Page 6 - HKUST IEMS Spring 2018 Newsletter
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DESIGNING A POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY - CHINA AND
AFRICA'S EXPERIENCES
work. Additionally, China’s unique
political system and institutional
regimen renders these precision
poverty programs difficult to duplicate
in other developing countries.
Photo by Samuel Vigier / Flickr. CC. https://flic.kr/p/c3ix1b In his academic seminar, Imran Rasul
(University College London) presented
China has achieved remarkable progress in poverty reduction research on the role of delivery agents
since the early 1980s. More than 800 million people living in the delivery of poverty alleviation
under US$1.9 a day have been lifted out of poverty and programs in Western Uganda. The
China’s contribution to reducing the rate of global poverty study identifies the delivery agent's
exceeded 70 percent. However, with the slowdown of social ties to potential recipients and the
economic growth and increase of income inequality, over social context in which they operate as
time, the accuracy of targeting has deteriorated and the the key determinants of their behavior.
measured impact of the programs on rural income growth has
declined. China needs to reform its targeted poverty reduction Many development organizations use delivery agents to allocate
strategies to enable the poor to benefit more from poverty scarce resources across recipients. These agents often have
reduction interventions. In November 2013, President Xi social ties to some recipients and not others, which can lead to
Jinping proposed the strategy of “precision poverty alleviation” biased allocations. Rasul studies these issues in the context of
during his visit to western Hunan, and the strategy has an anti-poverty program in Western Uganda. A total of 4,741
become a significant part of China’s effort to end extreme farmers from 168 villages were surveyed with regards to their
poverty by 2020. In his academic seminar, Sangui Wang knowledge and adoption of improved seeds and modern
(Renmin University of China) summarized the main policies techniques. BRAC (an NGO), offers a program delivered by
and practices implemented under this strategy in recent years locally recruited agents tasked to sell improved seeds to farmers
and discussed the progress made and the challenges that this and train poor farmers in modern techniques.
effort faces.
The study found that delivery agents were significantly more
Precision poverty alleviation aims to eradicate extreme likely to target households to which they are socially tied than
poverty of under $2.3 dollars a day by 2020 by targeting those in rival groups, a distinction exacerbated in villages where
poor households and individuals as opposed to promoting inter-group conflict is most salient.
regional development of poverty-stricken areas. Precision
poverty alleviation includes accurate identification, assistance, The study also found that greater conflict between groups can
management and assessment through which China has been enhance targeting within groups by delivery agents (parochial
able to identify 29.48 million poor households with a total altruism). Such behaviors will potentially skew the allocation
population of 89.62 million as targets for poverty alleviation of the program and therefore, need to be taken into account
programs in 2013 – a figure that dropped to 43.33 million when designing programs, recruiting delivery agents and
by the end of 2016. China has seen a dramatic reduction in incentivizing agents. Development programs that use locally
poverty since the reform which has been in part, a result of hired agents need to account for the network structure of the
fast and sustained economic growth, specifically, agricultural agents they employ. This network structure not only includes
growth. Targeted poverty alleviation efforts have also their social ties and connections to their “in-group”, but also the
helped to narrow the gap between different regions and the groups they are not connected to.
establishment of a social security system in rural areas since
2007 has accelerated economic and social development Academic Seminar, “Accurate Household
of poverty stricken areas in China. However, the high Targeting: China’s New Anti-Poverty
administrative cost and coordination challenges involved in Strategy” by Sangui Wang (Renmin
delivering these precision poverty programs has led to over University of China) on 2017.09.27
investment in some areas of China which in turn produces Video and slides available at
negative effects as the poor are no longer incentivized to http://iems.ust.hk/targeting
Academic Seminar, “Delivery Agents,
Social Ties and Group Identity” Imran
Rasul (University College London) on
2017.09.27
More information available at
http://iems.ust.hk/rasul
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