Poverty alleviation work must be grounded in reality to produce real results

 

According to media reports, in recent years governments at all levels have attached unprecedented importance to poverty alleviation work and made unprecedented investments, but in some places the increase in investment has not brought obvious results. Some poverty alleviation projects are not grounded in reality and lack thorough planning, caring only about disbursing funds and nothing more, while paying little attention to whether they actually work. Some farmers even report: with poverty alleviation projects, whatever you raise loses money, and the farmers have become afraid of them.

Poverty alleviation and helping the poor is a national policy direction, aimed at moving toward common development and prosperity and promoting social stability and harmony. But poverty alleviation is not simply “throwing money” at the problem, still less “having money and doing whatever one pleases.” Above all, one must avoid launching projects blindly out of a “political achievement” impulse, “disbursing funds and being done with it,” and ignoring the actual results of poverty alleviation; one must never, flush with funds and acting crudely and simplistically, decide the targets, direction and projects of poverty alleviation by administrative quotas and orders alone. One must stay grounded in reality, plan thoroughly, calculate carefully, identify the goals and direction clearly, and, based on the local social and economic development conditions and the actual needs and capacity of the recipients, combine market conditions with risk assessment, so as to hit the target and carry out precisely targeted poverty alleviation.

⟦NL> For example, in a certain place in the west, to help people escape poverty by raising rabbits, only the once-booming enthusiasm for rabbit farming was noticed. The government pooled funds of various kinds to support it, and at the peak the rabbit inventory approached 400,000 head, yet the sharp changes in market conditions could not be foreseen and the market risk assessment was seriously inadequate, so that in just 5 years the industry scale had shrunk to less than 70,000 head, and many farmers lost their entire capital and could not recover for years. Such “follow-the-crowd” poverty alleviation has plenty of enthusiasm but insufficient “accuracy,” and not only wastes precious national poverty alleviation funds but also “does bad things with good intentions,” turning a project meant to enrich farmers into an “industry that hurts the people,” so the farmers will not “buy it,” and things turn out contrary to one's wishes.

Another example is the poverty alleviation process for primary schools in some backward areas, where there is poverty alleviation funding but the problem of a shortage of teachers cannot be solved; the embarrassment of poverty alleviation “missing the mark” exists here as well. Therefore, while carrying out poverty alleviation, besides providing funds, one must also contribute effort and people, either retaining and attracting outstanding talent through preferential policies and measures, or promptly raising the quality of grassroots talent through talent export and teaching assistance. Talent is the foundation of any undertaking; with talent there are guides and leaders to help people escape poverty and become well-off.

⟦NL>⟦NL>⟦NL> Poverty alleviation work is a systematic project and must not seek only “quick, simple and fast” results; the valuable thing is to turn the simple poverty alleviation funding “blood transfusion project” into a deeper “blood-making project” for escaping poverty and becoming well-off. To this end, it is necessary to change the simplistic practices of administrative dominance and rigid assignment in some places, pay attention to the wishes of the people and the role of market laws, and avoid “the farmers have to do it even if they don't want to.” Instead, on the basis of in-depth investigation and research and good ideological guidance, assistance should be provided suited to local conditions, people and timing, with scientific input of funds, effort and people, and attention should be paid to effectively combining poverty alleviation with “supporting aspiration” and “supporting skills,” strengthening skills training and talent cultivation, so as to “turn giving into guiding,” and guide recipients to establish the idea that poverty spurs a desire for change and change brings a way forward, and to actively forge ahead. “A fortune in hand is not as good as a skill in one's possession”; one must actively “make blood” in work skills, ideology and talent reserves, and complete the leap from “standing by and watching, waiting to be helped” to “finding a way and working on one's own initiative.” Ultimately, through successful “blood exchange,” one achieves the transformative progress of “being reborn.”

⟦NL> In short, “wealth” cannot simply be brought about by money-throwing “blood transfusion.” The key is to stay grounded in reality, grasp the actual conditions of poor areas, accurately diagnose the “pulse” of the poverty alleviation recipients, and carry out “blood-making” precisely targeted poverty alleviation, helping farmers not only “escape poverty” financially but also truly “escape poverty” in ideology, skills and sustainable development, completing the transformation. Only in this way can the huge role of national poverty alleviation funds in “activating the source” be fully brought into play, fostering hope, fostering drive and fostering real results.

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