Low sustainability, poor governance, and other challenges encountered by grassroots non-governmental organizations targeting HIV prevention for men who have sex with men in China – a nation-wide study

ABSTRACT

Grassroots non-governmental organizations (NGOs) played pivotal roles in HIV prevention among men who have sex with men (MSM) in China. Their governance and sustainability issues were under-studied. This nation-wide study surveyed leaders of 202 of the HIV related NGOs in China.58.4% of the leaders believed that their NGO would last for ≤5 years; which was negatively associated with perceived good relationship with CDC. 65.3% mentioned ≥3 non-sustainability issues; associated factors included perceived inadequacies in prevention skills, management skills, policy support, technical support, operational support, and CDC’s support; a reverse association was found for frequent collaboration with organizations in China. 30.6% of the leaders mentioned ≥7 governance issues; a stepwise model found a positive association with having no office and negative associations with number of full-time staff and core volunteers. These problems would severely limit the effectiveness of HIV prevention among MSM. Related improvements and support are warranted.

KEYWORDS:

• Grassroots non-governmental organization
• HIV prevention
• men who have sex with men
• sustainability
• governance

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all NGO leaders who participated in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study is supported by internal funding of Centre for Health Behaviours Research, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.