31 July 2021, NIICE Commentary 7225
Raunab Singh Khatri
China’s four decades of reform and opening up along with the efforts it has made for ending poverty has become one of the most successful stories of the developing world. One of the key aspects of the China model as a success story involves focus on larger economic programs like infrastructure development as a key engine for economic growth combined with robust growth on education, health and social sectors. Furthermore, it’s social assistance programs like dibao have become a flagship model and are highly recommended in countries like Pakistan on improving the status quo and eliminating poverty.
Relying on its success story, China in recent years has been active in launching international poverty alleviation campaigns for the benefit of humanity. In its 2021 White paper, China seeks to engage in conducting international knowledge sharing on bilateral forums for poverty eradication dialogues, but also apart from that possess a distinct legacy of sending social organizations like NGOs on poverty eradication at the grassroots level.
Under China’s current legal system, national NGOs include social groups, non-state-owned enterprises, and foundations, collectively known as social organizations. However, among these the foundations are the primary system used by China NGOs in launching overseas charitable activities. With the start of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and China’s commitment to sustaining the South – South Cooperation, Chinese NGOs have started carrying out foreign aid programs in countries of Africa and Asia. China Development Brief identifies at least 61 overseas projects of Chinese NGOs around the world.
The growing participation of Chinese NGOs across international development has been largely aligned to humanitarian aid and poverty alleviation. Following Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) and the China Charity Federation (CCF) had donated around 610 million Yuan for disaster relief efforts. Similarly, after the Nepal Earthquake in 2015, as per the statistics from China Charity Information Center, Chinese NGOs had donated more than 95.87 million Yuan to disaster-stricken areas of Nepal.
Such Chinese institutions can help leverage knowledge-sharing which could help to earn friendship and mutual trust at the grassroots level. Recognizing their importance, a paper by Jennifer Hsu and Reza Hasmath explains that Chinese State has moved away from “a strategy of overt coercion to manage social organizations, to one of tacit sanctioning , whereby the state creates and mediates the ‘space’ for NGOs to operate”. While these NGOs may not be able to provide large-scale humanitarian impact like other INGOs (especially of western donors) are capable of, studies have shown that they have achieved effectiveness in their ability to deliver resources to the local groups, thus acting as an important mediator in overall foreign aid effectiveness at a lower level.
However, it also comes with large challenges as well. According to Huang Haoming, lack of legal policies, limited professional and/or international talents, limited funding mechanisms, and limited knowledge in participation with recipient countries’ grassroots organization are some of the constraints the Chinese NGOs face. Secondly, most of the NGOs operation seems to be seasonal, implying that their activities tend to enrich only during the period of disasters and remain more or less stagnant at other times. The emergency funds provided during the disaster period are not met with long-term sustainable projects during the post-disaster rebuilding phases which take up years. Thirdly, as evident by Xiaoyuan Li and Qiandong’s paper, Chinese NGOs tend to work in close partnership with Chinese enterprises in their corporate social responsibility (CSR) project overseas which makes it difficult for them to establish rapport with institutions of recipient countries. Finally, in countries like Nepal, already stricken with thousands of NGOs led mostly by western donors, where NGOs legitimacy are highly questionable, how can Chinese NGOs contribute to some of the pressing issues like poverty eradication at household level remains to be witnessed.
Yet, Chinese NGOs, through its humanitarian and commodity aid, remain one of the eight different modalities of overall Chinese foreign aid which itself has gained significant influence in various countries. As Chinese NGOs are embodied with the state, their relationship could offer new pathways of collaboration on mutual respect and integrity, unlike the traditional western-led NGOs which for most tend to go against the state. Hence, being aligned to overall foreign aid objectives of China, the NGOs will follow basic principles of Chinese foreign aid policies including mutual respect and non-interference, which can lead to prolonged trust with host institutions. Yet the future and sustainability of these NGOs will depend on myriad factors and coming years will see if they can serve as an alternative mode of humanitarian intervention at the grassroots.
