By the end of 2021, there were 902,000 social organizations (local term for NGOs) in China, with 119.25 billion yuan ($16.59 billion) in donation income, according to the 2021 Statistical Bulletin on the Development of Civil Affairs. Social organizations have played an irreplaceable role in participating in the country’s economic development, providing public services, and innovating social governance.
With promoting the high-quality development of social organizations now a public consensus, more and more relevant policies and measures have been issued across the country on their development, with increasing support and a clearer development direction, reported the Philanthropy Times.
For example, through the recent “Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Social Organizations”, Inner Mongolia autonomous region has further clarified its development goals for social organizations for 2025, to improve its service supervision and support systems, rating system, and the structure of social organizations themselves.
As for Hunan Province, it issued its “Guiding Opinions on Supporting the Development of Community Social Organizations”, which proposed that by 2023, more than 70 percent of the streets (towns) in the province should have at least one hub-type and support-type community social organization, and urban and rural communities should have at least 10 and five community social organizations on average, respectively. And by 2025, the province looks to achieve a more complete management for community social organizations, with a better system of support measures.
In the city of Weihai, Shandong Province, the local government issued the “Implementation Opinions on Reforming the Social Organization Management System to Promote the Healthy and Orderly Development of Social Organizations”, planning to establish a four-level social organization incubation platform of “city, district (city), town, street, and community”.
At the same time, Weihai vigorously promotes the construction of town and street community social organization federations, and includes the full coverage of town and street federations in the municipal Party committee’s target performance assessment, the municipal government’s practical projects for the private sector, and the city’s comprehensive governance and safety assessment.
In addition to increasing policy support, local governments are also working on preventing and defusing major risks in social organizations and cracking down on illegal social organizations.
