Engaging Civil Society Organizations in Adolescent Reproductive Health Policy Process in Mainland of China

Abstract

This paperexploredhow Chinese civil society organizations (CSOs) had been involved in an adolescent reproductive health policy process and its implications for other developing countries with similar political and social contexts. The case study was the 6 th cycle of the Country Program on adolescent reproductive health (Jan. 2006-Dec. 2010). It was a multi-phased, retrospective qualitative study in Guangxi autonomous region. Six categories of policy actors including politician, CSO, policy-maker, health manager, development partner and researcher were interviewed, 34 documents were reviewed and 1 participatory stakeholder workshop was held between Jun. 2007 and Apr. 2008. We focused on different CSOs that had been involved in different stages of the policy process, what strategies they had used to interact with the policy process and how they influenced the content and implementation of the policy. Our results showed that new forms of CSOs in China were emerging, with different mechanisms being used to express their voice and influence the policy process. The involvements of CSOs in the adolescent reproductive health policy process also showed how new opportunities were arising in a rapidly changing Chinese political context, but various factors might affect their involvement in policy process. Critical amongst these were the characteristics of the CSOs, the wider political context of the country and the nature of the policy itself.