In doing a little more research on the HIV/ AIDS issues I covered a couple week back, I ran into an excellent paper from the Center for Strategic and International Studies called China’s Civil Society Organizations - What Future in the Health Sector? that documents a study done to understand what the role of civil society organizations (NGO) have in supporting the HIV/ AIDS situation in China.

From June 13 to June 20, 2007, a senior-level delegation organized by the CSIS Task Force on HIV/AIDS traveled to Beijing and Chengdu, China, to examine the current and potential role of civil society organizations (CSOs) in addressing China’s public health care challenges.

As many of you who are long time readers, or are leading an NGO will know, the history of NGO activity and relationship between the government and NGO have been up and down.  There have been times when NGOs have been a reliable partner on a public level (Sichuan earthquake) and there have been times when NGOs have found themselves left out.

This report recognizes that right off, and then moves straight into where they fell CSOs, particularly international CSOs, can play the most productive role:

• Invest greater resources into building the capacity of CSOs in China to make a more constructive contribution to alleviating health care challenges.
• Foster greater governmental and societal support for the valuable work CSOs can offer.
• Expand the role of universities, associations, government-organized nongovernmental organizations (GONGOs) and other government-related brokers.
• Encourage a greater role for the private sector and philanthropic giving.
• Develop near- and longer-term indicators of success for CSOs and their impact on addressing health care needs in China.
• Support a steady evolution and expansion of health-related CSOs, rooted in Chinese pragmatism, values, and sociopolitical realities.

All excellent recommendations, and it is why I highly recommend readers take the time to read the rest of this 22 page report.  Once again, you can download it here.