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Performance Evaluation of Special Funds for the Conservation of Traditional Villages in the Ethnic Region from the Perspective of Local Knowledge: A Case Study of Zhonggu Village

Author(s)

Niyan Wu*

Affiliation(s)

School of Economics and Management, Sichuan Minzu College, Ganzi, Sichuan, China *Corresponding Author

Abstract

Current performance evaluations of special funds for the conservation of traditional villages focus on observable indicators such as fund management procedures and engineering outputs, while overlook dimensions of living heritage conservation, such as local knowledge transmission and community cultural identity cultivation. Such evaluations fail to fully reflect the actual effectiveness of conservation for traditional villages in the ethnic regions. Introducing local knowledge theory into fiscal project performance evaluation standards, this study constructs an analytical framework of "knowledge extraction, element identification, performance measurement and model optimization". Taking the ethnic minority characteristic village construction project in Zhonggu Village as a case study, the research indicates that the engineering construction tasks of the Zhonggu Village conservation have been largely completed, several issues persist. These include insufficient excavation and transformation of local knowledge, delays in fund execution, misalignment between cultural conservation and industrial operations, and inadequate mechanisms for villagers' participatory engagement. Moreover, the existing fiscal performance evaluation system lacks indicators related to local knowledge, making it difficult to quantitatively assess the effectiveness of cultural conservation in ethnic villages. In response, this study proposes incorporating local knowledge into the performance indicator pool for special funds, establishing a knowledge-oriented implementation pathway structured as "point - chain - cluster," constructing a multi-stakeholder collaborative governance loop, and improving post-project evaluation and follow-up mechanisms. These recommendations aim to provide references for fiscal policy implementation regarding special funds for traditional village conservation in the similar ethnic regions.

Keywords

Local Knowledge; Traditional Villages; Special Funds; Performance Evaluation; Living Heritage Conservation

References

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