Accountability and user participation in Chinese child welfare non-government organisations

Millions of children now rely on support from Chinese child welfare non-government organisations. The government is reforming NGO policy in response to public demands about service quality, but it lacks relevant research. The established team of Chinese Social Policy researchers at UNSW, London School of Economics, Right To Play and the Chinese government will refine theories of democratic and managerial accountability to the context of NGOs in transition countries.

We hypothesise that accountability to service users, the public and the state changes with the degree of user participation in NGOs. We analyse new datasets, policies and participatory fieldwork to inform policy change and to benefit capacity and training in child welfare NGOs.