Recently, Mr. Yang Ye, Deputy Secretary General of Shanghai Soong Ching Ling Foundation, attended the “Public Welfare of China” media training programme jointly organized by YICAI Foundation and Adream Foundation, and was invited as the keynote speaker to share his views on the topic of “Public welfare amid COVID-19”.

The year 2020 is an important year for China to complete the task of poverty alleviation. Amid COVID-19, the Chinese government decisively launched a comprehensive emergency management system. With intensive measures, the government effectively controlled the pandemic within a relatively short period of time and restarted socio-economic activities. This pandemic is a major test of China’s governance system and capacity, as well as an important evaluation of China’s public welfare organizations.

In this regard, Deputy Secretary General Mr. Yang Ye started with the creative topic “From Charity to Business Spectrum”, taking the example of Nestle’s “Dairy Farm Mode” to vividly depict the process from CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) to CSV (Creating Shared Value) – from the state of solving social problems or creating social value in one direction, to that of enhancing a company’s competitive advantage and meanwhile contributing to the economic and social development. It is the goal that today’s companies are trying to achieve with the integration of public welfare and business. Once the CSV (Creating Shared Value) becomes a common goal, a bond of trust will thus be forged, making it easier for public welfare organizations and businesses to work together when facing major emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic this year. Such trust actually occurs in the ongoing daily work, with a concentrated presentation of results during the pandemic. SSCLF, with dozens of special funds established jointly with enterprises, was entrusted by several enterprises during the pandemic. Thanks to SSCLF’s own public welfare network and social resources, a large amount of prevention materials have been delivered to the front line in time. From the third day of the Lunar New Year, all workers of SSCLF began the intense work of the comprehensive assistance in the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak. At the same time, SSCLF has also acted as a guide for enterprises to properly arrange the flow of resources for donations. For example, when the domestic pandemic went into remission with Wuhan lifting lockdown, and the demand for front-line supplies declined, SSCLF turned the focus to whether the resources originally planned to purchase prevention supplies could be invested in projects aiming at building capacity to deal with public health emergencies, or the training and reservation of talents for future responses to similar emergencies. Thus, enterprises and public welfare organizations will reflect on how to respond to the crisis more efficiently – not only concentrating on the public issues brought about by the public event, but also the business challenges of enterprises in the context of such public event.

Nearly 30 mainstream news outlets from across the country attended the week-long media training programme, achieving the goal of spreading basic knowledge of public welfare, improving public welfare reporting, and building a more open, healthy and orderly public opinion environment. Other invited sharing guests included Ms. Ma Yili, former director of Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau; Ms. Zheng Wen, deputy dean of School of Journalism, Fudan University; and Ms. Ye Ying, member of the International Committee of CFRE (Certified Fund Raising Executive). The first and second training programmes have been successfully held in 2018 and 2019. Later the organizers will continue to invite frontline public welfare organizations including SSCLF, senior scholars and practitioners in the field of public welfare to participate in lectures and discuss with media outlets the opportunities and challenges of public welfare development in China in the post-pandemic era.