POOR NO MORE: China's agricultural reform and record crop yields have played a big part in poverty alleviation efforts and ultimately economic development

Having endured a three-decade period of zero or negative economic growth, Africa began to forge a pattern of growth in the mid-1990s. The continent's real GDP even grew by 5.4 percent a year from 2000 through 2008. But did that growth have enough impact on Africa's progress in the fight against poverty?

The Millennium Development Goals Report 2010 (MDGs Report 2010), released by the UN in June, said that in Sub-Saharan Africa, the proportion of population living on less than $1.25 a day had dropped by 7 percentage points between 1990 and 2005, which sounds like good news.

However, Martin Ravallion, Director of the Development Research Group of the World Bank and well known for his research in global poverty reduction, warned in his blog earlier this year that people should note the difference between the "poverty rate" and "poverty headcount."

"The decline in the aggregate poverty rate has not been sufficient to reduce the number of the poor [in Sub-Saharan Africa], given population growth," he said.

Ravallion's research shows that if using the standard of $1.25 per day, the population living in absolute poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa increased by 177 million from 1981 to 2005, followed by a slight fall in the next three years. (See graph 2)

A sharp contrast to the stagnant (if not worsening) rate of poverty in the world's least-developed continent is seen in the great achievements made by China. According to World Bank data, in the 1981-2005 period, China, which used to be among the world's poorest countries, saw its absolute poverty headcount drop from 84 percent to 15.9 percent, or by over 600 million people.

The MDGs Report 2010 said that China's improvement has contributed to the large reduction in global poverty and that its poverty rate is expected to fall to around 5 percent by 2015.

What's the difference?

Some may point out that GDP growth in Africa was not as strong as that of China, which would explain why it did not have the same success in reducing poverty. But a closer look at the numbers shows that Africa's rate of poverty reduction is disproportionately low, even allowing for its lower growth rate.

For example, during the 2005-08 period, India's average annual growth in real GDP per capita was 4.9 percent, compared with Sub-Saharan Africa's 2.9 percent. But India lifted 117 million of its population out of absolute poverty, while Sub-Saharan Africa achieved a reduction of only 39 million. (See graph 3) Despite having a growth rate nearly two-thirds of India, Sub-Saharan Africa only achieved poverty reduction one third of India's level. The message is clear: There must be something beyond the economic growth that determines poverty reduction.

In the first years after the People's Republic was founded in 1949, China was facing an extremely weak economy. Though unable to implement all-round economic measures to fight widespread poverty, the country placed an emphasis on primary education, basic medical care, and social security systems.

In an interview with Xinhua News Agency, Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary General of Economic and Social Affaires of UN, said that China's success in poverty reduction was by no means independent of its sustained, rapid economic growth in recent decades. However, the Chinese Government has also put in place economic and social policies aimed at the poor, especially targeting the development of agriculture, he said, which were hugely influential.

Giving much attention to rural issues shows the strategic importance of agriculture in China's development. In January 2010, the Chinese Government dedicated its first document, which is considered to be the most important blueprint outlining the state's annual policymaking roadmap, to rural problems. And it was the 12th year since 1982 that the annual first central document had focused on the issue.

During the past three decades, through efforts marked by mass construction of agricultural infrastructure, promotion of agricultural technology, rural land-use right reform, development of natural resources in rural areas and application of pro-agriculture policies aimed at bridging the urban-rural income gap, China has recorded a large-scale reduction in rural poverty. The absolute poor among the rural population decreased from 250 million in 1978 to 15 million in 2007.

In Africa, most countries followed a different path.

According to comparative studies by the Poverty Reduction Mode in China and Africa research group, funded by the United Nations Development Program and the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC), after independence most African countries implemented a strategy combining import substitution and dirigisme. However, the oil crisis in the 1970s created massive problems for many African economies.

Li Xiaoyun, head of the research group, took Nigeria as an example and said that after the discovery of oil in the country in 1974, the agricultural sector was neglected. But the oil boom lasted only until 1982 and this policy direction later led to the nation suffering an economic recession with high inflation and unemployment and soaring deficits.

At that point, with the support of Western countries, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged African countries to carry out structural adjustments in agriculture, industry, foreign trade, and fiscal and financial regulation, according to Li.

"There is a huge distance between the objective of these adjustments and the realities in African countries," he said.

Li believes that China's poverty reduction strategy is "internally driven," meaning it is led by the government and is largely improved and adjusted according its own progress. By contrast, poverty reduction processes in African countries have moved forward largely under external direction, especially since they had to accept support from the World Bank and IMF after the failed formulation and adjustment of their macroeconomic policies.

Sharing experience

In order to determine whether China's poverty reduction expertise could be useful for other developing regions, especially Africa, and whether some useful experiences have already been collected in African countries, exchanges in such fields have been put in place, especially by the IPRCC.

As an institution with unique methods and ideas on poverty reduction, in 2009 alone the IPRCC organized three international-level dialogues and several high-end forums and lectures to address poverty issues. These included a forum, Experience-Sharing Program on Development Between China and Africa, which involved hundreds of ministers, diplomats and officials from more than 20 African countries.

At a recent event organized by IPRCC to highlight multilateral cooperation in the exchange of poverty reduction expertise, Graham Meadows, Special Adviser to the European Commission and former Director General of Regional Policy of the European Commission, affirmed the benefits of cooperation between China and Africa for poverty reduction.

"China is still undergoing the changes which Africa is undergoing," he said. "So China can speak to Africa as a 'fellowship' in a certain sense and I find, therefore, that China has a certain number of advantages in talking to Africa."

What does the IPRCC do?

 - Study: cooperating with Peking University, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the British Development Research Institute and other agencies; working on poverty reduction policies and case study research, as well as development theory.

- Training: organizing training classes among senior officials from around the world, and cooperating with universities on post-graduate education in the fields of poverty reduction and development.

- Exchange: establishing partnerships with major international organizations and developing countries and organizing the annual Poverty Reduction and Development Forum and China-ASEAN Forum on Social Development and Poverty Reduction.

- Cooperation: cooperating with African, Asian and South American countries; exporting experts; providing policy consultancy; working on pilot projects and facilitating the establishment of poverty reduction centers in other countries.