Undp's Positive Impact On China's Poverty Alleviation Since China's Reform And Opening Up

Since China's reform and opening up in 1978,China has made eye-catching achievements in poverty alleviation.While the government is the major force in poverty reduction,the role of international organizations(IOs)should not be neglected.In 1979,United Nations Development Programme(UNDP)signed its first aid plan with China and set up its China's office,which marks the beginning of development aid in China as well as the engagement of IOs in China's poverty reduction.Over the past three decades' battle against poverty in China,UNDP has successfully introduced its advanced poverty reduction concepts and innovative poverty reduction approaches through its strong development network,and exerted positive impact on China's poverty alleviation.This paper intends to review UNDP's role in China's poverty alleviation through studying various documents,to analyze UNDP's impact on China's domestic poverty alleviation and the way it is exerted through UNDP's case studies and by using a multi-disciplinary approach,and finally to look into the future.Therefore,this paper is structured in the following four main parts.The first section reviews China's poverty alleviation landscape since its opening up.By looking at China's achievements in poverty reduction periodically,this section abstracts some major characteristics in each period and sets the benchmark for impact analysis.The second section documents the role of IOs in China's domestic poverty alleviation.This part starts with theoretical analysis of poverty reduction,international development aid and IOs.The international organization theory explains why IOs are engaged in domestic socio-economic endeavors,which constitutes the pre-condition of involving them in the past three-decade poverty alleviation.International development aid theory and poverty reduction theory provides necessary tools for this involvement.At the same time,this section takes a chronological view towards UNDP's engagement in China's domestic poverty reduction,and concludes that UNDP is engaged in a non-interventional way.UNDP always tries to find a breakthrough point to work with the government in the forms of poverty reduction programs and research programs while prioritizing inclusive development and equity to help the Chinese government to achieve its poverty reduction goals.The third section analyzes the positive impact of UNDP on China's poverty alleviation.This part answers the questions of "what impact" and "how impact"through three aspects.First,UNDP's on-field poverty alleviation programs and financial support have improved the living standard of impoverished people and accelerated China's poverty reduction efforts.Second,UNDP has introduced some advanced poverty reduction concepts through its concrete programs and research publications.Such concepts as Multidimensional Poverty Index(MPI),inclusive poverty reduction and women empowerment have enriched and transformed China's conventional understanding of poverty reduction.Last,UNDP has brought some scientific methods to China's poverty alleviation.For example,innovative methods such as tapping microfinance,leveraging technology and combining environment and poverty alleviation have been proven successful in UNDP's pilot programs before spreading over the entire country.Similarly,a bottom-up approach advocated by UNDP,namely participatory approach in poverty alleviation has been widely used ever since its successful experiments.The fourth section looks beyond 2015 the role of UNDP in China's poverty alleviation.Based on the previous analysis,UNDP will continue to play an important role in international cooperation in poverty alleviation with shifting priorities.On one hand,faced the new challenges such as urban poverty and multidimensional poverty,China still needs to cooperate with UNDP particularly in the fields of social security,assessment of poverty reduction policy and innovative poverty alleviation to achieve its goal of eradicating poverty by 2020.On the other hand,as China transformed from a recipient country to a "donor" country,the way China works with UNDP has seen some changes.The development world needs China to share its own successful experience in poverty reduction.In order to do this,UNDP as the biggest development network of UN agencies can provide the platform for knowledge sharing and triangle cooperation between China and other development countries.The biggest the creativity of this paper lies in the unique perspective of analyzing UNDP's impact on China's domestic poverty reduction,which is very rare in both domestic and overseas research records.Based on theories,this paper attempts to abstract UNDP's major impact on the effects,concepts and methods of China's poverty alleviation through a considerable number of up-to-date policy papers,academic research and reports.