以工代賑 (yǐgōng dàizhèn): Providing employment as a form of relief

The National Development and Reform Commission has recently issued a guidance document on employment as a form of poverty relief.

Providing employment as a form of poverty relief refers to a poverty alleviation policy that employs poverty-stricken people in local infrastructure construction projects funded by the government, instead of directly giving them financial aid. Impoverished rural citizens working on rural small-scale infrastructure projects can receive labor remuneration to increase their incomes.

It has been implemented since 1984, which not only provides jobs to the poverty-stricken population to guarantee their basic incomes and livelihoods and helps them get rid of poverty by themselves, but also promotes local infrastructure construction that benefits the local communities and eases the pressure of rural surplus labor.

The document call for more impoverished people to be encouraged to participate in small and medium-sized rural infrastructure construction projects, which could inspire endogenous impetus for poverty alleviation.

The authority and responsibility for the approval of the infrastructure projects will be delegated to county governments.