Rural Development Institute

Abstract
Rural poverty is still a persistent and severe problem in the Global South. As the largest developing country in the world, China is committed to ending rural poverty by 2020. As a country strives to become the world's new superpower, it faces a harsh reality of widening urban-rural disparities in education, living standards, health care, and community services. Therefore, China presents an intriguing case of how to achieve sustainable rural development while empowering the local community to promote social justice and maintain cultural identity. Based on our fieldwork done in two ethnic villages of Chongqing Municipality in Southwest China, we explore the social, cultural, economic, and ecological impacts of rural tourism on the local communities.

Abstract
In 1984, in Toronto, the Healthy Cities idea was coined, soon adopted by the World Health Organization to launch, in 1986, a major international initiative. Since then, over 10, 000 municipalities worldwide have jumped in, including small rural villages, which led the movement to be called Healthy Communities in Canada. Four action principles at the core of the movement can influence the fight against poverty in rural areas: intersectorality, participation, empowerment, and municipal commitment. This article describes a collective case study involving four rural municipalitiesthat are members of the Québec Network of Healthy Communities. This qualitative study paid detailed attention to understand how these initiatives embraced fighting poverty. Five factors to be considered emerged if rural municipalities in the Healthy Communities networks and beyond them want to address poverty concretely.