Study on the roles of NGOs in global health / 中国卫生政策研究

ABSTRACT

The global health system is undergoing dramatic reforms, which would further bring about signifi-cant changes in key global health stakeholders. As a key actor and decision maker in global health system, NGO owns extensive experiences in global health governance and can provide a systematic experience for China’s participa-tion in global health decision-making as a reference model. This paper aimed at studying the roles of NGOs in the field of global health, the roles which can be summarized in four aspects of advocacy, implementation, support, and community mobilization. In addition, NGOs also developed some potential risks and unexpected impacts on global health governance. As represented by some typical examples, there occurred conflicts of interests between some NGOs and the local governments. A number of local health systems suffered from a considerable brain drain of health personnel to NGOs, especially the health officials and technical staff, which weakened the country’s health workforce and system. The financing model driven by external donors could weaken the influences and capacity of local govern-ments on health planning. As a key member involved in global health, we that suggested China and Chinese NGOs should strategically and rationally borrow their experiences and try to avoid these risks.