Practical move to get NGOs to play bigger role in poverty alleviation work

THE STATE COUNCIL, China’s Cabinet, recently issued guidelines for governments at all levels to encourage social organizations to more widely participate in the ongoing poverty-alleviation work, so as to finish the job of lifting all poor people out of poverty by 2020. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

Social organizations have always played a prominent role in China’s poverty-alleviation efforts by providing funding and other assistance to those living in poverty. Especially, since the 13th Five-Year Plan (201620) was released, social organizations focusing on poverty alleviation have proliferated in China. By the end of 2016, the number of such organizations specializing in poverty alleviation exceeded 700,000, and the accumulated donations of enterprises and individuals had reached 130 billion yuan ($19.6 billion).

Social organizations can do the job that the local governments cannot do, because in some aspects they are more efficient. For example, in certain regions where the ecology is fragile, some social organizations use experts to help the local residents increase their incomes during the process of protecting the local ecology. That’s more accurate and problem-oriented than many governmental programs.

Besides, social organizations depend more on the “market” so they are more flexible and better meet the various demands of the poor. There are some chained

organizations that issue small credit loans to poor farmers in order to help them boost production, which has proved quite effective in China and elsewhere.

More important, some social organizations have such a big influence that they can raise enough money and mobilize ample resources on the national, even global scale, which makes them more competent in helping the impoverished population. When interacting with their global partners, they can also better tell the stories of Chinese people and organizations, and let more people in the world know about China’s efforts to help the poor.

There are about three years left before 2020, and each year China must lift at least 10 million poor people out of poverty, so as to finish the grand job of poverty alleviation. Even after 2020, it will require efforts to prevent people from slipping back into poverty again.

Helping the remaining poor escape poverty and preventing people from slipping back into poverty requires not just the government’s efforts but also the support of NGOs.