The 2014 auditing report of southwest China's Guizhou province shows that 796 million yuan ($123 million) of its poverty reduction fund was left unused for over half a year, and 192 million yuan was left unused for longer than two years.

In a recent conference on poverty reduction work, the central leadership called for the hundreds of billions of yuan spent annually on reducing poverty to be used more efficiently; so it is used where needed.

It has been proposed that allowing poverty-stricken families to have a bigger say in how the money intended to benefit them is used. Currently it is bureaucrats at various levels that decide the distribution of funds, such as which program it is used for, while the voices of those needing help are ignored.

Since 2006, some Chinese institutions have been working with the World Bank in adopting the community-dominated development approach to poverty reduction in some regions. Residents hold meetings to decide on the merits of programs, whether the benefits are worth the cost, and whether to accept them. As a result, the cost of many programs is only one-third of those run by governments without people's participation, which saves a lot of money to better help the poor.

Also, by allowing poor residents a bigger say in how poverty reduction funds are used will bring their distribution and management out from behind closed doors, which will help prevent their misappropriation and embezzlement.