October 20, 2009—An International Conference on Community- Driven Development (CDD) and Rural Poverty Alleviation was held in Beijing on October 18-19, hosted by the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development (LGOP), the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and co-sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency.  A total of 192 representatives of Chinese national and local officials and academia; international CDD practitioners from twelve Asian, African and Latin American countries including India, Philippine, Indonesia, Laos, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Morocco, Mongolia, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, and Brazil; and international development agencies and organizations including the World Bank, ADB, CIDA, DFID, IFAD, Plan International, Oxfam and the Asia Foundation.  

“China’s impressive record of poverty reduction over the last 30 years has not only brought great benefits to its own people, but also inspired and supported the global fight against poverty,” said James Adams, World Bank’s Vice President for East Asia and Pacific Region at the Conference. “The World Bank is pleased to have supported China in these efforts. Our strong relationship is increasingly becoming a two-way street, under which China is also able to share its own experience with other developing countries. Today’s conference is a perfect example of such knowledge sharing.”

Leading up to the conference, a three-year, $6 million, CDD pilot program was jointly implemented by LGOG and the World Bank in four of China’s provinces -- Guangxi, Sichuan, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia-- from mid-2006 to mid-2009.  This pilot benefited 60 poor villages through investments in small-scale infrastructure and public services, rural community development funds and community resources management and environmental improvement.  Fan Xiaojian, Director of LGOP commended the pilot project as “actively promoting village autonomy and grassroots democracy and enhancing the empowerment of the poor.”

By giving control over planning decisions and investment resources to community, the CDD pilots strengthened community-level ownership of the development process, and improved the participation of the poor. The communities managed the funds, and identified, implemented, managed and supervised their project activities themselves, developing the capacity of communities in self-organization, self-management and self-development.

 “The CDD approach is effective,” said Fan Xiaojian. “Now the CDD approach is being replicated in village-based poverty reduction programs in some poor areas and post-earthquake reconstruction projects. The Government’s village-level mutual-help funds pilots have also learned from the experience of the CDD pilots. “

The conference provided the participants with a platform to exchange experiences and lessons in applying the CDD approach in poverty reduction projects in China and other developing countries.  Prior to t he conference, field visits were organized for participants to the CDD pilots in Nanchong Prefecture, Sichuan and Baishui, Shaanxi.

The World Bank has funded more than 500 CDD projects around the world, mostly aimed at improving local rural infrastructure and public services.  These projects have helped to address poverty and basic needs in locations where local government capacity is limited or absent, in post-conflict or natural disaster-affected areas, and in settings where local resource management schemes are appropriate.