I. Background

China has made a remarkable achievement in poverty reduction during the last four decades. About 727 million, or 93% of its poor population in rural China has been lifted out of poverty since 1978. However, according to the 2011 poverty line for rural residents and  Di Bao for urban residents, there are still a total of 58 million of Chinese population under the poverty, including 43 million in rural areas and 15 million in urban areas by end of 2016.  In November 29, 2015, a more ambitious plan has been made by the central government of China to lift all the remained poor by the official poverty line in rural areas out of poverty by year 2020. In order to reach this target set for poverty reduction, more resources, including funds, personnel, social and political ones, are and will be needed to be mobilized for the fight against poverty in the next five years. It is expected that, based on the current official poverty line, China will be successful in lifting all the registered poor in rural area out of poverty by 2020 with the firm commitment of the Chinese government and strong administrative system in place.  

However, there are also a number of reasons to be concerned about China’s poverty situation during post-2020 era. Firstly, the current policies that are employed by the Chinese government for poverty reduction will likely leave some significant number of poor out of the process of national fight against poverty, including the poor migrants and the rural poor who are unfortunately not included in the registered pool of poverty. Secondly, accelerating change in social structure, such as urbanization and aging of population, combined with the uncertain economic situations during the transformation such as slowing economic growth in the country, will likely generate new poverty in both rural and urban areas. Third, the urban poor who current receive  Di Bao has been so far neglected in the national fight against the poverty. Fourth, increasing income in the future will prompt the government to adjust the official poverty line, which could result in new poverty in both urban and rural areas.  

With the current policy emphasis on lifting the rural poor out of poverty, there has been little attention paid to the urban poor including both the  Di Bao population and poor migrants in the cities and to the emerging new poor due to social, economic changes, and policy changes.  Some of those are old challenges, while other are new challenges.  Those challenges, old or new, are likely to be intensified with socioeconomic transformation that are occurring, particularly so during the post-2020 era.  As such it is prudent for policymakers to be aware of the situation and to be proactive.  To help design an effective strategy to fight against the poverty during the post-2020 era, it is important to better understand the changing situation of overall poverty in China based on reliable data and rigorous analysis of the underling factors.  To support such efforts, Ford Foundation China Office has supported a study on new China’s poverty reduction strategy for the post-2020 era.  The study has two phases.  The first phase which has been under the way since 2016 focuses on analyzing the new poverty trends, assessing the gaps, and identifying international lessons for China’s efforts on fighting poverty dealing with the new poverty situation. The first phase has progressed well and expected to be completed by April 30, 2018. The second phase will be focused on supporting a development of a new national poverty reduction strategy and action plan for the post-2020 era.  This proposal is submitted for a consideration of funding from Ford Foundation on the second phase.

II. Purpose and Objectives

The purpose of the proposed second phase is to support a development of new China poverty reduction strategy and action plan for the post-2020 era.  There are four specific objectives:

1) Analyzing socioeconomic, environmental, and policy conditions and trends for better targeted poverty reduction in China during the post-2020 era;

2) Documenting and analyzing the operation of the poverty governance, fiscal and financial system in China for the poverty reduction and inequality;

3) Assessing the operations, challenges, and options with a right based social protection system in China with a focus on the informal sector; and

4) Developing strategies and action plans for poverty reduction and social protection in China under increasing urbanization of poverty population.