Children in poor areas are benefiting from pilot projects to improve education and healthcare, as set out in the country's 10-year poverty-alleviation strategy, top officials said at a seminar on Tuesday.

A year into the State Council's China Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development Program (2011-20), which pledged that all levels of government will prioritize child development, work has already started to address key issues, particularly nutrition.

According to Liu Shuwen, deputy director of international cooperation for the State Council's Poverty Alleviation Leading Group Office, authorities now provide lunch subsidies for more than 26 million rural primary and junior high school students in 680 impoverished counties.