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| Networking for NGOs in China |
| Professor Huang Haoming |
“Our mission is to establish a network of civil society organizations to address issues related to poverty alleviation.”
The civil society movement in China is a relatively new phenomenon. However, given the dynamic economic development in the country, it is certain that non-governmental organizations will play an increasingly vital role in Chinese society. At the forefront of this development is Professor Huang Haoming, Vice-Chairman and Executive Director of the China Association for NGO Cooperation (CANGO), a non-profit organization with 137 members working on environmental protection and social development.
What is the China Association for Non-Governmental Organization Cooperation or CANGO and which groups are its members?
CANGO’s mission is to establish a Chinese NGO network to address poverty alleviation in our country, by working together with as many local NGOs as possible and with NGOs overseas. Most of our members are rural and community development organizations and capacity building NGOs. Cango has 102 member organizations. We do not have individual members yet but we are thinking about it.
How many NGOs are there in all of China and what is their focus of their interest?
In all of China, we have three kinds of NGOs: social organizations, private non-enterprise entities and foundations. As of December 7, more than 350,000 NGOs were registered with the government. There are also many unregistered foundations, unfortunately we have no specific numbers. Normally, these NGOs focus on poverty alleviation, environmental protection, legal aid, and education. We also carry out dialogue between government and enterprises and civil society organizations.
What about private companies, do they donate to NGOs?
I think that is a very important question for NGOs in China. The private companies are becoming more active, joining our activities and donating funds to NGOs, particularly this year, following the big earthquake. CANGO received more than 10 million Yuan from private companies to help victims of that disaster. That is a big progress for China.
Civil society movement in China is a relatively new phenomenon. Is this a reflection of the government’s increasing confidence in people initiated programs?
Yes, China’s open-door policy was really important for civil society, particularly when China became a member of the World Trade Organization in 2001. It is becoming more supportive of civil society organizations. At last year’s Sixth Chinese Party Congress, the new enterprise income tax law was passed, which allowed to deduct 12 percent off their taxes if they contributed to public causes. This is quite an increase over the 3 percent allowable deduction. Recently, China drafted a charity development law, a further proof of the Government’s confidence on and support of activities initiated by the civil society.
Your mentioned the NGOs’ mission as the improvement of health issues, legal aid and environment protection, but you didn’t mention gender empowerment.
Oh… that is really important. In 1995 China hosted the United Nation’s Fourth Conference on Women and after that conference, there were many gender empowerment programs involving civil society. And you can see that there has been big changes since then, particularly in the rural areas, in women’s income generation and protecting their basic rights.
What is the focus of health issues in China?
Health issues in China is really a hot topic because of the HIV/AIDs problem. According to the Health Minister of health, there are now 700 cases so we are helping the Health Minister. This is a challenging time for us. The government has opened up all resources to fight this disease. For example, we are helping providing protection, access to education, rights of people. NGOs are also helping to establish an HIV/AID network to work with the people. This problem is important for China because our economic development can be affected by this problem.
What about primary health for children?
Right. We also collaborate with international organizations like the CDM which provide special support for local farmers.
You also mentioned legal aid, what kind of activities are NGOs involved in this area?
Legal aid is a very new concept. When I joined a UNDP program, special lawyer volunteer were seriously needed to support legal aid activities in urban areas. Our legal aid program was to help China’s 150 million migrant workers coming into the cities. They are unable to get their basic rights because they lack of knowledge, funding and no access. NGOs provide publication, information and network with legal aid centers at the central level. These NGOsc are becoming more important for migrant workers. This shows more positive support for the common people.
So, we are talking about 50 million migrant workers working cities around China. How many legal aid NGOs are there helping them out?
This is really a tough question for me. CANGO has seven member organizations involved in legal aid, like the China Foundation for Legal Aid. CANGO itself is very much involved in legal aid projects, supported by the European Union. We also try to help female workers to get job opportunities, and protect their rights. I think the NGOs and CANGO are establishing centers for capacity building which we call a training department. We are already training 10 classes for 140 workers and people other organizations.
Regarding environmental protection, can you describe the ‘green concept’ that you and CANGO initiated?
I think this is a very interesting topic. Four years ago, CANGO staff worked with the New York-based Environmental Defense Fund and worked together on improving Beijing’s air quality because at that time we were concerned on how it would affect the Olympic Games. Later, we established several programs like the Green Community. This is a big program intended to improve the air quality. Because China’s 10 percent economic growth rate there has been an increase in the number of cars, especially in Beijing. So CANGO and environmental organizations worked together. First, we established the China Environment Projection agency to do the research, then we carried an advocacy program to convince people about the Green Community to change their transportation style. We campaigned for more use of the subway, city trains, public bus or even the traditional bicycle. We initiated this program in 2006 and after 2 years, CANGO had 72 enterprises join our network in Beijing. Even university students join our network. We appealed to private enterprise to talk to their staff about using public transportation. We wanted to expanded our green community program; we also establish the national network of environment, adding to our membership 102 cities join our program in. So this is really a successful program. Like the Olympics Committee CANGO, EDF and other civil society organizations went to campuses to our work. So, we also get a good positive support from the Beijing Municipal government.
But the number of cars are also increasing.
Yes, I forgot to mention there are now over 2 million privately-owned cars. The total number is about 3.1 million, meaning more than 67 percent are privately owned. So the action plan becomes very important for citizens because of choice, and for government entity because if people choose public transportation, that it should be in condition. This is actually advocacy, not only for citizens but also for government agencies. In Beijing the subway system is getting more packed, I thinks this is important to campaign.
What about energy, what is the government doing to reduced the use of fuel?
Yes, I think the government still have much to discuss about tissues of tax and the environment. I just learned this morning that experts are recommending to the city government that they charging parking areas. One month ago, I joined the Beijing Transportation commission of experts where discussed about how to change the government’ policy and convince citizens to make a choice. I think this is really tough in China, particularly in Beijing.
People don’t want to give up their cars?
Yes. The big debate is the choice between economic development and environmental protection.
Are NGOs also collaborating with their foreign counterparts? And which countries are they from?
China began collaborating with international civil society after the open-door policy. We work with German foundations, church organizations, missionaries, Oxfam from UK, with foundations from Japan like the Sasakawa Peace Foundation too. Other NGOs come from Canada, Australia, Norway and France. I think we are cooperating with most developed countries.
What about with other Asian countries, particularly those which have strong civil society tradition?
After establishing networking with developed countries, since 2000 we tried to cooperate with Asian countries like India, Philippines, Indonesia, Japan and Singapore and Thailand.
On what issues do you collaborate with these countries?
Actually we try to know about issues important in that developing country, like exchange programs. CANGO shares experiences, management issues, projects .. even ad hoc issues in Philippines is very strong in civil society movement, so China is very eager to learn from this neighboring countries. They have many experiences and lessons to share with us.
You have been involved in the NGO world for some time, how successful has civil society been in achieving its mission. What still needs to be done?
Generally speaking, civil society in China should have a clear mission. We should think about objectives. If we want to be involved in advocacy, we should have a good stragtegy, that is the basic principle. Secondly, we should have professional teamwork, a professional group, third, I think the third is very important issue, learning from other countries and networking. CANGO works with 150 members out of the country.
The four important point should be capacity building for the civil society members themselves, know mission teamwork, human resource, capacity building, funding should be held by professionals, introducement good governance, transparency and accountability.
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