Sustainable Poverty Reduction in Extremely Poor Areas: Theoretical Logic and Practical Pathway

Gao Shuai, Cong Jianhui, Tang Jianjun

Journal of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Vol. 22, Issue 06, pp. 21 - 32,51 (2020)  DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.jsufe.2020.06.002

Summary

Despite the remarkable achievements in poverty alleviation, the COVID-19 outbreak increases the risks to economically vulnerable rural residents to return to poverty. This calls for a sustainable poverty reduction which aims to consolidate the achievements in poverty alleviation and to build a long-term poverty reduction mechanism in the post-poverty era. Based on household survey data in the rural Taihang mountain area, this paper follows the thinking of “long-term sustainable poverty reduction with consideration of the reality of extremely poor areas”, and investigates sustainable poverty reduction mechanism from three perspectives, i.e. meeting minimum income requirements, stable livelihood support, and sustainable development. We aim to explore the pathway through which sustainable poverty reduction can be achieved, based on the sustainable development goal and sustainable livelihood framework. The results are threefold: （1）Sustainable poverty reduction is a model that should be followed, is a goal that stabilizes the poverty reduction outcome, and is a pathway to consolidate poverty reduction achievements and to improve the efficiency of poverty reduction. A sustainable poverty reduction should give consideration to both “short-term” and “long-term”poverty alleviation strategies and coordinate the“meeting minimum income requirements”, “stable livelihood support”, and “sustainable development” strategies. （2）Attempts should be made to promote universal financial capital, to reasonably guide social capital, and to strengthen human capital through enhancement of aspiration and intelligence. Livelihood capital plays a differentiated role in influencing the “meeting minimum income requirements”, “stable livelihood support”, and “sustainable development” strategies, making it a useful outlet in choosing precise poverty alleviation strategies. （3）Attention should be paid to the coordination and undermining effects among different livelihood capital categories in order to improve the efficiencies of poverty alleviation funds. Sustainable poverty alleviation should promote the coordination of rural households’ livelihood capital and reduce the mitigating effect of different livelihood capital.

Keywords

targeted poverty reduction; poverty alleviation; sustainable poverty reduction; sustainable development; extremely poor areas