Regional Experiences, Development Directions, and Priority Areas of Child Poverty Alleviation in China

Children are closely related to families, and a good family environment is crucial for the physical and mental health as well as the growth of children. While families play a critical role in the lives of children, those in impoverished conditions often experience various disruptions. It is usually the responsibility of the government to guide collaboration among families, enterprises, communities, and social organizations to jointly address the resource shortages in the survival and development of impoverished children. However, government support often encounters two problems. First, it mainly focuses on individual assistance for impoverished children, lacking policy arrangements and public services for the entire family. Second, the working strategies are often reactive rather than preventive. If child poverty alleviation separates impoverished children from their families and lacks preventive intervention strategies, it will be difficult to fundamentally change the vulnerability of impoverished children and break the vicious cycle of poverty. Therefore, the future direction of child poverty alleviation should focus on timely enhancing the abilities of impoverished families to respond to risks, promoting the development of family capacity, integrating remedial measures with preventive interventions, and improving service quality for impoverished children. Guided by this direction, current priority areas for child poverty alleviation should include children’s services oriented towards community development and improving child-friendly social policies.