Research On The Identification And Governance Of Relative Poverty Of Rural Households

Eliminating poverty is the common goal of all mankind.At the end of 2020,China achieved the goal of eliminating extreme poverty.The people in rural areas who were living below the current poverty threshold all shook off poverty;all the impoverished villages and designated poor counties got rid of poverty.China has eliminated poverty over entire regions and eradicated extreme poverty.In December 2020,Chinese government issued a policy document(Opinions on the Effective Connection between the Consolidation and Expansion of the Achievements in Poverty Alleviation and Rural Revitalization)that proposed to set a five-year transition period to consolidate and expand the achievements in poverty alleviation,and put forward new goals for poverty governance in 2025 and 2035.It is foreseeable that in five years China will fully enter the stage of relative poverty governance.Then,the governance of rural relative poverty will face a series of problems to be solved urgently: how to target and identify rural relative poverty households? What are the characteristics of rural relative poverty households? What are the poverty causing factors of rural relative poverty households? What is the focus of the relative poverty alleviation strategy? Therefore,it is necessary to conduct in-depth and systematic research on the identification and governance of relative poverty during the period of consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation.Following the research ideas of "theoretical analysis,empirical research,countermeasure research",the fundamental reasons for the relative poverty in rural China were analyzed,and the history,basic experience and main problems of poverty governance in China were summarized.Using rural household survey data of five counties in Heilongjiang,this paper identified relatively poverty households by poverty line method and multidimensional poverty identification method,analyzed the characteristics of relatively poverty rural households and the poverty-causing factors,and proposed policy recommendations for the identification and governance of relative poverty of rural households in China.The main research contents and conclusions of this paper are:(1)The occurrence of relative poverty in rural China is not only due to the lack of households' livelihood capital,but also due to the social exclusion for rural households by social system.Based on the analysis of the understanding of classical poverty theories,this paper formed a framework for the theoretical analysis of China's relative poverty,and analyzed the fundamental causes of poverty of Chinese rural households from the perspective of rural institutional arrangement and farmers' livelihood.The analysis showed that the lack of livelihood capital,especially human capital,makes it difficult for rural households to obtain higher operational income and wage income;due to the certain social exclusion of the urban-rural dual structure system,farmers lack development opportunities consistent with urban residents,and the guarantee ability of the rural basic social security system to farmers is relatively insufficient.These are the root causes of poverty in rural China.(2)China's rural poverty governance has formed a lot of useful experience that is worth learning for relative poverty governance,but it also faces some problems that need to be solved after the fight against extreme poverty stage.By reviewing the evolution process of China's poverty governance since the reform and opening up,the basic experience of poverty governance in rural China was summarized,and the problems faced after stage of the fight against extreme poverty were analyzed.The basic experience of China's poverty governance mainly includes:persisting in the leadership of the party and the government,persisting in implementing poverty governance strategies adapted to economic and social development,persisting in exerting the poverty reduction effect of economic growth,persisting in improving rural social security system and inclusive policies,persisting in the implementation of the targeted poverty alleviation strategy.The main problems faced by relative poverty governance are that:people who got rid of poverty have a certain risk of returning to poverty,the complexity and arduousness of poverty will exist for a long time,poverty governance and rural social security systems need to be further organically connected,the participation of multiple subjects in poverty governance needs to be strengthened,the poverty pattern still has strong regional characteristics.(3)The poverty line method and the multidimensional poverty identification method have their own advantages and disadvantages in the identification of relative poverty rural households.It is necessary to combine the advantages of the two methods to propose a more practical method of identifying the relative poverty of rural households.Using the survey data of rural households in five counties of Heilongjiang Province,the poverty line method and multidimensional poverty identification method were used to identify the relatively poor rural households.The identification results were compared and analyzed from the aspects of accuracy,feasibility and identity,for analyzing the pros and cons of the two identification methods.The results showed that both methods have their own advantages and disadvantages.The poverty line identification method is simple and feasible,but it may miss rural households with inability to work whose income has increased significantly during the fight against extreme poverty stage.The multidimensional poverty identification method is more complicated,with a low degree of recognition and feasibility,but it can reflect the multidimensional nature of relative poverty.In practice,the advantages of the two methods can be absorbed,considering both income and other poverty indicators,to create a more practical method of identifying relative poverty rural households.(4)The sustainable livelihood capital of relative poverty rural households is weak,but it is slightly better than extreme poverty rural households identified in the fight against extreme poverty stage.Using descriptive statistical methods,this paper analyzed the characteristics of the identified relative poverty rural households,including regional characteristics,human capital status,livelihood and income,health status.The results showed that that human capital status,livelihood and income,health status are weaker than those of ordinary rural households,but stronger than that of extreme poverty rural households identified in the fight against extreme poverty stage.It shows that the capital and ability of sustainable livelihood of relative poverty rural households is weaker than ordinary rural households,but it is slightly better than extreme poverty rural households identified in the fight against extreme poverty stage.(5)Human capital factors,livelihood and income factors,and health factors are the main factors contributing to relative poverty for rural households.The logistic regression model was used to analyze the poverty-causing factors of relative poverty rural households identified by the poverty line method.The study founded that variables such as the status of chronic diseases and serious illnesses of family members,the age of the head of the household,the education level of the head of the household,the proportion of work force,the proportion of household members engaged in agriculture,the proportion of migrant workers,have a significant impact on the probability of farmers being relatively poverty households,indicating that human capital factors,livelihood factors and health factors are the main poverty factors causing relatively poverty.The A-F multidimensional poverty decomposition method was used to conduct empirical analysis on the poverty-causing factors of relatively poor households identified by the multidimensional identification method.The results showed that variables such as the per capita net income,the education level of the head of the household,the status of chronic diseases and serious illnesses of family members,housing have a high contribution rate.After further comparing the results of these two methods,this paper pointed out that human capital factors,livelihood and income factors,and health factors are the main factors contributing to poverty in relative poverty rural households.Based on the above theoretical analysis and empirical research conclusions,this paper systematically put forward the countermeasures for the identification and governance of the relative poverty of rural households.In terms of relative poverty of rural households,two different methods of identifying relative poverty rural households based on the human capital of rural households was proposed.The identification of relative poverty of rural households mainly targets three groups of people: rural households that have lost the ability to work,rural households with a certain of working ability but particularly low income,and rural households with certain working ability,low income,but strong social deprivation outside of income.In terms of poverty governance,according to the types of relatively poor families and the direction of policies,specific countermeasures for relative poverty governance have been systematically proposed,including improving the rural social security system,improving the support policies for the development of small farmers,continuing to implement the poverty alleviation and development strategy for deeply impoverished areas,and constructing a poverty governance system with the participation of multiple subjects of government,market and society.