China Development Brief - Governance and Social Policy

Full steam ahead for ‘charity’ even as brakes are applied to NGOs

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:11:49 +0100

A high-level international symposium on charity legislation, held in Beijing this summer, underlined the Chinese government’s determination to mobilise charitable giving even as the authorities were tightening their surveillance and control of the informal NGO sector.

Move to prevent green protest shows uneven distribution of free speech

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:23:35 +0100

Chinese Internet authorities have ordered websites—including a Chinese language environmental NGO site operated by China Development Brief (www.greengo.cn)—to remove an open letter from twelve organisations calling for a fair trial for jailed environmental activist, Wu Lihong (吴立红).

Anomalously, the move came after China’s official media had already reported on the contents of the letter, which argued that “in order to support public confidence in the rule of law and build a harmonious society” Wu’s trial should be open to the public and based on lawfully obtained evidence.

Editorial: Riots underline development dilemmas

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 06:14:45 +0100

Violent protests this month in Guangxi’s Bobai (博白) County—sparked, according to international press reports, by heavy-handed implementation of birth control rules—are a tragic reminder of the pain caused by a policy that has, nevertheless, played a key role in China’s social and economic transformation.

Open government: A step forward, but with sideways shuffles too

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 03:16:10 +0100

China is introducing new transparency rules for government—in part, it seems, to curb corruption. But, reports Chang Tianle (常天乐), some progressive localities are ahead of the central government on this issue, and the national rules remain ambiguous as to how much the public has a right to know.

China’s first national regulations on public disclosure of government information have been cautiously welcomed by scholars and NGOs, but most say that China still has a long way to go to achieve transparent government.

The Regulations on Government Disclosure of Information (政府信息公开条例) were approved by the State Council on January 17, 2007 and take effect on May 1, 2008. Article 1 states that they aim to “ensure that citizens, legal persons and other organisations (公民、法人和其他组织) can obtain government information by lawful means, and increase government transparency.”

EU, UNDP boost government efforts to manage civil society, biodiversity

Tue, 22 May 2007 20:22:03 +0100

The European Union has deepened its collaboration with the United Nations Development Program in China with an EUR 8.08 million (USD 10.5 million) contribution to a UNDP-managed “Governance for Equitable Development” program, while funds from an earlier EU-UNDP agreement are now beginning to flow to consortia of international NGO and local government agencies partnering on biodiversity conservation projects.

Around 40% of the governance program funds will be devoted to civil society support projects implemented through the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MoCA), according to Edward Wu (吴晓晖), UNDP’s Team Leader in Beijing for Rule of Law and Democracy.

Editorial: "GONGOs” are here to stay, but need to reform and open up

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 06:17:53 +0100

Non profit organisations established by the Government of China to mobilise resources for public benefit work are frequently regarded by foreigners as fake, “Government-Organised NGOs.” But the signs are that, as the community of more autonomous, “grassroots” groups mushrooms and spreads, China’s political leadership sees all the more reason to maintain its own stake in the non profit sector. This mirrors China’s management of its industrial sectors and in some ways it makes sense.

Non-profit sector: The management scientists are coming

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 02:14:58 +0100

China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs is campaigning to promote charitable giving, while also hoping to encourage higher standards of non-profit performance and accountability. Meanwhile, reports Chang Tianle (常天乐), multinational corporations and management consultants are also hoping to bring business models—or, at least, a more businesslike approach—to the non-profit sector.

Child trafficking: Protecting children in a society on the move

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 02:23:25 +0100

Rather than treating child trafficking as an isolated issue, the government of China should respond by creating comprehensive and integrated child protection mechanisms, Save the Children’s Kate Wedgwood, He Ye (何叶) and Sun Tiezheng (孙铁铮) argue in the following excerpts from a recent presentation to the Foreign Correspondents Club in Beijing.

New rules make life tougher for petitioners, survey finds

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 01:34:18 +0100

Citizen “petitioners” seeking justice in Beijing have come under increased pressure and abuse from authorities in their areas of origin following the introduction of new regulations on petitioning, according to a recent survey by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) researchers.

Government centre aims to converge “parallel lines” of charity

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 04:18:40 +0100

February saw the formal launch of a Ministry of Civil Affairs information clearing house designed to facilitate information flows across China’s charitable sector and foster a more favourable philanthropic environment for both donors and beneficiaries.

Fiscal reform: Disentangling the public purse strings

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 05:24:24 +0000

For more than a decade, China’s total government revenues have been rising faster than GDP, recording 19.9% growth in 2005 alone. This sounds like great news for the government’s efforts to promote more equitable development with greater equality of opportunity and more robust social protections for the poor. But, as Chang Tianle (常天乐)reports, although reform efforts are gathering pace,the fiscal system is fraught with problems that tend to perpetuate, rather than reduce, inequalities.

In 1994 China’s total government revenue was just 10.8% of GDP. By 2005 it had risen to 17.3% of GDP—a larger share of a much larger cake, but still well below international norms of 30-50%. Nevertheless, the steady rise in revenues brings into sharper focus the issue of how those revenues are distributed across regions and sectors. Chinese officials, economists and development specialists are engaging in important debates on this topic, and international agencies are also flagging it as critical to China’s sustainable and harmonious development.

Child registration doubles in pilot Shaanxi villages

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 12:16:25 +0000

The registration of children in rural areas of Shaanxi has doubled in the course of a pilot project initiated by international development NGO, Plan, it was announced at a seminar in Xi’an on January 13.

Only 47.5% of children in five townships of Qishan County (岐山县) had been properly registered with the authorities before the pilot project, which has raised the registration rate to 97.6%, according to a project evaluation report.

Social Work: Putting care into professional practice

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 09:09:14 +0000

China’s top leaders recently recognised the need for a corps of professional social workers. Chang Tianle (常天乐) reports on ongoing efforts and challenges in building the new profession.

Shanghai dances with NGOs

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 16:14:50 +0000

Shanghai’s municipal and district governments, busy creating whole new urban districts, are also experimenting in social service delivery, in some cases contracting service provider NGOs. But, Chang Tianle (常天乐) reports, development of the sector remains piecemeal, still largely dependent on individual relationships and agreements.

“You cannot fix this [health] system in three or four years”

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 07:45:46 +0000

Since the shock of SARS in 2003, the government of China has invested heavily in public health programmes to strengthen control of infectious diseases, WHO China representative, Henk Bekedam , tells Nick Young in the following interview. However, he cautions, the health system as a whole still has grave, structural problems; Rural Cooperative Medical Schemes that are now being rolled out are unlikely to guarantee universal access to basic services; and until the government decides what its role in the health sector should be it will find it hard to create efficient and effective regulatory frameworks for quality and cost control.