•This achievement reflects the Chinese people’s aspiration for a better life, and their indomitable will to surmount all difficulties and challenges on their way forward.
•China’s experience offers a new option for those countries and peoples who are looking for both rapid growth and independence
Having witnessed China’s single-minded determination, it is time for the international community to dedicate itself more in eradicating poverty.
There must be a missing link in the current poverty eradication programmes as espoused by many of the world’s international bodies as poverty seems to be increasing rather than decreasing within countries.
Using its definition of extreme poverty as living on less than US$1.90 a day, the World Bank warned in October 2020 that global extreme poverty would rise for the first time in more than 20 years from the compounding effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on conflict and climate change.
According to the biennial Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report 2020, the Bank estimated that the Covid-19 pandemic would push an additional 88 million to 115 million people into extreme poverty in the year, with the figure hitting 150 million by 2021.
Further, the global lender notes that the majority of this number will be in South Asian and Sub-Saharan countries where poverty rates are already high. It is a case of the poor becoming poorer as the pandemic has worsened their access to essential services and damaged their livelihoods, a situation that has pushed them further to the bottom of the socio-economic strata.
These are issues that were highlighted during the United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2021 celebrated on October 17 under the extended theme, “Building Forward Together: Ending Persistent Poverty, Respecting all People and our Planet”.
Due to the ineffectiveness of the top-bottom economic models, there is a growing drive towards a bottom-up approach in economic empowerment which gives the poor a fair share of the decision making process and a voice in addressing their concerns.
For long, the technocratic policy makers have underrated or totally ignored ideas from the poor due to the perception that they do not have ideological or intellectual competence.
Image: Courtesy/Global Times
There is really no magic bullet. The secrets of success are contained in the white paper, “China’s Epic Journey from Poverty to Prosperity” released on September 28. The white paper documents the country’s holistic approach to eradication of extreme poverty that included all-round development, prosperity for all and hard work.
In achieving a moderately prosperous society, China also dramatically reduced the world’s poverty-stricken population. Since China launched reform and opening up, 770 million rural Chinese have crossed the country’s poverty line and moved out of poverty. According to the World Bank’s poverty line, poverty reduction in China represents 70 percent of the global total, achieving the target set by the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of target.
Moreover, this achievement reflects the Chinese people’s aspiration for a better life, and their indomitable will to surmount all difficulties and challenges on their way forward. It has boosted their pride and confidence in the nation, and inspired further endeavors on the quest for national rejuvenation.
The current inequalities between the rich and the poor, both at national and international levels, is no longer sustainable, even acceptable. The world’s richest one per cent of the population hoard more than twice as much wealth as 6.9 billion people. Every year, 100 million people are pushed into extreme poverty due to healthcare costs. Ironically, the wealth of these billionaires is made from the brow of the majority poor who often work for slave wages.
But closing these gaps should not be misconstrued with begrudging the rich or wealthy due rewards for their toil and entrepreneurship. We need a system that leaves no one behind by expanding the reward system for every type of effort.
The rich should also feel obliged to pay more so that their earnings can have added social value and help to narrow the glaring socio-economic disparities.
China’s experience offers a new option for those countries and peoples who are looking for both rapid growth and independence, and its success provides them with considerable opportunities for development.
Ultimately, as China has demonstrated through the leadership of the ruling Communist Party of China, eradicating poverty needs massive political goodwill. It starts with leaders deciding that inequality is not a defining factor of humanity. We need an economy that works for everyone at whatever level they plug into the prevailing system.
The writer is the Executive Director of South-South Dialogues, a Nairobi based research and development communication think tank.