainment, supermarkets,etc., forming a business aggregation effect; in township and rural resettlement sites with less than 500 households, Shiquan County transferred land in a unified manner, and developed relatively stable secondary and tertiary industries such as characteristic planting and breeding, farmhouse entertainment and agricultural product processing in accordance with the model of "company + cooperative + poor households"; Shiquan County also encouraged collective economic organizations or market entities to transfer land around resettlement sites and develop large-scale agriculture. (ii) Strengthening entrepreneurial support. Shiquan County strengthened the loan support for the relocated households to start their own businesses, and provided guaranteed loans for start-up. For those who set up a property business service center at the relocation and resettlement site, Shiquan County implemented a one-time reward and subsidy according to the scale and the driving situation of entrepreneurship. (iii) Strengthening employment support. For resettlement sites with more than 100 households, Shiquan County planned to build at least one new community factory; strengthened labor cooperation and organized a group of relocated households to go out to work every year; government-invested construction projects and work-relief programs should allocate at least 30% of the jobs for relocated households, and public welfare jobs should give priority to relocated households and provide targeted skills training and job promotion to promote stable employment.

2.2.3Xunyang City implemented "Four Small Projects" to protect people’s livelihood. Xunyang City implemented "Four Small Projects" in the poverty alleviation relocation communities, to promote the relocation project with services. (i) Building "small vegetable gardens" to solve the problem of the relocated people having difficulty eating vegetables. (ii) Building "small warehouses": Xunyang City used safe old houses collected by the collective as warehouses, and built prefabricated houses around the resettlement sites for the relocated households to store production tools and daily items, so as to solve the problem of difficult storage of materials and items. (iii) Building "small cemeteries": through the circulation of barren hills and slopes, Xunyang City divided the relocated households to bury the elderly, and solve the burial problem of the relocated elderly people after death. (iv) Building "small canteens": Xunyang City provided services such as centralized dining and door-to-door delivery by opening love canteens, so as to solve the problem of eating for the relocated people who cannot take care of themselves.

3 Problems faced by Ankang City in poverty alleviation relocation work

3.1 Slack in poverty alleviation relocation workAfter all poverty-stricken counties were out of the poverty list, the focus of poverty alleviation relocation work is gradually changing from "how to relocate" to "what to do after relocation", from "relocation" to "stable living and getting rich". In some areas, work became slack, investment decreased, and cadres’ efforts became scattered. Some cadres even thought that the task of people in difficulty had been completed after they have been relocated.

3.2 Limited employment channels and insufficient motivation for sustainable developmentThe income sources of relocated households in poverty alleviation resettlement communities mainly rely on migrant work and community factory work. However, the industrial scale of community factories is small, the level is low, the market competitiveness is weak, the effect of helping and benefiting the relocated households is limited, the ability to resist risks is low, and the role of supporting poor households in poverty alleviation is weak.

3.3 Relocated households not confident in settlement after relocationMost relocated households lack confidence in settlement after relocation. (i) After leaving the land they depend on for survival, the relocated households lack suitable jobs, and have unstable sources of income. The community infrastructure for relocation and resettlement is not well established and the household registration of the masses is separated from the place of residence. Community management is difficult, it is difficult for the children of the relocated households to go to school, the elderly people are difficult to seek medical treatment, and the cost of living is high. (iii) Their living habits are difficult to change, and it takes a long transition period for the relocated households to integrate into the new environment.

3.4 Increased risk of returning to poverty due to COVID-19 epidemicDue to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, the demand for small and medium-sized enterprises has decreased, resulting in poor households that rely on the income of community factories to face short-term income reduction and even loss of jobs, which increases the risk of relocated poor households returning to poverty. In addition, skills training cannot be carried out normally, affecting the progress of poor households in entering the labor market to earn a living.

4 Follow-up support measures for poverty alleviation relocation in Ankang City

When the poverty alleviation relocation work comes to the final stage, the problems will become more focused and the difficulty will become higher. Ankang City should carefully study the spirit of the fifth plenary session of the 19thCPC Central Committee, follow the important speech and instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s visit to Shaanxi as a guide, conscientiously implement the central, provincial and municipal policies on poverty alleviation relocation, and improve the follow-up support measures. Ankang City should focus on the construction of grassroots organizations, employment of the relocated people, management and services of resettlement communities, and further improve the supporting projects of resettlement communities, so as to ensure that the relocated households can live stably and gradually get rich after relocation.

4.1 Strengthening the construction of grass-roots organizations and building a fortress of party building in the relocated communitiesAnkang’s victory in removing regional overall poverty and historic achievements in poverty alleviation are fundamentally due to the determined leadership of the CPC Central Committee with General Secretary Xi Jinping at the core, and the superiority of the system of poverty alleviation with Chinese characteristics. The follow-up support for poverty alleviation relocation is a long-term and complex systematic project. Strengthening the construction of grassroots organizations, consolidating the fortress of party building in the relocated communities, and giving full play to the party’s overall advantage are the fundamental directions for Ankang City to do a good job in the follow-up support work of poverty alleviation relocation.

4.1.1Strengthening the grassroots party building to achieve full coverage. It is necessary to implement the full coverage of the party’s grass-roots organizations in the resettlement communities, and implement the centralized and unified leadership of the party in all work of the resettlement community. Ankang City should take the method of independent formation, nearby joint formation, and affiliating to party organizations, and selection of party building instructors to reasonably set up the general party branch and party branch in the resettlement communities, improve the management of grass-roots organizations, strengthen the function of grassroots organizations to ensure that grassroots party organizations cover all poverty alleviation relocation resettlement sites.

4.1.2Enhancing team building and cultivating reserve forces. (i) It is recommended to select party organization secretary for the resettlement communities through the selection of relocated party members who have served as village cadres and the transfer of party building instructors. (ii) It is recommended to actively cultivate reserve forces, take entrepreneurial talents and returning college students as party activists, and cultivate reserve forces for the follow-up development of resettlement communities. (iii) Ankang City should improve the ideological quality of party members and cadres, conscientiously organize party members and cadres to study the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech on inspection in Shaanxi, and insist on implementing the policies of the central, provincial and municipal poverty alleviation relocation.

4.1.3Improving ideological awareness and implementing work responsibilities. Ankang City should strengthen the leadership of grass-roots organizations, effectively improve the political position, and enhance the sense of responsibility and urgency to win the hard battle against poverty. (i) It is necessary to carry forward the work style of seeking truth and pragmatism, overcoming formalism and bureaucracy, placing the follow-up support for poverty alleviation relocation in a prominent position, and doing a good job of "three investigations and three clearing of poverty" and vacation of old houses. (ii) Ankang City should fully implement the "branch +" model, combine party building with industrial development, community governance, cultural construction, entrepreneurship and employment, public services,etc., give full play to the core role of the party organization in the relocated communities, and provide personalized and high-quality services for the relocated households.

4.2 Consolidating the foundation for increasing income and expanding employment channels for the relocated people

How to solve the employment problem of the people in the poverty alleviation relocation and ensure that the relocated people have a stable source of income is the top priority of the follow-up support work for the poverty alleviation relocation. For the employment problem of the relocated people, it is recommended to build industrial parks by revitalizing asset resources; increase investment and develop community factories; set up labor platform and organize labor output; strengthen employment training and encourage self-employment; set public welfare posts and provide social minimum living security.

4.2.1Revitalizing asset resources and promoting industrial income increase. By revitalizing assets and resources and making overall plans, it is expected to achieve industrial prosperity and increase people’s income. (i) Ankang City revitalized the farmland, forest land, and reclaimed old homesteads of relocated households. In accordance with the idea of "building parks on the mountain and building communities at the mountain foot", taking the "three changes" reform as the starting point, through share cooperation, asset quantification, guaranteed dividends,etc., using the development model of "company + cooperative + farmers", Ankang City has cultivated leading enterprises and cooperatives for the relocated community, builds industrial parks, to ensure that the relocated people get jobs nearby and obtain stable income. (ii) Ankang City revitalized and resettlement community shops, facades, open-air business grounds and other resources, developed the community economy such as logistics and distribution, convenient catering, and housekeeping services, to increase employment opportunities. (iii) Ankang City revitalized local cultural tourism resources relying on favorable ecological environment, promoted the integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and the development of characteristic industries, integrated poor households into the industrial chain, to increase the income of the relocated people. (iv) Ankang City revitalized human resources and capital resources, provided investment for enterprises in the resettlement sites by attracting investment, to support capable people to establish professional cooperatives and family farms, and attract the relocated people for employment.

4.2.2Developing community factories and increasing employment. The community factory is the best combination to promote economic growth and consolidate the achievements of poverty alleviation. Ankang City should make more effort in investment promotion, vigorously develop community factories in resettlement sites and provide jobs for relocated people. (i) It is necessary to optimize the commercial environment, provide the best services for enterprise development, and attract overseas entrepreneurs and skilled workers to return to their hometowns to set up community factories, so as to ensure their rapid development. (ii) It is necessary to formulate preferential policies for investment promotion, and fully assist community factories to do a good job in production management through measures such as cadre assistance, reserving factory land, and coordinating funds, to promptly solve the problems confronted in the development of community factories, to ensure that the community factories continue to grow. (iii) It is necessary to improve the scale of community factories, accelerate the group development of community factories, promote the transformation and upgrading of industries and products, improve product competitiveness, added value and market share, promote the subcontracting of orders, the whole-process service, and the standardization of fire protection, and accelerate the pace of quality improvement and upgrading of community factories. (iv) Priority should be given to the employment of relocated households and labor force from poor households to help the relocated people find employment and increase their income.

4.2.3Setting up labor platform and organizing labor output. Ankang City took measures to improve the organization of labor output to realize the high-quality transfer of labor force in the resettlement communities. (i) It found out the basic situation and employment willingness of the labor force in the resettlement communities and established a dynamic management account of labor force employment, to provide a strong guarantee for the output of labor services. (ii) Strengthening the publicity of employment guidance and issuing employment information through multiple channels. (iii) Enhancing communication and connection, and setting up a labor supply and demand platform. Ankang City established labor cooperation organizations in resettlement communities, set up labor export service workstations in the developed eastern regions where migrant workers are concentrated, carry out labor cooperation, docking and services, and centrally organized and led relocated labors to go out to work.

4.2.4Strictly implementing employment training to improve poverty alleviation skills. It is better to teach someone how to fish than to feed him with a fish. Ankang City included the poverty alleviation relocation labors into the vocational skills improvement action, transformed the relocated people into industrial workers in a planned and step-by-step manner, which reduced the relocated people’s dependence on traditional planting and breeding industries. (i) It increased the propaganda of skills training, orderly organized the relocated people to visit labor-intensive enterprises such as industrial parks and community factories, creating a strong atmosphere for national learning. (ii) It integrated vocational training resources, innovated training methods, vigorously implemented order-based and entrusted training, and used on-site observation, practical operations, courtyard meetings,etc., to focus on improving the vocational skills level of relocated poor labors, to cultivate new-type professional farmers who meet market demand. (iii) Ankang City increased the training subsidies, promptly reimbursed the transportation and living expenses subsidies in the process of skills training for the poor labors, and provided free training to ensure that after training, they could get employed.

4.2.5Increasing public welfare jobs to ensure the minimum living security. Ankang City increased the development of public welfare posts and special jobs in resettlement communities, encouraged qualified resettlement communities to moderately develop public welfare jobs with collective economic benefits. Ankang City resettled those poor labors who are unable to leave their hometowns, have no jobs to help, and are unable to get out of poverty, and provided them with a certain monthly public welfare post subsidy to ensure stable employment of at least one person for poor families.

4.3 Improving community management and guiding relocated people to integrate into the communitiesAnkang City improved the management of resettlement communities, and continuously enhanced the sense of belonging and satisfaction of the resettled people. Besides, it strengthened the construction of new folk customs, advocated a civilized way of life, and guided the relocated households to change their thoughts and concepts, change their living habits, and integrate into community life as soon as possible.

4.3.1Making innovation in community management to ensure people live in peace. On the basis of the scale of resettlement sites, Ankang City properly set up street offices and community neighborhood committees, and strengthened the resolution of conflicts and disputes, to prevent social risks, and enhance the sense of belonging, happiness and safety of the relocated people. (i) Optimizing the community management service mechanism: establishing a "three-in-one" management service mechanism with the party branch as the core, the neighborhood committee as the main body, and property services as the support. (ii) Conducting classified management to solve the problem of separation of man and land. The relocated community took charge of management services such as subsistence allowances, new rural cooperative medical system, endowment insurance, civil affairs assistance, labor and employment, family planning, and children’s school enrollment. The village where the original household registration of the relocated people is located took charge of management services such as returning farmland to forests, subsidies for planting grains, confirmation and registration of land and forest land rights, contract transfer and requisition, and income distribution of village collective economic organizations. (iii) Improving the grid management system. Ankang City implemented the grid management system of "community + owner committee + building head", environmental sanitation, power management and protection, policy publicity in the resettlement communities, to gradually improve the service function of the resettlement communities, and provide guarantee for the stable living of the relocated households in the resettlement site.

4.3.2Improving supporting facilities and improve people’s well-being. (i) Ankang City improved the public service system, integrated financial funds, poverty alleviation assistance funds from eastern and western regions, made effort in the construction of public service facilities such as public education, medical care, community services,etc., to ensure that the children of relocated households go to school nearby, and ensure that the resettlement community medical and health institutions provide high-quality services. (ii) Improving the construction of the "Four Small Projects" (small vegetable gardens, small warehouses, small cemeteries, and small canteens), so as to remove the worries of the relocated people. It coordinated resettlement community resources and established vegetable gardens in resettlement communities through land transfer, which reduced the living cost of relocated households. It planned convenience service facilities such as public toilets, cemeteries, wedding and funeral halls and farm implement warehouses, and service institutions such as childcare and elderly care, to ensure that the relocated people live in peace, live comfortably, and have full confidence in the future.

4.3.3Promoting cultural construction and guiding the transformation of folk customs. (i) Through the establishment of moral lecture halls and immigrant night schools, Ankang City vigorously undertook new folk customs construction activities with the main content of "honesty, filial piety, frugality, diligence, and harmony", and provided in-depth and meticulous ideological guidance, to cultivate new folk customs of gratitude, striving, being positive, and self-reliance. (ii) Implementing resettlement community self-governance mechanism. It set up resident covenant, wedding and funeral councils, moral councils, and resident councils in resettlement communities to publicize and praise advanced models of transforming old customs. (iii) Carrying out cultural and sports activities with characteristics and high participation and providing care for left-behind elderly people, women and children. The cultural department organized cultural activities for the resettlement communities and provided preferential cultural performances; the women’s federation organized training for housewives; the Communist Youth League organized the establishment of a community

children’s home, to guide the relocated people to change their way of life, promote their rapid integration into the new life, and realize the transformation from farmers to citizens.

5 Conclusions

Relocation is only a means, while getting rich is the ultimate purpose. It is expected to realize whole employment of the relocated poor people, continuously enhance the sense of gain, happiness and safety of the relocated people. These are main direction and effort of poverty alleviation relocation work. Only by doing well in poverty alleviation relocation follow-up support and ensuring relocated people living stably and comfortably after relocation, may it be able to consolidate the achievements in the poverty alleviation and solidly promote the rural revitalization strategy.