Targetedness, effectiveness, and sustainability of China's photovoltaic poverty alleviation programmes

Abstract

As one of the key projects of the top ten targeted poverty alleviation projects, Photovoltaic Poverty Alleviation Projects (PPAP) has played an important role in poverty alleviation and eliminating absolute poverty. This paper analyzes the impact of the PPAP on the consumption and poverty vulnerability of impoverished households and reveals the characteristics of the targetedness, effectiveness and sustainability of PPAP based on the data of the previous poverty-stricken households recorded in four townships in Wuwei County, Wuhu City, Anhui Province, China. The results show that under the extreme poverty standard line, PPAP can significantly reduce the poverty vulnerability of impoverished households, and the effect of the PV poverty alleviation project has a strong sustainability; It has a significant heterogeneous impact on families of different poverty types, among which, it plays a significant role in alleviating the poverty vulnerability of impoverished households due to the loss of labor ability, and low-income families, with strong targetedness; For families with a high degree of vulnerability to poverty, the PPAP can significantly alleviate their vulnerability, indicating the effectiveness of PPAP to play a bottom-up role for the poor families.