In December 2014, the then State Council’s Poverty Alleviation and Development Leading Group Office released a list of 832 poverty-stricken counties in my country. On November 23, 2020, Guizhou announced that the last nine deeply-poverty counties were withdrawn from the poverty-stricken counties sequence. On February 25, 2021, the whole country The Poverty Alleviation Summary and Commendation Conference was held in Beijing.
From the identification of poverty-stricken counties to the implementation of various poverty alleviation policies, to the removal of hats, what process did the 832 poverty-stricken counties go through?
How is the announcement of getting rid of absolute poverty and exiting the impoverished counties measured?
A reporter from the Beijing News interviewed Lin Wanlong, former member of the Expert Advisory Committee of the State Council’s Poverty Alleviation and Development Leading Group and Vice President of China Agricultural University, who had been involved in the evaluation of poverty alleviation in recent years.
In 2016, my country began to evaluate the effectiveness of poverty alleviation.
As a member of the former State Council’s Poverty Alleviation Office’s poverty alleviation effectiveness evaluation expert group, Lin Wanlong participated in the evaluation and evaluation almost from the beginning.
The investigator training exam is 90 points or more to pass
Beijing News: What are the specific methods for evaluating the performance of poverty alleviation?
Which part of the work you do?
Lin Wanlong: There are three main methods, inter-provincial cross-assessment, third-party evaluation and social supervision.
What I am engaged in is the third-party evaluation of the effectiveness of the annual poverty alleviation and the third-party evaluation of the withdrawal and withdrawal of poor counties.
Among them, the withdrawal of poor counties and the third-party assessment of withdrawal spot checks are the most important assessments of whether poor counties can take their hats off.
Beijing News: How does the third-party assessment work?
Lin Wanlong: The third-party assessment is usually a team of two, entering the village and entering the household for investigation and evaluation. Therefore, many grassroots cadres did not understand, "Come to two young dolls and chat with the villagers. It takes two or three days. Can you evaluate the effectiveness of our work over the years and decades?"
In fact, the third-party evaluation system is a complex and complete system.
In this system, from bottom to top, the first is the investigator who enters the household, usually in groups of two, with different divisions of labor. One is responsible for questionnaire surveys and data verification, and the other is responsible for taking photos and videos. At the same time, they are outside interviews with poor households. It also depends on the conditions of the poor households’ houses, clothes worn, and food consumed.
After the two went back that day, they had to sort out data and information to form a preliminary opinion of the duo.
That night, the preliminary opinions will be reported to the investigation team leader for discussion. The county investigation team leader will convene each team leader to discuss and summarize the information that night.
Subsequently, the sub-county inspection team reported to the sub-provincial investigation team leader for review, discussion, and summary. If there are any doubts, the overall assessment expert team will conduct review and discussion.
In this process, other opinions must be adopted. For example, at the county level group stage, if there is a problem, it will give feedback to the county. The county can conduct self-diagnosis or provide relevant evidence. These opinions and evidence It will also be reported together until the expert group is in the hands. If the expert group cannot unify opinions, it will continue to be reported to the Poverty Alleviation Office of the State Council, and the Poverty Alleviation Office will convene experts to discuss again.
Beijing News: How are investigators selected and trained?
Lin Wanlong: The investigator entering the village is the most important part of the assessment.
Most of the investigators are teachers and students from colleges and universities from all over the country. The basic educational requirement is a master's degree or higher. Individuals with excellent qualifications can be relaxed to seniors who are recommended to graduate students.
After the initial selection, all investigators must be trained first. The training content mainly consists of two parts, policy training and skill training.
In terms of policy training, the heads of the relevant departments of the State Council’s Poverty Alleviation Office will explain various poverty alleviation policies, and everyone involved in the survey must understand the various policies, otherwise the survey will be impossible to talk about.
After the training is over, an exam is required. Only with a score of 90 or more can you become an investigator. The investigator must enter the investigation information into the system. Every investigator has identity authentication. After authentication, he can enter information.
Household survey details are more important
Beijing News: What are the contents of the household survey by investigators?
Lin Wanlong: In terms of investigation, it consists of a series of questionnaires and observation standards.
For example, "two no worries and three guarantees" is the basic standard.
Through the observation of investigators and the exchange of questionnaires with poor households, a basic information is finally formed.
After entering the household, the two investigators cooperated in a division of labor, and one was responsible for the questionnaire survey to understand the enjoyment of various policies of the poor households, such as whether family members were sick, whether they received medical insurance, how much they spent, and how much they were reimbursed.
The other is responsible for video and photography.
In addition, it is necessary to observe the situation at home, such as whether the house is dangerous, whether school-age children are in school, etc.
When entering the home, you will encounter various situations that require investigators to deal with.
For example, the house safety level can be divided into four grades A, B, C, and D. Two grades C and D belong to unsafe housing. The grade needs to be assessed by a professional organization, but the investigator must have a preliminary understanding, such as whether it seems safe or not. Whether safety hazards have been discovered, etc. These preliminary sensory understandings are not conclusions, but they are part of the information.
For example, an investigator has encountered a large crack in the load-bearing wall of a house, which is suspected to be Grade C. The investigator may ask questions, and the local government will follow up, conduct further investigations, and ask professional institutions for evaluation.
Another example is the problem of children’s schooling. If the child happens to be at home, you can look at the child’s schoolbag. If there are books in the schoolbag, but the book is very new, you must doubt whether the child is really in school.
At this time, multiple investigations are needed, such as adjusting the school status information to see if the child really has the school status.
Also look at the clothes. If the clothes in the closet are all new, the style is obviously different from the clothes of other people in the village, which will also cause the investigator to doubt whether these clothes were donated temporarily?
Beijing News: How does the third-party evaluation process proceed?
Lin Wanlong: The third-party evaluation adopts a sampling survey system. The sampling procedures are very strict. It is unrealistic to conduct a survey for every household in 832 counties.
The mechanism is very important for sampling surveys to ensure truthfulness and objectivity to the greatest possible extent.
Under normal circumstances, when conducting surveys in a county, the villages to be surveyed will be selected in advance, but the results of the sampling are highly confidential. The investigator will generally not inform the place one and a half hours before departure. After entering the village, random sampling will be conducted The specific households are then investigated. In other words, before the investigation, the investigator does not know which household to investigate.
When entering the household, the local cadres cannot accompany them. They can only enter the household by investigators and conduct independent investigations.
After entering the village, how can the investigator find which household is?
In fact, the former Poverty Alleviation Office of the State Council had an APP, which was connected to the database of the National Archives and Card Information System.
The detailed information of each registered household can be found, including the number of households, the ages of the members, whether to go to school, whether to seek medical treatment, the specific latitude and longitude of the family address, etc., so the investigator can find any household in the village. File registration of poor households.
If the local cadres say that there is no such family member, it is generally unreasonable. If there is no such family member, it is impossible for the information to enter the file registration information system.
The students have a real observation of the Chinese countryside
Beijing News: Do you think the evaluation has achieved the expected goal?
Lin Wanlong: In 2015, my country proposed the “six precisions” for poverty alleviation, including precise support targets, precise project arrangements, precise use of funds, precise measures to households, precise personnel assignments for villages, and precise poverty alleviation effects.
The assessment can be seen as a confirmation of the results of the fight against poverty.
But at the same time, the assessment is not only reflected in the last step, but is linked to the entire fight against poverty.
I think the evaluation work has several functions.
In the words summarized by the leaders of the former National Support Office, it is a baton and a propeller for poverty alleviation. Through inspection and evaluation, it will promptly guide the advancement of poverty alleviation and enable local governments to carry out their work effectively.
It is also a thermometer for poverty alleviation, measuring people's satisfaction with poverty alleviation work.
It is also a quality inspection instrument for poverty alleviation, which can find problems in time and make improvements in time.
Beijing News: What impact do you think the entire evaluation process has brought to you?
Lin Wanlong: It is a process of growth for ourselves.
On the one hand, the process of investigation and evaluation is also a process of verifying our own learning and practice.
On the other hand, in the shaping of values, the students have also gained a lot of experience and growth. They have real observations about the rural areas of China, especially those in poor areas.
We will ask people who are surveyed and evaluated to not use anything charged in the room when we stay. In some places, we will send some fruit plates and the like when we stay. We also ask not to open the package so that they will not be able to open the package the next day. sent.
This not only ensures a clean assessment process, it is also a good education for students.
If the pursuit of details is to use a microscope to see poverty alleviation, then to understand the entire poverty alleviation, we need to use a telescope to observe and think about the overall situation of the entire country's poverty alleviation.
The microscope allows us to understand more touching stories and possible deficiencies at the micro level. The telescope allows us to grasp the great results and significance of poverty alleviation as a whole.
Beijing News reporter Zhou Huaizong