Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Modular Rural Development Programme

The programme is directly supervised by IFAD. Its aim is to reduce the incidence of poverty among rural women and men in a sustainable and gender-equitable way by improving their access to information, technology, rural financial services and markets. The programme pursues the goal of achieving sustainable improvements in poor rural people’s social and economic conditions. It introduces innovative measures for reducing poverty and modules that can be scaled up in the future. It contributes directly to the ongoing reform of the rural banking system.

Target groups include people who are absolutely poor and people in low-income households, particularly households headed by women. People in these groups have low skill levels and limited access to financial resources.

The principal objectives of the programme are to:

• improve farmers’ production and market access by increasing agricultural and livestock development, organic farming, and extension and market access support services
• provide strategic support to women for income-generating activities through formation of village-based women’s microcredit groups and township-based women’s associations
• support rural financial services through microfinance development, strengthening and scaling up grass-roots rural finance cooperatives and mainstreaming successful microcredit schemes
   

After an initial pilot phase of the activities of each module, the people who
benefit from those activities participate in planning on the village level. They set their own priorities for implementation on the basis of a menu of modules.
The modular approach provides the flexibility required to adapt programme activities to rural China’s rapidly changing socio-economic environment. And by supporting the establishment of sustainable grass-roots institutions, including women’s groups, the programme enables poor rural people to sustain and expand their activities.

Source: IFAD