Sunday 21 October 2018

China Mobile’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation System


From GSMA's 2018 Mobile Industry Impact Report: Sustainable Development Goals:

China has the largest agricultural sector in the world, and for the millions of people living in rural areas, agriculture is a way of life. However, there are still more than 30 million rural people living in poverty. To combat this, the Chinese government’s "targeted poverty alleviation strategy" aims to eradicate absolute poverty for all rural residents by 2020.

Introduced at the beginning of 2016, China Mobile’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation System (TPAS) consists of two parts: a mobile poverty application and a big data management & analytics platform. Through the system, government anti-poverty staff can use smartphones to collect information on rural families in poverty (to understand their health, diet and drinking conditions) to enable the government to manage poverty alleviation work more effectively. Concurrently, information and resources from NGOs and the government is shared (via the app) among the rural population, so that people can learn about poverty alleviation policies, apply for jobs, and access vital information (such as health advice or educational opportunities). China Mobile’s TPAS also enables rural poverty families to market and sell their agricultural produce through e-commerce channels, helping them to generate an income.

Impact: To date, China Mobile’s targeted poverty alleviation platform has been applied in 60 cities and counties in 10 provinces (namely Chongqing, Hunan, Henan, Anhui, Shanxi, Liaoning, Shannxi, Yunnan, Jiangxi, Ningxia) covering 7.18 million impoverished people and serving 710,000 poverty alleviation cadres. By 2020, China Mobile aims to cover 10 million impoverished people in China, to provide intelligent tools and link thousands of welfare resources to government staff, and help the government run targeted poverty alleviation policies.

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