Eliminating deprivation and breaking through dependence: A mechanism to help poor households achieve sustainable livelihoods by targeted poverty alleviation strategy

Deprivation and dependence are the main signs of poverty, and elimination of both constitutes a major means of poverty alleviation. The foremost goal of China's targeted poverty alleviation strategy (TPAS) and the sustainable livelihood analysis framework (SLAF) was thus the elimination of deprivation and dependence. Together, TPAS and SLAF form a poverty alleviation mechanism that provides an opportunity to conduct a systematic analysis of TPAS implementation that achieved world-renowned results in poverty alleviation. In this study, we comprehensively compare the changes in households and villages in a poor county before and after the implementation of TPAS; furthermore, we use a multilevel model to analyze the mechanism behind the functioning of the “Household-Village” multilevel structure in the poverty alleviation process. The TPAS implemented a comprehensive livelihood system for poor households, whereby multidimensional deprivation was eliminated by supplementing livelihood capitals. Acquisition-oriented assistance policies were offered to different groups to build customized paths of poverty alleviation, which ultimately helped poor households break through poverty and achieve sustainable livelihoods. This study highlights the close connection between the various components of the livelihood system, provides new research ideas for the study of China's TPAS and presents a reference template for the promotion of China's poverty alleviation programs.