Gansu and Inner Mongolia Poverty Reduction Project

The objective is to reduce the incidence of absolute poverty in remote and inaccessible villages of Gansu Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous RegionThe project would empower poor households in the project counties to raise their incomes, through increased crop and livestock production sufficient to meet the basic needs of food and clothing and, in many cases, also generate a marketable surplus to improve living standards. Establishment of alternative income generation activities in poor rural areas and improvement of rural infrastructure would also increase the living standards of poor rural households.The development objective has slightly changed since the deletion of the Qinghai component, the labor mobility component in Gansu, and health component in Gansu and Inner Mongolia (see below) While the project still addresses poverty reduction, strengthening of the social sectors (education and health) are now addressed outside the project.---------------------------------------------------------------- The following Components have been dropped from the project:- The so called 'Qinghai Component' was requested to be dropped by the Borrower after the Bank's Inspection Panel review in 1999/2000). - The Labor Mobility Component in Gansu was dropped at the request of the Borrower early 2000. This was justified based on a comparison of costs and benefits of Bank contribution to the component. Supervision costs for the Bank and the Borrower for this component turned out to be much higher than anticipated. In addition, Gansu's own ongoing labor mobility programs were already well established. - The Health Component (only counterpart funding) was dropped at the request of the Borrower in 2001. This was justified by that the government's health care strategy has been revised since the project was prepared and that the project actually is attempting to carry out activities that are no longer consistent with the national policy. All project counties are getting national support in health care directly through the Health Bureau. - The Rural Roads Component in Inner Mongolia and Gansu has been heavily reduced. Currently, amply funded national programs cover all project areas rending project funding for rural roads unnecessary.It is the Project Team's assessment that while the scope of the project has been reduced through dropping the above components, the main development objective of reducing absolute poverty remains.