In recent years, China has been an undeniable figure in the anti-poverty movement.

With poverty rates declining steadily across the country year after year, China’s efforts to eliminate poverty overall have been commendable. Now, the World Bank Group and China have teamed up to establish a $50 million “trust fund” to help further reduce poverty throughout the country.

According to the World Bank, the trust fund “aims to enhance the cooperation between China and the World Bank Group and leverage financial and knowledge-based resources to help developing countries achieve inclusive and sustainable development.” The money will go toward education reform, policy reform, “finance investment projects,” and other programs.

China has managed to pull itself out of a nationwide poverty crisis somewhat dramatically. Between 1990 and 2010, around 680 million people were able to pull themselves out of poverty in China, and from 2001 to 2011 China’s middle class jumped from three percent to 18 percent.

Overall, China’s attitude toward the nation’s poor has remained unflinchingly positive. In a recent interview, President Xi Jinping was quoted as saying, “A good life is created with one’s own hands, so poverty is nothing to fear. If we have determination and confidence, we can overcome any difficulty.”

The World Bank’s partnership with China is already a tight-knit one, so this initiative falls in line with their current comradery. China is the World Bank’s third largest shareholder and has consistently funded the World Bank’s IDA program, which seeks to aid those who have been most severely affected by poverty.

“The establishment of this trust fund signals that our partnership with existing multilateral development banks is growing, even as we support new ones,” said the People’s Bank of China Finance Minister Lou Jiwei. “We will continue to partner with the World Bank in fighting poverty and promoting development around the world.”

– Alexander Jones

Sources: Pew Research, The Guardian, World Bank
Photo: Flickr