Women’s development
Original, GPIG, 12-19-2017
Whether in society or in family, gender inequality is very common in traditional rural China. In places with severe rural poverty, poverty among women is particularly prominent. Since the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, the central government has made great efforts to eliminate gender inequality, which has improved women’s status and enabled many women to work outside. The Chinese government has always attached great importance to poverty among rural women. Women were given top priority in policies, when allocating funds and other programs linked to poverty reduction policies and proposals. The Chinese government worked out various policies in favor of the development-oriented poverty reduction work among women and allied enterprises and social sectors and has held events conductive to poverty reduction work among women, resulting in great achievements in promoting employment for poor women, improving education and health service for poor women, increasing women’s participation in public affairs and reducing poverty among women.
A poor mother succored by the Happiness Project is showing her joyful smile
The program of “reusing micro loans to reduce poverty in rural areas” organized by the All-China Women’s Federation has been successfully conducted in more than 20 provinces, autonomous regions municipalities in China with the following approach—"givingmicrocredit, greater access to finances for each household, and reusing collective funds”. With 120 million yuan worth of project funds and more than 70 million local supporting fund, it helped more than 300,000 women develop planting, breeding and processing industries, lifting more than 3 million people out of poverty and leading them to a path to prosperity.
The “Happiness Project—Action to Help Needy Mothers” launched by China Population Foundation set up 463 project sites in 29 provinces in China by the end of October 2011 with an accumulative investment of 829 million yuan. These programs assisted more than 253,400 needy mothers and households and benefited 1.138 million people. The “Happiness Project—Action to Help Needy Mothers” made great achievements in its poverty-reduction efforts by relying on its poverty reduction approach which was able to target the right beneficiaries and was implemented at a low cost but with high efficiency.
The Spring Buds Program was initiated by China Children and Teenagers Foundation (CCTF) to help girls who have dropped out of school in impoverished areas to return to school. Over the past years, it has raised more than 800 million yuan, donated more than 900 schools, helped 1.8 million dropped-out girls return to schools and conducted practical technical training for more than 430,000 girls.
A girl succored by the Spring Buds Project provided by China Foundation for Children and Adolescents returns to school
The “Water Cellar for Mothers” project was initiated by the China Women’s Development Foundation in 2001 to aid women in water-deficient areas in western China. During 2001 to 2010, more than 400 million yuan was invested in it, building more than 120,000 water cellars for 23 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in western China, constructing more than l,300 centralized water supply projects, and helping the government solve the drinking water problem for more than 1.7 million people.
In recent years, the microcredit program featuring “serving farmers, focusing on poverty, low loan limit, and broad coverage” set up in Yanchi County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has provided impoverished farmers and rural women in particular with quick, guaranteed microcredit without mortgages, which can be obtained without much hassle. This has successfully sped up the development of rural production, increasing farmers’ income, and solving the difficulties that farmers’ faced when taking loans which hindered the development of the county-level economy.
Wang Shulian is a 61-year-old woman in Gaoliwusu Village, Humachi Town, Yanchi County. She has come a long way from buying 5 sheep with a loan of 1,000 yuan 12 years ago to loaning 5,000 yuan to found a gypsum factory in 2004. And today, she has become a millionaire, who is well-known in local areas. She never dared to dream about it a dozen years ago.
Thanks to Yanchi’s microcredit program, Wang Shulian broke out of poverty and stepped into a path leading to prosperity. The microcredit program, which started in 1996, aimed at providing financial support for the development of small and micro businesses as well as farmers. Under the coordination of the Ningxia Finance Office and the financial support of the Ningxia branch of China Development Bank, this program has developed into the first licensed welfare capital holding credit agency among other public welfare micro finance institutions in China—Ningxia Huimin Micro Finance limited.
According to the president of Ningxia Huimin Micro Finance Limited, microcredit targeted rural women and planned to give them financial support to encourage them to develop poultry raising and other income-generating projects. According to the limit on borrowing, poverty reduction loans could be divided into three types, namely basic loan, development loan, and micro and small enterprises lending, with amounts ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 yuan. Those loans, on the basis of joint credit guarantee of farmers, did not require a mortgage and the application procedure was rather simple.
In the spring of 2000, Yanchi Women’s Development Institute, the predecessor of Ningxia Huimin Micro Finance Limited, went to Gaoliwusu Village to advertise microcredit, but farmers who had never borrowed money from a bank thought a little of it, making it difficult to push the program forward. Out of nearly 100 households, only 12 participated in the program.
The Water Cellar for Mothers on the snow-covered plateau
Wang Shulian recalled that, the village Party secretary then, worried that villagers may fail to repay the loan, asked the salesmen in charge of advertising microcredit not to waste time. And villagers did not support women to borrow either. However, a batch of pioneering women represented by Wang Shulian, became richer and richer by using loans to plant vegetables, raise poultry and livestock, as well as found factory. Their success helped other villagers see the signs of hope. And all the farmer households borrowed when the Women’s Development Institute made the third phase of the loans.
By way of loaning and entrepreneurship, rural impoverished women successfully got rid of poverty, stepped into a path to prosperity and improved their economic and social status. Since 2005, 18 local women won Global Micro-Entrepreneurship Awards. Wang Shulian, who won the Biggest Social Impact Prize in the Global Microcredit Micro-¬Entrepreneur Conference in 2010, left the village and went to the Louvre in Paris to attend the awarding ceremony as an invited guest.
Liang Wen, head of the third client department of Ningxia Branch of China Development Bank, said that, the Yanchi microcredit scheme, which was aimed at lifting the rural poor households out of poverty and leading them to a road of prosperity, effectively solved the development problems related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers as well as the difficulty in constructing primary organization in rural areas. The microcredit scheme with advantages such as simple transaction procedure, fast payment and flexible interest rates effectively alleviated the shortage of funds in financial development for Yanchi, curbed illegal lending and opened a green channel for those with difficulty in borrowing.
At present, the microcredit scheme in Yanchi has been replicated in other destitute areas in Ningxia, including Tongxin County, and Hongsipu District, etc., becoming a successful case to reduce poverty by providing financial support and enriching residents by way of small projects.
Original, GPIG, 12-19-2017
Whether in society or in family, gender inequality is very common in traditional rural China. In places with severe rural poverty, poverty among women is particularly prominent. Since the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, the central government has made great efforts to eliminate gender inequality, which has improved women’s status and enabled many women to work outside. The Chinese government has always attached great importance to poverty among rural women. Women were given top priority in policies, when allocating funds and other programs linked to poverty reduction policies and proposals. The Chinese government worked out various policies in favor of the development-oriented poverty reduction work among women and allied enterprises and social sectors and has held events conductive to poverty reduction work among women, resulting in great achievements in promoting employment for poor women, improving education and health service for poor women, increasing women’s participation in public affairs and reducing poverty among women.
A poor mother succored by the Happiness Project is showing her joyful smile
The program of “reusing micro loans to reduce poverty in rural areas” organized by the All-China Women’s Federation has been successfully conducted in more than 20 provinces, autonomous regions municipalities in China with the following approach—"givingmicrocredit, greater access to finances for each household, and reusing collective funds”. With 120 million yuan worth of project funds and more than 70 million local supporting fund, it helped more than 300,000 women develop planting, breeding and processing industries, lifting more than 3 million people out of poverty and leading them to a path to prosperity.
The “Happiness Project—Action to Help Needy Mothers” launched by China Population Foundation set up 463 project sites in 29 provinces in China by the end of October 2011 with an accumulative investment of 829 million yuan. These programs assisted more than 253,400 needy mothers and households and benefited 1.138 million people. The “Happiness Project—Action to Help Needy Mothers” made great achievements in its poverty-reduction efforts by relying on its poverty reduction approach which was able to target the right beneficiaries and was implemented at a low cost but with high efficiency.
The Spring Buds Program was initiated by China Children and Teenagers Foundation (CCTF) to help girls who have dropped out of school in impoverished areas to return to school. Over the past years, it has raised more than 800 million yuan, donated more than 900 schools, helped 1.8 million dropped-out girls return to schools and conducted practical technical training for more than 430,000 girls.
A girl succored by the Spring Buds Project provided by China Foundation for Children and Adolescents returns to school
The “Water Cellar for Mothers” project was initiated by the China Women’s Development Foundation in 2001 to aid women in water-deficient areas in western China. During 2001 to 2010, more than 400 million yuan was invested in it, building more than 120,000 water cellars for 23 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in western China, constructing more than l,300 centralized water supply projects, and helping the government solve the drinking water problem for more than 1.7 million people.
In recent years, the microcredit program featuring “serving farmers, focusing on poverty, low loan limit, and broad coverage” set up in Yanchi County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has provided impoverished farmers and rural women in particular with quick, guaranteed microcredit without mortgages, which can be obtained without much hassle. This has successfully sped up the development of rural production, increasing farmers’ income, and solving the difficulties that farmers’ faced when taking loans which hindered the development of the county-level economy.
Wang Shulian is a 61-year-old woman in Gaoliwusu Village, Humachi Town, Yanchi County. She has come a long way from buying 5 sheep with a loan of 1,000 yuan 12 years ago to loaning 5,000 yuan to found a gypsum factory in 2004. And today, she has become a millionaire, who is well-known in local areas. She never dared to dream about it a dozen years ago.
Thanks to Yanchi’s microcredit program, Wang Shulian broke out of poverty and stepped into a path leading to prosperity. The microcredit program, which started in 1996, aimed at providing financial support for the development of small and micro businesses as well as farmers. Under the coordination of the Ningxia Finance Office and the financial support of the Ningxia branch of China Development Bank, this program has developed into the first licensed welfare capital holding credit agency among other public welfare micro finance institutions in China—Ningxia Huimin Micro Finance limited.
According to the president of Ningxia Huimin Micro Finance Limited, microcredit targeted rural women and planned to give them financial support to encourage them to develop poultry raising and other income-generating projects. According to the limit on borrowing, poverty reduction loans could be divided into three types, namely basic loan, development loan, and micro and small enterprises lending, with amounts ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 yuan. Those loans, on the basis of joint credit guarantee of farmers, did not require a mortgage and the application procedure was rather simple.
In the spring of 2000, Yanchi Women’s Development Institute, the predecessor of Ningxia Huimin Micro Finance Limited, went to Gaoliwusu Village to advertise microcredit, but farmers who had never borrowed money from a bank thought a little of it, making it difficult to push the program forward. Out of nearly 100 households, only 12 participated in the program.
The Water Cellar for Mothers on the snow-covered plateau
Wang Shulian recalled that, the village Party secretary then, worried that villagers may fail to repay the loan, asked the salesmen in charge of advertising microcredit not to waste time. And villagers did not support women to borrow either. However, a batch of pioneering women represented by Wang Shulian, became richer and richer by using loans to plant vegetables, raise poultry and livestock, as well as found factory. Their success helped other villagers see the signs of hope. And all the farmer households borrowed when the Women’s Development Institute made the third phase of the loans.
By way of loaning and entrepreneurship, rural impoverished women successfully got rid of poverty, stepped into a path to prosperity and improved their economic and social status. Since 2005, 18 local women won Global Micro-Entrepreneurship Awards. Wang Shulian, who won the Biggest Social Impact Prize in the Global Microcredit Micro-¬Entrepreneur Conference in 2010, left the village and went to the Louvre in Paris to attend the awarding ceremony as an invited guest.
Liang Wen, head of the third client department of Ningxia Branch of China Development Bank, said that, the Yanchi microcredit scheme, which was aimed at lifting the rural poor households out of poverty and leading them to a road of prosperity, effectively solved the development problems related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers as well as the difficulty in constructing primary organization in rural areas. The microcredit scheme with advantages such as simple transaction procedure, fast payment and flexible interest rates effectively alleviated the shortage of funds in financial development for Yanchi, curbed illegal lending and opened a green channel for those with difficulty in borrowing.
At present, the microcredit scheme in Yanchi has been replicated in other destitute areas in Ningxia, including Tongxin County, and Hongsipu District, etc., becoming a successful case to reduce poverty by providing financial support and enriching residents by way of small projects.
