The New Year 2021 has begun on a high note with the reality of the coronavirus vaccine shining across the globe. The year 2020 will certainly be etched in the minds of many people across the world for the wrong reasons. It is the year that the coronavirus caused death, illness and economic despair across the world.
In Africa, the COVID-19 pandemic has hugely torpedoed the continent’s war against poverty. According to the IMF, developed economies will shrink by around 6% in 2020 while emerging markets and developing ones will shrink by 1%. With more people living close to the international poverty line in developing nations, it is imperative to note that low and middle income countries will suffer the greatest repercussions in terms of extreme poverty.
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The definition of poverty entails more than just the lack of income and productive resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods. Poverty manifests itself in aspects like hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion, as well as the lack of participation in decision-making.
Statistics from the United Nations indicate that five years ago, more than 736 million people lived below the international poverty line of US$1.90 a day. It also observes that nearly 10 per cent of the world population lives in extreme poverty and that they are struggling to fulfil the most basic needs like health, education, access to water and sanitation, among others. Additionally, 122 women aged between 25 and 34 live in poverty for every 100 men in the same age group, and more than 160 million children are at risk of continuing to live in extreme poverty by 2030. Most people living below the poverty line come from Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. World Bank estimates that 23 million and 16 million of the people who have been pushed into poverty as a result of the devastating effects of COVID-19 are from Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia respectively.
The poverty alleviation fight has taken an international perspective with nations coalescing around each other to deal with challenges that stand in their way of obliterating extreme poverty. In 2015, the UN General Assembly designed Sustainable Development Goal 1 (one) dubbed “No Poverty“ whose major aim is to eradicate poverty in all its forms, world over.
The Chinese government under the leadership of President Xi Jinping took up an ambitious plan aimed at eradicating poverty in China which has ultimately paid-off. In the period 2013-2016, China reported 55.64 million of its rural population was lifted out of poverty averaging more than 10 million per year. As if this was not enough, the income of rural dwellers in poor areas grew faster than the national average. This trend was sustained with over 12.4 million rural people being lifted out of poverty in 2016. By the end of 2016, there were 43.35 million Chinese who were still living below China’s poverty line of 2,300 yuan (US$350 in annual income in 2010 constant prices) – the yardstick for gauging poverty. China’s poverty eradication programs continue to bear fruit with more than 70 million people being lifted out of extreme poverty in the last five years.
In 2019, China’s goal targeting 30 million people to benefit from poverty alleviation schemes was on course with the exodus of the poor population into towns. For instance, with the current poverty eradication programs, poor inhabitants of rural areas in Sichuan province, one of the poorest regions in Southwest China, have relocated to communities with social amenities that guarantee decent livelihoods furnished with electricity, water, adequate educational and healthcare facilities to improve their standard of living.
In fact, last year marked a key milestone for China in its journey to achieve its first centenary goal concerning poverty alleviation. According to the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), China with its population of 1.4 billion realized its ambition of lifting its people out of extreme poverty, 10 years ahead of the UN Sustainable Development Goals’ target of eradicating global poverty set for 2030. This is no small feat. So what lessons can Africa learn from the Chinese experience in the fight against poverty?
Economic Reforms
Africa must learn to adopt progressive economic reforms and opening-up policy, decentralize governance, scale-up anti-corruption war and foster urbanization as the most important tools that were employed by the Chinese government as a roadmap for achieving its development goals and fight against poverty. First and foremost, African countries require a robust and long-term economic reforms that will sustain growth momentum akin to China’s that will drive the policy agenda in fighting poverty on the continent by creating jobs for the youth, women and the unemployed. This will increase household incomes that will help the poor earn a decent living and move up the poverty line.
Devolution of governance
In order to draw useful lessons from China’s fight against poverty, African countries must decentralize their governance which will open up space for public participation in decision-making. The local population especially those in rural areas – where the rate of poverty is high, will have an opportunity to be involved directly in the governance process. This will definitely give local governments greater powers to identify projects that speak to the development needs of the locals. For instance, in Kenya, the concept of decentralization has been amplified in the Constitution that was promulgated in August 2010 in chapter 11 on devolved governments. What this means is that the Constitution of Kenya in article 174 (c) has given “powers of self-governance to the people and enhance the participation of the people in the exercise of the powers of the State and in making decisions affecting them”. Just like in China, decentralization of governance gives local governments greater powers to make swift, people-centric and impactful decisions to attract and stabilize investments that generate income to the poor.
Fight graft
There is also need for African countries to borrow a leaf from the Chinese experience on fighting corruption which denies the poor an opportunity to get services from the government. To ensure that resources meant to finance programmes for uplifting the poor are not embezzled, misappropriated or mismanaged, African countries must follow the Chinese example of fighting corruption through extensive sensitization campaigns and punitive legal enforcement mechanisms that will act as a deterrent for would-be perpetrators.
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Accelerate village urbanization
With 60 percent of the African population concentrated in rural areas, the development and urbanization of villages is another strongest way to achieve a rapid surge in the war against poverty in Africa. This rapid urbanization must accelerate development of infrastructure and other social amenities that will dignify the lives of the (rural) poor. This strategy was able to lift 13.86 million Chinese out of poverty in 2018 largely attributed to the 208,000 kilometres of roads that were either built or renovated. Additionally, new progress was registered in modernizing the internet networks in rural areas covering 94 percent of the poor villages.
Political will, societal responsibility
Just like China, African governments must stick to government-oriented methods of integrating poverty alleviation into specific country’s overall development strategy, promote it as a strategic task, concentrate on large-scale special poverty alleviation actions and implement specific development plans for women, children, people with disabilities and ethnic minorities. This way, programs with greater impact on the vulnerable groups who shoulder the highest burden of poverty will spread and have a wider economic impact in transforming their lives.
There is also the aspect of fiscal and budgetary support. To lift millions out of poverty, African countries must offer tax relief to the poor, increase investment and strengthen financial support to the vulnerable groups especially the old and those in rural areas. Cash transfers to the old and the poor must be scaled-up as a way of augmenting income shortfalls that prevent them from earning the minimum annual income that keeps them below the poverty line. In China, financial support was scaled-up to assist those below the US$350 minimum living income to rise above the poverty line.
There is no doubt that China has set a global record in the fight against poverty which offers Africa an opportunity to learn from the Chinese experience to build a stronger socio-economic foundation for the future prosperity of its people.
By Benard Ayieko
The writer is an economist and a commentator on trade and investment.
Twitter: @BenShawAyieko Email: ben.ayieko@yahoo.com
