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Companies in China which aspire to be leaders in corporate social responsibility (CSR) are challenged by a country with rising public expectations, increasing innovation, improving quality, supply chain concerns, and heightened social and environmental problems.

Suffice to say, they are forced to chart their CSR course within a very complex and dynamic environment.

This situation is further complicated by NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in China which demand even greater CSR from both international and local companies operating here.

Yet ironically, what I will suggest is that NGOs themselves need to look inward and establish a better functioning system for their own social responsibility practices that is, good governance, more transparent activities and better accountability. While NGOs have achieved some successes in servicing the needs of the Chinese community, for many, their organizational foundations and practices can be questionable.

While growing activism has led to the increased growth of NGOs in China, interviews suggest that the motivation behind this increase is often related to personal gains and interests, not community welfare.

Therefore, issues of good governance, transparency and/or accountability are often not well considered in the NGOs' organizational foundations.

In fact, many local NGOs equate these terms with that of trust and honesty. Interestingly, there seems to be consensus among NGOs in China that social responsibility practices should not be an issue, because honesty and trust are the basis of the NGOs' work to begin with.

While trust and honesty are crucial factors for a better relationship with their constituents, it would seem naive on the part of NGOs to believe that social responsibility practices rest on these two characteristics, let alone, are immediately granted because they are NGOs.

This can be a troublesome situation, especially considering the often unequal relationship between the NGO as a service deliverer and the recipients of the service.

Take for example many Chinese NGOs operating in the social welfare sector.

Numerous studies in China suggest that many NGOs in this sector do not provide the best available care for their patients. Many NGOs do not even perceive their patients as having the right to the best available service.

Further, despite the poor quality of care given to patients, such as in homes for the mentally disabled, many patients and their guardians are afraid to complain to NGOs, fearing this may affect their treatment. Seemingly in these cases, the relationship between NGOs and patients may be seen as one that is hierarchical, where NGOs in China wield considerable power and patients are forced to restrain their concerns.

At core, I suggest that this situation may have developed due to the shaky individualistic foundations of many NGOs operating in the country. The founding of many Chinese NGOs is often the result of one individual's work. Social responsibility practices are often not at the forefront of concerns, leading to questions of collective benefit.

So how can local NGOs change this situation? It may be best that NGOs in China establish their own mechanisms, similar to guidelines for corporate social responsibility, to gain credibility in many of their initiatives.

This is ironic of course: The concepts of accountability, transparency and good governance that NGOs suggest international and local companies improve upon, are the very concepts that they themselves must now work on to gain better credibility.

Reza Hasmath is a Commonwealth Scholar in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge University.

(China Daily January 4, 2007)