China’s social organisations have supported the role of the United Nations and taken concrete actions to accelerate the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, researchers and representatives from NGOs said at a webinar themed “The United Nations and Me: Stories from NGOs” and jointly held by China NGO Network for International Exchanges and CAFIU in Novermber 2021. Dozens of representatives from Chinese and foreign NGOs attended the online meeting, sharing their stories with the UN.

While the Chinese government has made great contributions to world peace and development in the past five decades, cooperation between China’s NGOs and the UN has also played an important role in supporting the UN, said CAFIU’s Secretary-General Mr. Yuan Zhibing. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s non-governmental forces have made great efforts to support the global fight against the virus, Yuan said.

China’s NGOs have also done a lot in poverty alleviation and tackling climate change. Mr. Wu Peng, representative of the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, an NGO founded in 1989, said his organisation has actively participated in and interacted with UN agencies since 2016 to share the Chinese experience in poverty reduction. By the end of 2020, the organisation has raised 7.83 billion yuan (US$ 1.2 billion) in funds, Wu said. Its “Smiling Children School Feeding” project and “Panda Pact” project were selected as the best global poverty reduction projects by seven organisations of the UN system and the World Bank in 2019 and 2021 respectively.

Mr. Ni Yao from the All-China Environment Federation said social organisations have many things to do to integrate social forces for environmental protection. Ni called on more Chinese NGOs to work with the UN and join social organisations across the world to accelerate the implementation of the UN goal of sustainable development and stride into a better future.