Entrepreneurship: An Alternative Concept for Economic Empowerment of People with Disability

Policies and Initiatives for Poverty alleviation for Persons with Disability in China

Mr. Qian Pengjiang
Deputy Director General Department for Education and Employment
China Disabled Persons’ Federation
October 27，2004

Ladies and Gentlemen：I am very glad to be here today in Lanzhou with so many delegates from both China and overseas to participate this Workshop on poverty alleviation for persons with disabilities co-organized by UN ESCAP and China Disabled Persons’ Federation. I believe this Workshop will help you have a better understanding of what China is doing to reduce poverty for persons with disability. This is also an opportunity for us learn from the successful experience of our international colleagues. The discussion we have here will facilitate exchange of information and further promote the undertaking for persons with disabilities in the Asia-Pacific Region.

Now, I am going to talk briefly about what China has been doing in this area.

China is a developing country with the world’s largest population with disabilities. Of the 60 million persons with disabilities, 80% live in the rural areas. According to a 1992 survey, 20 million rural persons with disabilities live in poverty. For more than a decade, government agencies at various levels have been working together with other sectors of the society to reduce poverty for this segment of the population and impressive success has been achieved.

----10 million people now can provide for their own basic necessities. The number under the poverty line dropped from 20 million in 1992 to 10.65 million by the end of 2003. People already above the poverty line also have better living standards and increased family incomes.

----4.8 million persons with disability have received applicable training in agriculture production technologies. Most of the trained people are able to provide for their own basic necessities using what they have learnt. Some have even become well-off.

----A poverty alleviation network has taken shape in rural areas. 80% of the rural counties now have a service center for persons with disabilities. 60% of the townships and villages also have smaller but similar centers. These centers have provided timely and effective support to help persons with disabilities participate in production activities.

----30,000 rural households with persons of disabilities have a better home to living in as a result of the housing renovation program. Such work has contributed to China’s national strategy for poverty alleviation. We take stock of our experiences and have identified the following policies and initiatives as key to our success in the unique Chinese context.

I. Incorporate poverty alleviation for persons with disabilities into the overall poverty alleviation strategy of governments at various levels for coordinated planning and concurrent implementation

The governments and their agencies are committed to poverty alleviation for persons with disabilities. In 1991, the State Council approved the 8th National Five-Year Work Plan for Persons with Disabilities which, for the first time was published in the form of a national program the objectives, guidelines and specific actions for poverty alleviation for persons with disabilities. Subsequent documents such as the State Poverty alleviation Key Area Plan, the 9th and 10th Five Year Plans outlined new requirements. In 1997, a nationwide household survey was conducted to find out the exact number of poor population living in the rural areas. In 1998, the State Council’s Poverty alleviation Taskforce, People’s Bank of China, Ministry of Finance and China Disabled Persons’ Federation worked together to develop Key Area Plan for Poverty alleviation for Persons with Disabilities(1998-2000) and Implementation Plan for Poverty alleviation for Rural Population with Disabilities. These documents further elaborated the goals, tasks, approaches, policies and actions for poverty alleviation for persons with disabilities. In May 1998, to accelerate the process, State Council’s coordination committee for persons’ with disabilities and poverty alleviation taskforce, People’s Bank of China, Ministry of Finance, China Agriculture Bank and China Disabled Persons’ Federation held a video conference to launch a nationwide campaign at poverty alleviation for persons with disabilities. The 2001 China Rural Poverty alleviation Plan (2001-2010) has listed persons with disabilities as one of the top priority targeted groups that needs coordinated planning and concurrent implementation. Also in 2001, State Council’s poverty alleviation taskforce, People’s Bank of China, Ministry of Finance, China Agriculture Bank and China Disabled Persons’ Federation had a working meeting to plan for the 1st decade of the new millennium. The 2001-2010 Poverty alleviation Plan for Persons with Disabilities produced at that working meeting serves as a framework for the next phase in the new millennium.

The local governments had set a clear goal of helping the disabled people living under poverty line. Based on this goal, the local governments established detailed plans, strengthened their leadership, and allocated a large amount of resources including funding, personnel and donations to help persons with disabilities.

The local disabled person’s federation also set poverty alleviation as their focus in their work.. They helped the government to carry out the survey and establish plans. The federation also provided a full service to persons with disabilities living in poverty. They had a close cooperation with the local governments and helped the governments achieve bigger success in poverty alleviation for persons with disabilities.

II. Call on the care and support of the whole society to persons with disabilities in poverty.

Poverty alleviation is the responsibility of government as well as the whole society. We call on the government organizations, state-owned enterprises, private firms, volunteers, party members, workers, students, and neighborhoods to help persons with disabilities in a format of “one-to-one help”. During this process, the worker union, youth leagues, women’s association, association of science and technology and other organizations had all contributed a lot to this work.

III. Allocate the “Rehabilitation and poverty alleviation funds” co-organized by the China Disabled Persons’ Federation and the Agricultural Bank of China in some regional areas.

Since 1992, China established a program named Rehabilitation and Poverty-Reduction Fund. The Central Government provides loan subsidiary, and increased the loan from 100 million in the “The Eighth Five-Year Period” to 2 million yuan annually in 1996 and 1997. In 1998, the figure jumped to 5 million, and in 1999, it reached 8 million. Till now, the accumulated total reached 5 billion. To make better use of this fund, the Agricultural Bank of China has made a specific regulation, known as the administrative regulation on rehabilitation and poverty alleviation funds. This regulation has set specific standards in various areas including the application process, interest rate, and distribution channel, and etc. Meanwhile, the agricultural bank, along with the China disabled persons’ Federation had made several inspections on the issuance of the funds. Till now, not a single case of corruption has been found. All these ensured the safe usage of this fund, and the funds utilization rate reached 80%. The local government continuously strengthened their work in helping persons with disabilities. They set aside a certain amount of funds to reduce poverty. In 2003, the total amount of funds specialized in poverty alleviation for disabled persons were 81.05 million RMB. In some areas, the local government took a certain portion of poverty alleviation funds allocated from the central government to help the disabled persons living in poverty; Some of the local government set aside a certain amount of capital for the purpose of interest discount project to help the disabled persons’ association apply for loans from banks and credit unions. All these efforts have contributed to the work of poverty alleviation for persons with disabilities.

IV. Strengthen the service system of the local disabled persons’ federations and provide services to the rural disabled person in an effective and timely manner.

The local governments actively helped the Agricultural Bank of China in issuance and management of the Rehabilitation and poverty alleviation loans. They also helped the disabled persons who received the funds to select projects, and make sure they receive proper training and other necessary services. Till the end of 2003, the state has established 2,076 county-level disabled persons’ service centers with 6,046 employees in the country. As for the village-level, there are 21,531 braches of the service centers with 25,426 employees. The service center has become a backbone in supporting the disabled persons’ daily life, and coordinated with the Agricultural Bank of China in the issuance and repayment of the loans. The service center also helped the disabled persons in selecting the right projects to work on, and collaborated with the local agricultural and technology departments to provide all kinds of services to the disabled persons in a timely manner.

V. Select the poverty alleviation projects to fit characteristics of different regions.

The poverty of persons with disabilities is mainly due to their disability and barriers from the outside. Taking into consideration of these factors, planting, breed aquatics and handcrafts businesses are some examples of the suitable projects when selecting the proper poverty alleviation projects. Because these projects do not require large amount of investment, and is very effective in improving disabled persons’ living standards.

VI. Mobilize the disabled persons themselves, and encourage them to become self-independent, self-respect, self-improvement and self -confident.

For the persons with disabilities to get rid of poverty, it is important that not only disabled persons need the support from the government and help from others, but also need to be self-independent, self-respect, self-improvement and self-confident. The local governments attach importance to provision of various training classes and seminars to disabled person and train them with practical skills. Through their own diligence, a lot of persons with disabilities shook off poverty. The spirit of independence, self-respect, be strong and confidence had become the inner power of the poverty alleviation work.

Although we have achieved a great success in poverty alleviation for persons with disabilities, we shall see clearly that in China that there are still around 10 million disabled persons living under poverty line, which takes up to one third of the total poverty population in the nation. The number will increase if we count those who had just struggled out of the poverty line. Most of these people live in remote areas. Among them, 30% lives in the regions recognized by the state as “poverty regions”, and 70% lives in non-poverty regions. 85% of the disabled person had not received education above middle school level; their overall ability is comparatively low and most of them lack practical skills. These proposed challenges and brought barriers to the poverty alleviation work.

In summary, poverty alleviation work is an important work in China and it needs long-term efforts. Currently, China is still a developing country. In the rural areas, the disabled persons’ poverty will exist in a long period of time. Thus, the poverty alleviation work for the disabled persons in China is an arduous work that needs long term efforts.

We should continue implementing the “China’s Poverty alleviation Guidelines for Rural Areas” and “National Development Plan of Poverty alleviation for Rural Disabled Persons”, and follow the successful practices and experiences to actively solve the problems of poverty alleviations for disabled persons, shorten the income gap, improve the living standards for the disabled persons, and to achieve the goal of basically eliminate poverty, and march into a well-off society.

We should include the poverty alleviation for persons with disabilities as part of China’s national poverty alleviation strategy. We will collaborate with different departments and encourage the whole society to help improving the living standards of the people with disabilities. We will also perfectize the service centers and make sure they provide better services to persons with disabilities. Meanwhile, more disabled persons will receive practical skills training to improve their overall ability. At last, we will continue to encourage person with disabilities to be more independent, self-respect, strong and confident.

We will actively seek opportunities for international cooperation, and strengthen the communication and collaboration with the international community in poverty alleviation for people with disabilities. This work is a systematic social project, and needs more care and support from the international community. We hope to receive your help and support in fighting against poverty for people with disabilities in China. We also look forward to your valuable comments and suggestions on China’s effort to reduce poverty for persons with disabilities.

Your further support and attention on China’s effort to reduce poverty for persons with disabilities are greatly appreciated!

I am confident that under the leadership of the Chinese government, with support from the government agencies and the private sector, through the effort of persons with disabilities and their advocates, with the continued growth of the Chinese economy, we will have even greater success in reducing poverty for persons with disabilities in the rural area.

Thank you!

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Main	Programme	Materials	Online	Lanzhou

	UN ESCAP/CDPF Field Study cum Regional Workshop on Poverty Alleviation among Persons with Disabilities Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China, 25-29 October 2004