The World Bank said on Friday it has launched a two-year, 8 million U.S. dollar pilot program that promotes stronger village involvement in how development funds are used in their communities.

If successful, the program could be implemented nationally and help millions of villagers make their own decisions on grassroots economic and social development.

Participating poor communities will be given responsibility to manage program funds and implement small-scale infrastructure and public service improvements, the bank's China mission said in a statement.

Aspects of the program that prove successful could potentially be integrated into China's Village Development Planning Program, which operates throughout China in 148,000 officially designated poor villages, said the bank.

The pilot program, known as the Community-Driven Development Program (CDDP), will target about 100,000 poor farmers in 60 participating villages in Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces, and in Guangxi and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions, the bank said.

The bank said China has achieved tremendous success in poverty alleviation in recent decades, but is now confronted with poverty issues in relatively remote areas that generally have been beyond the effective reach of government programs.

At the end of last year, there were 23.65 million people in China living below the China's official poverty line which is anyone living on an income of less that 683 yuan (85 US dollars) a year.

The bank said the program is expected to improve the targeting of poverty alleviation funds, by allowing poor people to manage funds in pursuit of their own priorities.

Wang Guoliang, deputy director of China's State Council Leading Group on Poverty Alleviation and Development, said China has deepened its understanding of the importance of community-driven development in poverty alleviation.

"This CDDP pilot will promote more participation from villagers in project planning and implementation and encourage new ways for local governments to provide services to poor areas and poor people," he said.

Under the pilot program, 60 participating administrative villages will receive grants that are intended to be used to improve living conditions and incomes, said the bank's statement.

Within each administrative village, smaller village units will compete for access to program grants through a participatory process, it said

The pilot program, modeled in part on other community-driven development programs operating elsewhere in Asia by the World Bank, is expected to cost 64 million yuan (8 million US dollars), of which two million is coming from the Japan Social Development Fund at the World Bank.

Three international NGOs, Action Aid, Plan International and World Vision, are assisting in program training and local facilitation, said the bank. A fourth NGO, Oxfam Hong Kong, will design, monitor and evaluate the pilot program.

Source: Xinhua