Local Initiative Thrives in China's Top-Down Poverty Campaign
Organisation C, the driving force behind the Britevilla programme, initially emerged as a government-organised non-governmental organisation (GONGO) to secure international aid funding. Its journey, intertwined with China's poverty alleviation campaign, offers insights into how local initiatives can thrive in a top-down system.
C's story began with the Chinese government's 2015 Decision on Winning the Tough Battle Against Poverty, which established Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) as the national strategy. C identified local interest in tourism as a means to alleviate poverty and integrated it into a scalable model. This approach gained traction after the devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake, creating a window for community-based models to influence policy in China's top-down system.
International donor support and a 2010 central policy reform fostered an environment more open to collaboration with C. A successful pilot in Hebei under the formal TPA framework led to the programme's scaling across provinces. The formalisation of strategies, backed by performance evaluations, drove implementation in China's command-driven policy system. Despite the lack of information on the first pilot site's province, the Britevilla programme demonstrates that local ownership can succeed in such a system.
Organisation C's Britevilla programme illustrates how local initiatives can flourish within China's top-down poverty alleviation campaign. By identifying local interests, collaborating with international donors, and leveraging policy reforms, C successfully integrated tourism into the national Targeted Poverty Alleviation strategy, showcasing the potential for local ownership in a command-driven system.
