After the death of Mao Tse Tung, Den Xiaoping came up with what he termed as ‘four modernizations.’ First introduced by Zhou Enlai in 1975, the modernizations which encompassed science, technology, agriculture and defense became the foundation stones upon which the unprecedented development of China was built. By the end of 2000, 95.5 percent of administrative villages in poverty stricken areas had electricity, 89 percent were accessible by road, 69 percent had postal services, 67,7 percent could be reached by telephone and at least 77.25 million had drinking water.

China’s ‘Help the Poor Program’ underwent three phases namely: ‘structural reform poverty relief’ (1978-1985), ‘large scale development-oriented poverty relief drive’ (1986-1993) and ‘tackling key problems of poverty relief’ (1994-2000).

At the beginning of the first stage, the number of the poverty stricken population was 250 million (constituting 30.7 percent of the rural population). This phase had a three pronged approach: reforms which led to a rise in the price of agricultural products (source of income for the rural poor); transformation of the land management system from a collective one to the house contract responsibility (thereby raising productivity); and creation of employment in non-agricultural sectors (thus generating income for the rural poor.)These measures saw the number of rural poor decrease from 250 million to 125 million.

The second phase saw uneven development between poverty stricken areas and coastal advanced areas reduce. The Chinese government reinforced poverty relief through the reformation of ‘traditional relief type approach’ and the advancement of developmental orientation to the poverty relief policy. This comprehensive transformation program saw allocation of special funds, formulation of special policies and the setting up of 'help -the -poor' work units.The number of the poverty-stricken dropped from 125 million to 80 million with an annual decrease of 6.4 million, while the net income per peasant in poverty stricken counties leaped from 206 yuan in 1986 to 483, 7 yuan in 1993.

A seven year ‘priority poverty alleviation program’ was promulgated and implemented under the third phase which sought to tackle key problems of poverty relief from 1994 to the year 2000.The program emphasized concentration on human, material and financial resources.

China’s celebrated success in rural poverty alleviation was premised on a powerful vision of a developmental State. Ideally a developmental state has a vision to transform the economy and society at large. China is widely recognized for its achievements in reducing absolute poverty since its adoption of broad rural economic reforms beginning in 1978. The state council’s leading group for poverty reduction was established in 1986 to provide coherence to many poverty reduction initiatives and expedite economic development.

The Chinese experience offers several lessons for Africa. There is need for African Governments to  reduce the explicit and implicit taxation of the poor. This will boost the disposable income to the poor while increasing productivity. Since much of poverty in developing countries is found in rural areas, the promotion of agricultural growth in particular and rural development in general is vital. The concept of pro-poor development areas and identification of poverty pockets (as in China’s poor area development programs) carries a crucial lesson for Africa. Macroeconomic stability (avoidance of inflationary shocks) is crucial for poverty reduction as it hinders inflationary shocks that erode the value of real incomes that accrue to the poor.

China’s poverty reduction program reflects a comprehensive, planned, responsive flexible program deliberately targeting the poor. It demonstrates a high level of political will and commitment to pro-poor growth-all critical lessons for Africa in its quest to alleviate poverty. The establishment of poverty counties/pockets was a manifestation of a deliberate policy action meant to deal with a properly diagnosed policy problem.

Implied in China’s experience  is the fact that poverty is a multidimensional and a multifaceted ‘social construct’ suggesting that any approach to ‘pigeonhole’ poverty as a concept would be too simplistic and would result in deleterious effects in poverty alleviation. The strategies to fight poverty by African governments must therefore be equally multifaceted and multidimensional. Poverty is not just lack of income.

Development is not something that professionals dream up and deliver to poor people. It must not define and confine poor people as objects of charity. People are assets and must be helped to become active participants in moving out of poverty. The poor  must be engaged in the quest to solve their problems.

The Chinese experience demonstrates that a commitment to poverty eradication is not an end in itself. It must be a means to an end coupled with the promotion and sustenance of development and a far reaching transformation of a society’s economic, social, political and cultural structure.