I. Introduction

I am very pleased to be with you all this morning at the Institute for Civil Society and I am honored by your invitation to offer some remarks at the beginning of this important conference of NGOs in Southern China.I have some appreciation for the serious challenges you face as NGO leaders at this moment in Chinese history and I want to sincerely congratulate you on your efforts to help shape the future of China from the bottom-up.I also want to congratulate and thank Professor Qui Haixiong, Professor Kin-man Chan, and Professor Zhu Jiangang for their leadership in establishing this very important new institute at ZhongshanUniversity.

It is a special pleasure for me to be here with my brilliant colleague Shenyu Belsky, who is our program officer for our work here in Southern China.Shenyu was born in Guangzhou, grew up here and in Shanghai, and attended university in Beijing.The Rockefeller Brothers Fund is very fortunate to have Shenyu leading our work in China.I am also very pleased to introduce to you Wendy O’Neill Wang who is a member of the board of directors of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.Wendy is a scholar of Chinese history and she and her family live in Hong Kong.Her knowledge and experience are especially valuable to the work of our board.

II. Prior Experience in China

This is only my fifth trip to China.My first visit was in July of 1979, just six months after the normalization or relations between the People’s Republic and the United States.My parents were living in Hong Kong at that time and during a visit to see them, I was fortunate to have the chance to be among the first American tourists in your country.

My second trip to China was ten years later, in April of 1989.By then, I was serving as “minister” [Commissioner] of Economic Development for the State of Connecticut and I came to China with a delegation of business leaders eager to develop economic ties here.I negotiated a “sister state” agreement with ShandongProvince in order to provide a means to promote productive economic relations.All of us were deeply impressed with the energy, industriousness, and openness we found as we met with Chinese officials, enterprise managers, and cultural leaders.Just before we departed for the US, while traveling by train from Shanghai to Suzhou, we learned of the death of Hu Yao Bang.As outsiders, of course, we could not foresee the events his death would inspire.

I did not return again to China until June 2002, in my second year as president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.Imagine my shock when I returned to Guangzhou after twelve years of economic reforms and rapid growth.I literally could not recognize the first Chinese city I had visited as a tourist in 1979.The Pearl River looked more like the Thames of London or the East River in New York than the gentle river I had walked along many years earlier as I explored Shamian.

China is a society that is modernizing at an extraordinary pace.And I would like to spend a few minutes with you this morning exploring the role of NGOs in modern societies and in an increasingly interdependent world.But perhaps I should begin by telling you something about the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

III. The Rockefeller Family & the RBF

The RBF is a private philanthropic foundation that was established in 1940 by the children of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.Our founders were the third generation of the Rockefeller family in the US.As you know, John D. Rockefeller, Sr. made a vast fortune in the oil business in the late 19th century and the first decades of the 20th.He founded and built Standard Oil, one of the world’s first truly global businesses.Standard Oil developed a large and profitable business here in China, selling kerosene for illumination and heat.

But an important part of the story that is less well known is that John D. Rockefeller began giving away his fortune right from the beginning of his extraordinary business success. “JDR”, as he is known, first went to work in 1855 at the age of sixteen.He earned $45 that first year and donated $5, or slightly more than 10%, to charity.JDR went on to be one of the wealthiest – and most generous – people in history.

JDR made his first charitable gift designated for China in 1863 when he was just 24 years old.As his philanthropy began to grow rapidly, he hired professional advisors to help him sort through the thousands of requests for help that he began to receive. JDR and his advisors established the Rockefeller Foundation in 1913 in order to expand and organize his philanthropic activities. JDR was determined not just to alleviate the symptoms of social problems, he wanted his philanthropy to address the underlying causes of these conditions.One year later, the Rockefeller Foundation created the China Medical Board to help improve medical training and care in China.In 1921, the Rockefeller Foundation and the China Medical Board created the PekingUnionMedicalCollege on the site of a former imperial palace.It quickly became known as You Wang Fu – the “Oil Prince’s Palace.”

Over the course of the twentieth century, Rockefeller philanthropy continued to support improvements to medical care, not only in Beijing, but across China.The family and its foundations also supported literacy promotion and a wide variety of rural development initiatives.When the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) was founded in 1940, one of the first grants the brothers agreed to make was for World War II relief programs in China.The Fund has had a global perspective and engagement ever since.

Today, the mission of the RBF is “helping to build a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world.”As you can see, we share the ambition expressed in the Institute’s motto: “Be reasonable…demand the impossible!”

The RBF provides financial and intellectual support to NGOs working in four critically important fields:Democratic Practice, Sustainable Development, Peace & Security, and Human Advancement (including work in education, health, culture, and leadership development.)Each of these programs is focused on a few, quite specific goals and strategies which we hope can produce meaningful social change in the United States, in select places across the globe, and even at the global level.We have also decided – that given the scale of our resources – the most effective way to achieve impact is to select a few “pivotal places” around the globe where we will pursue multi-disciplinary grantmaking in support of indigenous NGOs that are working in our four fields of interest.

Given our long involvement in Asia, including considerable work in Indonesia, the Philippines, the Mekong Valley, the Russian Far East, and here in Southern China, it was quite challenging for us to determine just where we would focus our Asian grantmaking in the years ahead.After a full year of research and careful deliberation, we concluded that Southern China offers unique opportunities to support efforts that will contribute to positive social change in an immensely important country.So we are now committed to a long-term partnership with NGOs in the pan Pearl River delta region.

I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about the history of Rockefeller family philanthropy or the work of the RBF at the conclusion of my remarks, but let me now return to my main topic: the role of NGOs in modern societies and in an increasingly interdependent world.My comments are based both on my experience as president of the RBF and as founding president of an NGO called Dēmos, which is working to revitalize democracy and address growing economic inequality in the US.All of these experiences have informed my understanding of the profound importance of the nongovernmental sector.

IV. The Role of NGOs in Modern Societies.

Increasingly, the existence of NGOs is proving to be a necessity rather than a luxury in societies throughout the modern world. I believe that the history of the 20th century persuasively demonstrated the inabilityof the welfare state and free enterprise to create just and sustainable societies. Prompted by the inadequacies of the state and the market, citizens across the globe have developed organizations of civil society – NGOs – to help address a wide variety of social needs.

I believe that NGOs have three primary roles in advancing modern societies.First, NGOs provide opportunity for the self-organization of society.NGOs enable citizens to work together voluntarily to promote social values and civic goals which are important to them.They promote local initiative and problem-solving.Through their work in a broad array of fields – environment, health, poverty alleviation, culture & the arts, education, etc. – NGOs reflect the diversity of society itself.They are established and sustained by individuals working collectively in their communities. By empowering citizens and promoting change at the “grass roots”, NGOs both represent and advance the pluralism and diversity that are characteristic of vibrant and successful modern societies.

Second, NGOs preserve a unique and essential space between the for-profit sector and government. Clearly private enterprise is efficient at producing goods and private wealth.Government is best when it focuses on providing and managing public goods.The nonprofit, nongovernmental sector helps fulfill the common good.A vibrant third sector provides a fulcrum for balancing the state and the free market.This middle ground is an essential arena for promoting additional checks and balances in society.Only independent organizations can serve as watchdogs of both government and business. At the same time, NGOs can build creative and productive partnerships across and among the three sectors – partnerships that draw on the unique strengths of each to advance the common good.

Finally, NGOs enable experimentation and social change by taking on challenges that that the public and private sectors simply can’t or won’t.Civil society organizations are able to take risks that are economically unacceptable to business and politically unacceptable to government. In modern societies across the globe, countless innovations pioneered by NGOs have subsequently been adopted as government policy.Numerous models of service delivery that are considered “best practice” today were devised, tested, and improved over many years of experimentation by NGOs.In addition, NGO advocacy campaigns induce reluctant governments to adopt policy reforms and force improvements in business practices.

As modernizing economies increasingly shift to free markets and private enterprise, they often experience a decline in social cohesion and an increase in economic and social inequity. In these circumstances the nongovernmental sector has proven to be an essential mitigating force that helps create a healthier balance between the potential excesses of capitalism and the inefficiencies and limited resources of the state. This has certainly been the case in my own country.

V. Reflections on the US experience

Indeed, a vibrant civil society is deeply entwined in the history and traditions of the US.Writing in 1831, the young French politician Alexis de Tocqueville first documented what was then a distinctly American tradition of civil society when he wrote that “Americans of all ages, all stages of life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations.”In America, Tocqueville found a society of joiners and a rich mosaic of clubs, associations, and organizations organized and managed through volunteerism, individual leadership, and collective effort.

Throughout U.S. history, NGOs have played a powerful role - growing out of our values of participation, engagement, and responsibility.Civil society has provided a means through which Americans are able to reconcile two distinctively American social traits:our fervent individualism and our equally passionate communalism.The impact has been profound.

In a book published three years ago, Claire Gaudiani (the former president of ConnecticutCollege) argues that, if it hadn’t been for the work of the nonprofit sector in the United States, our country would not enjoy the high standard of living we now know. Citizen generosity in the form of philanthropy and citizen engagement through NGOs, she says, have created an environment where private enterprise could flourish without destroying the social fabric of our society.

One might think that the United States, with its economic success, high standard of living and robust nongovernmental sector has concluded its journey toward being a balanced, healthy, modern society. This is clearly not the case, as the recent hurricanes on our Gulf coast have tragically demonstrated.In the wake of these devastating storms, all three sectors of our society have been sorely tested and found deficient.But it is also true that the human suffering caused by these storms would have been far worse without the huge outpouring of generosity from the American public and the quick response of NGOs.

The vital importance of the nonprofit sector is certainly not an exclusively American experience. There are powerful examples of how the nonprofit sector contributes to healthy and efficient societies throughout the world.As an American living in Prague and working throughout Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s, I observed with great admiration how NGOs helped transform and modernize their countries.The same has occurred in South Africa, in Brazil – in fact, in countries on every continent.

According to data compiled by researchers at JohnsHopkinsUniversitythe civil society sector in 36 countries for which they have assembled data represents a $1.3 trillion industry.If the civil society sector were a separate national economy, it would be the world’s seventh largest, slightly smaller than France and larger than Italy in GDP.Organizations of civil society employ 45.5 million people, or almost one out of every twenty employable people in the world.The data from Johns Hopkins demonstrates that civil society is a significant presence in nearly every country and region.

VI. Role of NGOs in increasingly interdependent world

We live in an age of growing global interdependence.There have been many clear benefits – in economic terms, in the spread of information and knowledge, and in the deeper connections of what has been called “planetary society”.But we also now face a set of profound global threats to human security and prosperity; and to the sustainability of our planet – from the spread of deadly weapons to the spread of deadly disease; from global warming, to the persistence of pernicious poverty.These problems are not contained by national borders and even the largest and most powerful countries increasingly find they are unable to address these challenges without the help of what we now call “the international community.”

I think one of the most promising aspects of global interdependence is the rapid development and growing importance, of global – or transnational – civil society.Economic globalization has far outpaced political globalization as we have yet to devise effective and democratic institutions and processes of global governance. Global civil society is helping to fill this critical vacuum, providing the means through which citizens can influence the forces that are so profoundly shaping our world.Trans-national NGOs are promoting equity in global trade regimes, protecting our planet’s ecosystems, and contributing to the development of a global social safety net.

　　Examples of the impact of global civil society abound -

The international ban on the use of landmines was ushered in by a dedicated group of international NGOs

Much of the progress made on combating the spread of HIV/AIDS can be attributed to civil society.

And, if we are to save our planet from global warming, I am certain NGOs will help lead the way.

As globalization proceeds and the world becomes increasingly interdependent, the decisions of global civil society groups have increasing significance in our daily lives. They give expression to citizen concerns, hold governments and multi-national corporations accountable, promote community, address unmet needs, and improve the quality of life. In doing so, they promote both political stability and economic prosperity.Global civil society is making globalization more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable.

VII. China context

I’d like to conclude these remarks with some thoughts about the role of NGOs in today’s China.I have been intrigued by the concept of a “harmonious society” that is now a centerpiece of your government’s program.President Hu Jintao has said that “a harmonious society should feature democracy, the rule of law, equity, justice, sincerity, amity, and vitality.”These are very positive aspirations.In fact, I wish US leaders would more frequently express similar sentiments.But I am also certain that these important goals cannot be achieved in China – or elsewhere – without a vibrant, diverse, and effective nongovernmental sector.

As China becomes more diversified and modernized, the government alone can not effectively manage the multitude of problems facing society.The role of government is irreplaceable, but inadequate. Twenty years of reforms, openness, and economic growth have brought prosperity to many Chinese citizens. Poverty has been dramatically reduced and China is now an important leader in the international community. Yet, there are still many challenges facing China: persistent poverty, pollution, inadequate health care, massive internal migration, water and energy shortages, etc.These are not the attributes of a harmonious society and government and the market will prove inadequate to the task of addressing these stresses of modernization.Real progress will only be achieved through the sustained engagement of Chinese citizens acting through the institutions of civil society.

Civil society organizations serve as intermediaries between citizens and their governments.Working or volunteering in NGOs, Chinese citizens will provide essential services to others in their communities.They will devise new approaches for solving persistent problems.They will promote tolerance and strengthen the accountability of government and private enterprise.

A growing Chinese civil society will shape China’s internal development and influence China’s evolving and important role in the world.As Chinese citizens create and participate in transnational NGOs, they will also help make globalization more inclusive, more fair, and more environmentally sustainable. A truly “harmonious” Chinese society will help forge harmonious planetary society.

VIII. Conclusion – the keys: public understanding, good governance, indigenous philanthropy

For Chinese civil society to play this historic role, it will need to squarely meet three important challenges.First, a robust civil society in China will only fully emerge with the active participation of millions of citizens.This can only be achieved if people have an adequate understanding of the role of NGOs in modern societies.NGO leaders must continuously work to raise public awareness and understanding of the sector.Broader and deeper public understanding of the role of NGOs is essential to the growth of the sector and to the evolution of its relationship with government and the private sector – its place in Chinese society.

Second, NGOs must continually strive to meet the highest standards of good governance: transparency, accountability, sound management, and ethical behavior.NGOs can only serve as credible advocates and watchdogs of government and business if they uphold the very standards they expect the public and private sectors to meet.Now greater transparency and accountability in NGOs will also bring their own challenges in the evolving relationship between civil society and government. But good governance will prove to be the best insurance policy for thelong-term resilience of the nongovernmental sector.

Finally, the Chinese NGO sector can only fulfill its role in society if its growth is sustained by indigenous philanthropy.NGOs must safeguard their independence and they will succeed in doing so only to the extent that they can rely on independent sources of funding.International foundations, like the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, can and will play an important role but the long term sustainability of Chinese civil society will depend on the growth of Chinese philanthropy.

For the past decade, China’s economy has been growing at nearly 10% a year.This has produced great wealth – according to one reportChina's 40 richest businesspeople are collectively worth $26 billion, up from $18 billion a year ago. China is now home to ten billionaires.Many of these wealthy individuals and families are active in philanthropy.But much more work needs to be done to encourage these wealthy Chinese to follow in the footsteps of John D. Rockefeller.This means creating a conducive legal environment for philanthropy, including tax incentives.But perhaps more importantly, it means working to develop an understanding of the meaning of philanthropy, fostering a culture of philanthropy that draws on Chinese traditions of generosity and caring for others.

I am optimistic about China’s future.No one can dispute the fact that China is a major global economic and political power. But whether China will emerge as a modern, harmonious society, that question will be answered by its NGOs – and you, their leaders.

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Gaudiani, TheGreaterGood, Times Books, Henry Holt and Company, 2003.

The Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project.

http://www.forbes.com/2005/11/01/china-richest-list_05china_land.html