Poverty Alleviation through Employment Promotion in Extreme Poverty-stricken Areas in Western China: A Case Study of Targeted Poverty Alleviation through Employment Promotion in Awang Town, Dongchuan District

Poverty alleviation through employment promotion is to promote the poor households to get rid of poverty through promoting employment to increase income. It is the most effective and direct way out of poverty. Dongchuan District, located in the alpine valley area of northeastern Yunnan, is a typical extreme poverty-stricken county in China. Under its jurisdiction, Awang Town is a mountainous township with a wide area of poverty and an extreme poverty. The incidence of poverty in 2015 reached 35.39%. In recent years, through the implementation of various policies to combat poverty, combined with the advantages as a traditional “hometown of migrant labor”, focusing on employment-promoting poverty alleviation work, Awang Town has made certain achievements in poverty alleviation work. By the end of 2018, the poverty rate in the town fell to 0.57%, marking a major victory in the town’s fight against poverty. Through field investigations, this article summarizes the main practices of Awang Town to carry out employment-promoting targeted poverty alleviation, analyzes the poverty alleviation achievements and successful experience of the town’s employment-promoting targeted poverty alleviation work and discusses the promotion and application of this model so as to provide reference Yunnan Province and other poverty-stricken areas to carry out employment-promoting poverty alleviation.