China: Dorit Lehrack wins the first award for volunteers

Dorit Lehrack, married with three children, has been awarded the Friendship Award from the Chinese State Administration for Foreign Experts Affairs for her work on capacity building within local civil society. She is the first european volunteer to recive this award in China.

Vita Europe asks her what this award means both for Chinese and international civil society.

Dorit, will you accepet the award from a government known for its violence towards activists and volunteers?
Yes; I am going to accept the award because I consider this event an outstandingly good opportunity to communicate the importance of a functioning third sector in China and a means of promote a better functioning legislation for the operations of civil society organisations.

Is it usual for NGO experts to receive Friendship awards from the Chinese government?
As far as I know this is the second time that an NGO expert receives an award. The first was a Chinese representative of Environmental Defense, a US based environmental NGO that workd closely with the central government on energy-related issues and climate protection. Although I am only the "second" case I am the first one with a truly non-governmental position – my mission in China was to assist the capacity building of third sector organisations.

What does this award mean for local and international civil society?
The government's decision to award an expert on civil society development may be understood as a sign – both domestically and internationally – to pay more respect and attention to the importance of NGOs in developing a more sustainable China. The award seems to admit that China needs its civil society organisations and the voluntary engagement of citizens and is willing to promote and support them. This is the way I interpret this decision. I know that Chinese government officials have an ambivalent attitude towards the development of civil society and its role in society. Authorities closely related to the sector are mainly in favor (here I mean the officials of the ministry of civil affairs, Moca, which is the supervising body for the sector), as they understand the important role of NGOs in the country. Others, such as officials promoting purely technological and economic development, are not.

What changes do you think the award will bring?
In accepting the award I hope to strenghten those decision-makers who understand that a modern and open China needs charities, environmental groups and legal aid groups to assist the weakest members of society. To advocate and lobby for the interests of the underpriviliged and to influence policies and politics by giving those on the ground a voice. Such developments could open the country to international NGOs and create more space for the mushrooming bottom-up Chinese NGOs, benefitting local and international society. Whether China accepts civil engagement or not will affect global sustainable development purely because of the fact that china is a gobal player.

How long have you been working in China and what have you been doing?
I have been working for 6 and a half years in China. During the last 5 years I have been with the Chinese Association for NGO Cooperation (CANGO), a local membership organisation based in Beijing, as its international senior advisor. My main task was to develop a capacity building and training program, mainly focused on the needs of grassroot NGOs throughout the country assisting them to develop in a sound manner based on principles of good governance. During these 5 years we have trained almost 1000 representatives of grassroot NGOs on issues such as fundraising and resource mobilization, project development and management, strategic planning in NGOs, environmental campaigning, leadership as well as other topics. This program was extremely successful and will be continued with a second phase that will focus on mentoring and coaching NGO leaders and boards. As well as the training program I also focused on networking NGOs in China through environmental campaigns such as the "26 degrees" campaign aimed at energy saving and health protection in Beijing and other cities. Last but not least, I tried to promote the importance of the third sector in China through lobbying for the sector; mainly through the exchange of experts between China and European countries and networking between Chinese and international NGOs.

Why did you choose to work in China?
Since 1990, after the fall of the Berlin wall (I am from East Germany), I started working with NGOs. I worked with Greenpeace Germany for about 6 years and later with GP international as a manager – at first to establish the East-German branch office and later as the regional Coordinator for Cee/Cis. Between 1996 and 1999 I was hired as the political director of Friends of the Earth Germany. It was during this time that I developed the desire to go to China to see whether I coul support the young but extremely motivated people who wanted to start NGOs there. When I was told I would not even find one "real" NGO I became even more convinced that I should go. When I came to China, it took some months before I could contact Cango and other environmental NGOs, however since then an advisor position was created for me and accepted by the German Center for Migration and Development (CIM) that partly subsidizes my positon in China.

What is it like to work in a country where activism, especially foreign activism, is often seen as a danger?
We do not see a lot of foreign activism in China. What happened some 10 years ago – for example the Greenpeace protest against nuclear tests of China – has been forgotten by the Chinese authorities. Today Greenpeace runs a big office with about 40 staff in Beijing, has excellent contacts with Sepa, the state environmental protection administration, and other ministries. It is difficult to say that "activism" is seen as a danger. It depends on what activism's goal is – what are activists trying to highlight? In who's interest?

Can you give us some examples?
You may remember Greenpeace's protest against clearcutting in southern Chinas Yunnan province: there was wide support from the central government and the public as the "enemy" was a Singapore-based international pulp and paper company. There are similar examples in Chinese NGO activities, such as the campaign carried out by a network of Chinese environmental groups against a new dam project at Nu river (which is also in Yunnan province) that was widely supported by environmental officials in Beijing. In this case Yunnan province officials had allowed the dam to be built without conducting the environmental impact assessment that is required by Chinese law.

Are there no exeptions?
Chinese authorities react in a very pragmatic manner: what benefits them goes, but – there is of course a but – if activism is aimed at fighting the "vital interests" of mainstream government then it is rejected. For example, when HIV groups started communicating the problems related to AIDS and the treatment of AIDS patients, the government was not prepared to admit that there was an AIDS problem at all. AIDS groups therefore had to develop real activist groups in order to be able to get their message across. This has changed today, no one denies that there is a problem, but the AIDS activist groups are still considered to be pretty agressive groups.

So overall how would you judge working in China as an activist?
Well, as I said above, Chinese officials are considerate if group activities are in line with their interests and are even willing to support activism. However the central and provincial governments are not a homogenous body and have pretty diverse interests, so even when some Chinese officials may not support activists, an activist group may always find allies. This is the Chinese way of using relations, which is called "guan xi" in Chinese. International NGOs that start working in China are rather careful and try to adapt to the working and, you could say special "protest", culture in China.

www.cango.org