How to Govern the Fragmentation of Social Poverty Alleviation

In recent years, social forces, as an important subject of poverty alleviation and development, have made positive contributions to the cause of poverty reduction. With the advancement of the targeted poverty alleviation strategy, and especially with the improvement of the institutional mechanisms for social poverty alleviation, the breadth and depth of social forces' participation in poverty alleviation and development have noticeably increased, and their role has become increasingly prominent. At the same time, there are still certain problems in current social poverty alleviation, such as the failure to form a joint force in terms of participation effectiveness, the quality and level of assistance needing improvement, various assistance resources needing integration, and a prominent phenomenon of "fragmentation," including fragmented policies, fragmented management, fragmented funds, fragmented projects, fragmented teams, fragmented targets, and fragmented publicity, all of which urgently require comprehensive governance.

Policy Coordination The subjects that formulate and implement policies for social forces' participation in poverty alleviation include not only government functional departments, but also organizations such as the Federation of Industry and Commerce, trade unions, women's federations, disabled persons' federations, and Communist Youth League committees. If an effective policy coordination mechanism is lacking, there may be certain conflicts among departmental policies, and the phenomenon of fragmented policy implementation will become increasingly serious, leading to ineffective implementation of social poverty alleviation policies and further giving rise to problems such as shifting responsibility and wrangling, competing for credit, and weakened or offset policy effects in the poverty alleviation process.

To solve the "fragmentation" problem in policies for social forces' participation in poverty alleviation and development, we must start with the policy coordination mechanism and promote coordination and cooperation among social poverty alleviation policies of different departments and different categories. On the one hand, it is necessary to establish a mechanism for collaboration and division of labor among social poverty alleviation management departments, strictly define subject responsibilities, clarify the roles of different departments, and promote the standardization, institutionalization, and normalization of cross-departmental cooperation. On the other hand, it is necessary to establish an evaluation system for social poverty alleviation policies, revise and improve policies that contradict or overlap with each other or are unsuited to targeted poverty alleviation work under the new situation, and at the same time integrate policies that are consistent in policy goals, policy content, and policy target groups.

Coordinated Linkage Because the departments and units responsible for mobilizing social forces to participate in poverty alleviation lack coordination and cooperation, various types of poverty alleviation funds, poverty alleviation projects, poverty alleviation teams, and poverty alleviation targets are relatively scattered, and a true joint force for social poverty alleviation has not yet been formed. At the same time, due to the lack of top-level design for the integration and layout of social poverty alleviation resources, some remote poverty-stricken areas often become a "vacuum zone" in social poverty alleviation, and social poverty alleviation resources cannot be reasonably arranged and efficiently used.

To avoid problems such as scattered, overlapping, and omitted investment of social poverty alleviation resources, it is necessary to establish a linkage mechanism for all sectors of society to participate in poverty alleviation and promote seamless connection between resource supply and poverty alleviation demand. Specifically, a coordinated organizational institution for undertaking social forces' participation in poverty alleviation should be established at the township (town) level, and all social forces and resources participating in poverty alleviation must be uniformly arranged, allocated, and used, forming a social poverty alleviation pattern of "government guidance and broad social participation." A social poverty alleviation coordinated linkage working group including various market entities, social organizations, and all sectors of society should also be established to ensure the orderly and effective connection of various social poverty alleviation resources.

Information Management In social poverty alleviation management and service work, in addition to solving "where the money comes from," attention should also be paid to "where the money has gone," otherwise news similar to "The media asks: Where did the 170 million yuan special fund for left-behind children in Bijie, Guizhou go?" will occur repeatedly. In addition, various scattered social poverty alleviation resources also need to be integrated, and especially given the requirements of information resource management in the era of big data, it is necessary to accelerate the construction of an information management system for social forces' participation in poverty alleviation.

On the one hand, it is necessary to gradually establish an information service network for social participation in poverty alleviation, innovate the working methods of social poverty alleviation management, and enable all sectors of society to grasp in a timely, accurate, and dynamic manner the content, intensity, and priority order of poverty alleviation needs, thereby achieving scientific, standardized, and refined social poverty alleviation management and services. On the other hand, it is necessary to actively build an information management system for the use of social poverty alleviation resources, dynamically supervise the flow and destination of various poverty alleviation resources, and thoroughly solve the problem of information asymmetry in the use of social poverty alleviation resources. The completed social poverty alleviation information management system should be an open, comprehensive, and shared information management service platform that can not only dynamically manage information on the supply of various social poverty alleviation resources and poverty alleviation needs, but also promote openness and transparency in social poverty alleviation management and service work.

Dynamic Evaluation Under the condition of limited social poverty alleviation resources, only by carrying out scientific evaluation can it be effectively determined whether a certain social poverty alleviation project should be undertaken, and whether an implemented social poverty alleviation project should continue or be withdrawn, so as to maximize the benefits of social poverty alleviation. At present, there is a lack of comprehensive and systematic evaluation of whether the participation channels for social poverty alleviation are unobstructed, whether the degree of participation is deep and broad enough, and how effective the participation is. In addition, there are few accurate responses to what causes negative social poverty alleviation incidents such as fake poverty alleviation, going through the motions, and merely going through formalities. This requires the prompt formulation of a dynamic evaluation system for social poverty alleviation. First, social poverty alleviation evaluation leading groups including organizations such as the Federation of Industry and Commerce, trade unions, women's federations, disabled persons' federations, and Communist Youth League committees should be established at the provincial, municipal, and county levels to take charge of coordinating and deploying the evaluation work of various types of social poverty alleviation. Second, implementation measures for evaluating the participation of all sectors of society in poverty alleviation and development should be studied and formulated, with clear provisions on matters such as evaluation principles, evaluation subjects, evaluation content, evaluation procedures, evaluation methods, and the use of evaluation results for social poverty alleviation, thereby providing policy support for the comprehensive implementation of dynamic evaluation of social poverty alleviation.

Strengthening Publicity At present, the scale of participation of all sectors of society in poverty alleviation is still insufficient, and the degree of participation is still inadequate. In many rural areas in contiguous poverty-stricken regions, assistance from social forces is very weak, and there exists the awkward situation of "government enthusiasm, weak society, and cold market." The main reasons are inadequate publicity work for social poverty alleviation, scattered publicity resources, and insufficient publicity personnel. To mobilize broader social forces to participate in the cause of poverty alleviation, it is necessary to fully understand the significance of social forces' participation in poverty alleviation and persistently do a good job in publicity work for social poverty alleviation. In particular, it is necessary to innovate publicity ideas and publicity methods, fully draw on and make good use of various media, integrate publicity resources, organize a capable and efficient publicity work team for social poverty alleviation, and create a favorable atmosphere for social poverty alleviation. In particular, it is necessary to do a good job in mobilizing and publicizing market entities, social organizations, and all sectors of society that have the ability and willingness to provide assistance, so that they understand the ways and channels for participating in poverty alleviation, and build a broad social poverty alleviation pattern in which "everyone knows about poverty alleviation, everyone is willing to alleviate poverty, and everyone contributes to poverty alleviation."