5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014 Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice 24-28 August 2014 in Davos, Switzerland

1. Civil Society Organizations as Catalysts in
Disaster Response Progress：
A Conceptual Framework based on Chinese Experience
Xiaoge XU, Osamu KOIDEi, and Takaaki KATO
The University of Tokyo, Japan
xuxiaoge@city.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
August 2014, IDRC, Davos

2. CONCEPT: Civil Society
Aristotle “Politick
Koinonia”
Adam Ferguson “Society
reality- State Reality”
Marcus Tullius Cicero
“Civil Society”
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Hegel “Civil-reality vs
Politics-reality”
Karl Max
“Bourgeoisie”
Antonio Gramsic “Civil
Society Organizations”
Juergrm Habermas
“Public Sphere”
Polis~17th Century 17th~18th Century Contemporary
Civil Society in this paper:
the sphere of voluntary associations in which individuals engage in
activities of public consequence, distinguished from the public
activities of government, and from the private activities of markets.

3. CONCEPT: Civil Society Organization
 NGO, NPO, The Third Sector, Voluntary Organization, Public
Service Organization, Chartable Organization…
For Those organization that
are self-governing, non profit
distributing, and formed
voluntarily by members.
⇒CSO
CSOs in China
CSOs in China
（中国における市民社会組織）
（中国における市民社会組織）
Mass Organization (人民団体：
共青団、婦女連盟等、対象外）
Mass Organization (人民団体：
共青団、婦女連盟等、対象外）
Registered Organizations
（登録組織・法人格あり）
Registered Organizations
（登録組織・法人格あり）
Private non-enterprise Units
SSoocciiaall GGrroouuppss ((社社会会団団体体)) Private non-enterprise Units
(民間非企業単位) FFoouunnddaattiioonnss ((基基金金会会))
(民間非企業単位)
Unregistered Organizations
Unregistered Organizations
（未登録組織）
（未登録組織）
Grassroots Organization
Grassroots Organization
(一部の草根組織)
(一部の草根組織)
Some International NGOs
Some International NGOs
(一部の国際非政府組織)
(一部の国際非政府組織)

4. CSOs in China
 Before 1978 Economic Reform (like the 1986 doi moi Reform in
Vietnam), no living space for autonomous organiztions.
 GONGOs and International NGOs since 1980s
 Grassroots NGOs (bottom-up) since 1990s
Table 1.1.1 Number of Registered CSOs in China
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Social Groups (in thousand) 171 192 212 230 239 245 255 271
Private non-enterprise Units
(in thousand) 148 161 174 182 190 198 204 225
Foundations 975 1144 1340 1597 1843 2200 3514 3029
At the end of 2007,
Official Data: Almost 387,000 CSOs registered.
Academic View: more than 2,000,000 CSOs.
(Tsinghua NGO Research Center, 2008)

5. Table 1 CSOs involving disaster response in China before
2008
Type Name Founded
Time*
Time into
DR field
INGO
Oxfam (UK, Hongkong) 1991 1991
Tzuchi Foundation
（ Taiwan） 1987 1991
GO-NGO
Agency Red Cross Society of China 1950 1987
China Charity Foundation 1994 1998
Public
foundation
China Foundation
for Poverty Alleviation
1989 2002
* For INGOs, the time indicates they began their activities in China Mainland.
(1)Insufficient priority (mountainous problems… DR is not the first thing)
(2)Shortage of funds.
Only RCSC and CCF had been permitted to receive donations and relief materials.
(3) Political pressure.
DR is “unified led by the Party and government, divided responded
by each department, and managed at different administrative
levels”. It is the responsibility of government. The participation of
other organizations outside the state system would disturb the
social order.
In summary, before 2008 earthquake, the disaster response
used to be monopolized by the state in China.

6. Disaster and Social Change
 Japan： 1995 Kobe EQ (Shaw and Goda, 2004; Yatsuzuka,
2007)
→ The first year of civil society (volunteer)
First NPO Law “Act on Promotion of Specified Non-profit Activities” in 1995
 Similar Cases:
1999 Taiwan EQ,
1999 Turkey EQ ...
(Jalali, 2002;
Kubicek, 2002)
Involvement
of CSOs

7. 2008 Sichuan EQ, China
 May 12th, 2008
 Death: 69，227

8. Unprecedented Participation
of CSOs and Volunteers
From the Official Data
 More than 3,000,000 volunteers （ only registered ）
went to disaster affected areas until the end of 2008.
 The first time that Individual > Enterprise Donations .
From the Media and Newspaper
 “Tens of Thousands of Volunteers suddenly flushed into
the disaster region.”(Times,2009)
From the Volunteer Themselves
 “I am lucky enough. We victims should help each other.”
 “I heard the word civil society and citizen awareness before. But it
is not my business. I just do what I should do.”

9. Participation of CSOs in 2008 EQ
 The nationwide participation ignited CSOs’
enthusiasm.
北京 60家
上海 14家
四川 55家
地域による
广东 20家
贵州 18家
陕西 14家
重庆 10家
甘肃 7家
福建 8家
云南 6家
广西 6家
河南 5家
湖南 3家
河北 2家
安徽 2家
其它各1家的省区（山西、江苏、湖北、天津 共4家）
more than 264 CSOs
have taken actions in
disaster relief and
reconstruction.
“the first exposition of
the Chinese CSO sector”
by a CSO leader.
Classification by location of CSOs

10. Large-scale cooperation of CSOs
 Legislative restrictions in China
 Report from NGO Research Center (2006):
6% : were active in sharing information amongst each other;
40% : had few or none cooperation with one another;
nearly NOBODY thought they cooperate well before 2006.
 After 2008 EQ…
 Devastating EQ made Most of the CSOs began to recognize
their limitation and choose cooperation
 On May 13, a joint declaration called on CSOs to unite to
response disaster attracted 164 CSOs nationwide.
 A survey of 70 CSOs indicates that 58.6% of the
respondents belong to an alliance with 3 or more than 3 CSOs
(Wang, 2009).

11. CSOs began to involve disaster response after 2008 EQ
Type Name
Founde
d
Time*
Time
into DR
field
INGO
Save the Children 1989 2008
Mercy Corps 2001 2008
GO-NGO
Public
foundation
China Charities Aid
Foundation for Children
1981 2008
China Youth
Development Foundation
1989 2008
Grass-roots
CSO
One Foundation 2007 2008
Private
foundation
China Social
Entrepreneur Foundation
2007 2008
Narada Foundation 2007 2008
National
organization
Huaxia Commenweal
Service Center
2010 2010
Regional
organization
NDPC 2008 2008
Yixing Team 2008 2008
Will Gathering Disaster
Mitigation Center 2008 2008
Beichuan China Heart
2008 2008
Association
* For INGOs, the time indicates they began their activities in China Mainland.

12. How to study the role of these CSOs?
Previous Research to define the role of CSO
Fowler(1991): links to foreign funds
Salamon (1992) : a pipeline between society and the state
Sumifuji(2005): junction points
Kawamoto(2007): motivator, networker, mission articulator,
facilitator, presentator, coordinator, and supporter in different
stages.
Features:
Outsider; dynamic; impact on other elements, and receive sth.
From other elements; Bidirectional reaction (positive or negative);
Promote new organization; sensitive to the environment…
CATALYST

13. Why CATALYST?
A case from disaster-affected area:
CS
O
Enterprise A
Enterprise B
Enterprise C
60% funIdnadequate financial allocation 40% fund
Local Government
Disaster
HospitLailvelihood
Disaster-affected
Community
Local CSO

14. Why CATALYST?
Process
Dynamic Process
Endless (if ideal)
Elements
(enterprises, local government, local community, CSOs…)
Multiple actors as elements
Elements new added and exited
elements are changing

15. Framework built based on the concept of CATALYST
Identity
Boundary
Link
Penetration
Auto-Catalysis
B
?
A
?
? ?
C D

16. Boundary
 RANGE
# boundary of one element
#Identity: the things elements can do.
Boundary: the thins elements
cannot do.
 JUNCTION
# boundary of 2 elements or more
# The number of junctions on the
boundary is an indicator to assess
the extent of interaction between
two elements.

17. Conclusions & Prospects
 This research sorts out the development of Chinese CSOs in
disaster response field, and concludes the characteristics of
these newly emerging DR-related CSOs.
 In order to analyze the role of CSO in disaster response, the
Framework of Catalyst is proposed. In theory, the framework
provide an approach for researchers; in the practice, it can be
used as a toolkit for the CSO project staffs.
 Prospect: the author believes that the framework of catalyst can
also be used in other areas, to identify the main factors which may
stimulate the reconstruction process in local context.