Future directions for NRCC-I + China Office

A route map for more intentional and strategic collaboration

By Ryan Etzcorn and Rebeca Sandoval
April 2022

Why explore the intersections of the Ford Foundation’s Natural Resources & Climate Change
international program and its China in the World strategy? NRCC and CITW both operate in a context
that is characterized by China’s role in the financing of energy and resource-extraction projects outside
of its borders. In the past decade, Chinese finance and investments have expanded their presence in
multiple countries in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America, regions where Ford’s NRCC program also
has a presence. This poses challenges and opportunities for disrupting the drivers of inequality in local
contexts. We assume that if the NRCC and CITW teams work in a more intentional way, addressing a few
key opportunities, the collective impact of Ford’s grantmaking can be more powerful.

The goals of this exploration are to:

A. Understand where alignment and collaboration already exists
B. Elevate for discussion a set of themes that could form the basis of intentional
and strategic collaborative grantmaking

This landscape analysis is one input into a decision-making process. Program officer reflection on the
landscape analysis is another important input. Based on these inputs, the Directors will provide direction
and incentive to Program Officers to move these ideas forward.

NRCC thematic groups:

With the assumption that overlap may already exist,
although perhaps it has not always been intentional
or strategic, we examined existing work using the
lenses of NRCC’s three thematic groups and CITW
strategy outcomes.
Using Fluxx and grants databases and by holding
interviews with program officers and a sample of
nine grantee organizations, we identified four
themes that are the most salient for concentrating
future collaborative resources.
1. Corporate accountability and state capture
2. Just energy transition
3. Territorial rights and autonomy
CITW strategy outcomes
1. Finance and investment policy frameworks
2. Finance and investment capacities
3. Knowledge generation in the Global South
4. US-China relations
Global systems – both programs work at the nexus of
local and global systems. While not a pre-existing theme,
this emerged as a domain in which interviewees made
recommendations

The NRCC and China teams have collectively earmarked a total of $1 million USD to be deployed for
collaboration in 2022. This synthesizing document, or “route map”, is intended as a resource for the
China Office program staff and NRCC-I colleagues to make decisions about the possible uses of the
pooled funds and engage in more intentional and sustained collaborations going forward.
1. Just Energy Transition
There was a trend across regions and among Ford staff and grantee partners alike to perceive the just
energy transition as an issue earning growing attention and momentum. With the world heading into
an accelerated transition to renewable energy and fossil fuel phase-out, which opens its own set of
challenges to social justice and equality, Ford’s future work should take note of China’s growing role in
this crucial global issue.

Compared to other themes where powerful Chinese actors seem more cautious – like mandatory
information disclosure – these same Chinese institutions are taking more top-down initiative to
advance their image as world leaders in renewable energy and sustainability, which may generate new
prospects for climate justice and reducing inequality.

Ideas Emerging from the Research Relevant grantees and cases

Design a collaborative grant or commission a A diversity of stakeholders in the existing portfolio

consultancy to cultivate well-networked expert
talent pools on issues such as fossil fuel
mitigation, ESG finance, renewable energy, critical
mineral extraction, with the goal of promoting a
more positive role of Chinese actors in the just
energy transition across the Global South.
A coordinating grantee could function as a
“knowledge hub” connecting such a network
with both Global South and Global North
knowledge resources.
Design and support avenues for this network to
have access to key global institutions and fora;
emphasize participation of indigenous peoples
and local communities.
are currently working on the just transition (we
identified at least 19). A few examples include:
EITI, Beijing Institute of Finance and Sustainability,
Global Environmental Institute, Oil Change
International or the Nigerian Institute of
International Affairs. A broader set of partners is
referenced in the MURAL visual map.
The China-Africa Project and the Africa-China
Reporting Project may be a model for this type of
network with potential for expansion across the
Global South.
Traction Energy Asia noted the dire need for
Indonesian journalists with more advanced
knowledge of China.

Include a components that focus specifically on
the high-quality training of journalists to meet
specific strengths and needs expressed by Ford’s
existing grantee partners.
Global Energy Monitor expressed interest in
connecting with stakeholders globally to build a
consolidated “China energy hub”information
platform and to link the work of action-oriented
researchers with international media outlets with
the potential of reaching Chinese key audiences.
2. Corporate accountability
Corporate accountability represents a long-standing issue that program staff and grantees use to
frame their understanding of important work for the future. Accountability issues are not an exclusive
trait of Chinese actors: opaqueness, defective compliance with regulations and collusion are a
constant in the field and local governance issues add to the complexity of this theme. Although the
findings of this exploration zeroed in attention to China’s performance in other geographies,
adjudicating harmful behavior solely to Chinese investment would be erroneous.

Grantee partners perceived Chinese institutions as having made imperfect progress on information
disclosure and transparency in recent years. Some advances in mandatory environmental impact
disclosure have been witnessed recently; however, mandatory disclosure remains limited to only
select companies, or to issues like environmental pollution, and does not otherwise promote FPIC
standards.

Public ownership is more common in China’s “corporate” activity abroad, which may create entry
points for advocacy where problematic Chinese invested or operated projects threaten China’s
national reputation, but persistently opaque tendencies among Chinese companies and regulators
often deprive all parties involved the opportunity to avoid scandals in advance.

Ideas Emerging from the Research Relevant grantees and cases

Establish a pooled fund to support rigorous field
work to document pilot cases of positive
outcomes, in the reform or implementation of
regulations for instance, with the potential to
become the fundamental “blood” that is
ultimately circulated within various media or
secondary research outlets on corporate
accountability and state capture.
Of the 30 grantees mapped to this area of work,
these are a handful of examples: Business and
Human Rights Resource Centre, Cooperacción,
Publish What You Pay, Center for Transnational
Environmental Accountability, China Association
for NGO cooperation, and Global Witness. A
broader set of partners is referenced in the
MURAL visual map.

Grantee interviewees noted that field work has
fallen behind under Covid-19 travel restrictions
and on-the-ground evidence is critical for
corporate accountability as well as narrative
work.
Consider donor collaboratives that could
maximize impact.
Consider how regional or global institutions
might be invited to partner in generating or
disseminating field research results in multiple
languages.
DAR, GEI, and Syntao were among those in
agreement that meaningful mandatory
information disclosure remains a big challenge.
Latinoamérica Sustentable, DAR and ACCA
referred to the need to build better
understanding of corporate accountability-related
concepts that are installed in western institutions
(whether implemented or not) such as consent
and transparency by Chinese actors and in
Chinese narratives.
3. Capacities for accountable Chinese finance and
investment
The NRCC focus on corporate accountability can draw much-needed strength from the CITW strategic
focus on capacities for accountable Chinese finance and investment. Interviewees broadly reflected
that some of the greatest “wins'' in recent years regarding China’s positive role for mitigating social
inequality in the Global South had been at the policy level, with an array of new policies, guidelines,
and regulations issued by the top levels of Chinese government and industry associations. Other
positive impacts of Chinese finance and investment, such as employment creation or economic
growth, fall outside the scope of the collected reflections.

Despite these accomplishments, Chinese actors operating in the Global South remain unaware or
dismissive of non-binding Chinese policy measures. Meanwhile, the lack of nuanced understanding
about China, its governance, and its business practices leaves affected communities and their
advocates ill-equipped to build effective campaigns or constructive dialogues to translate policy into
reality.

Grantees across every region identified that the next great opportunity is to promote China’s role as a
responsible partner in socially and environmentally sustainable development and focus work on
addressing the persistent lack of implementation for these policies.

Ideas Emerging from the Research Relevant grantees and cases

Support key platforms connecting civil society inThe majority of the grantees analyzed in the
China and across the Global South to strengthen scope of this study are considered to have work
capacities on Chinese accountable finance and that connects to this area. This points to the
investment. overriding need to strengthen the capacities of
critical Chinese stakeholders (ie. regulators,
Grantee partners are especially hungry for banks, and companies) tasked with implementing
in-person networking after Covid-19 recovery. more accountable and sustainable policies while
simultaneously reinforcing well-informed and
A grant could sponsor civil society in multiple well-networked engagement from civil society
regions to co-create moving image or other media actors representing Global South communities.
forms better adapted to non-elite and
multilingual audiences, especially indigenous Traction Energy Asia, Oxfam Hong Kong, Global
peoples and local communities. Witness, LAS and ACCA were among those that
mentioned shortcomings in the implementation
Cross-regional workshops or the co-creation of of Chinese social and environmental
media could be based around the theme of investment/finance regulation on the ground.
producer-level commodity chains as a way for
Ford to explore this topic further. ACCA alluded to the need of having more
evidence of the broad range of impacts of
Chinese investment and financing including labor,
economic, and other social impacts.
4. Global Systems

Global venues
Chinese leaders continue to summon language emphasizing “multipolarity” and take more active
roles in leading multilateral institutions. Chinese grantees interviewed for this mapping especially
pointed to the useful role of such institutions in formulating frameworks and language (such as the
SDGs) that may be more effective for future work with Chinese actors. Traction Energy Asia and
Indonesian Ford program officers both pointed to the upcoming G20 meeting in Indonesia as an
opportunity for engagement.

A perspective engaging global systems serves as a foundation for any future NRCC-China
collaboration. Ford could be more intentional about situating NRCC-China joint work within global
frameworks like the SDGs, or to work through important regional structures, like the African Union,
ASEAN, or the ECLAC to better integrate emerging work on international cooperation and its goals to
enhance participation in global institutions.

We note a particular opportunity to come together around the G20 process as the G20 meeting will
be hosted in four Ford countries over the next four years: Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa and India.
The COP provides another important overarching global framework, or scaffolding, around which to
build work strategically. The next COP27 for instance, to be held in Egypt, opens a concrete
opportunity for engaging African partners at the continent level. Although not included in the
mapping (because the grants are only at the request stage) but highlighted by OWA’s program
officer, there is a possibility to foster collaboration between Africa Policy Research Institute and
African Climate Foundation, among other partners working on just energy transition issues, and the
opportunity to incorporate perspectives and expertise on Chinese investments and the role of China
as a critical actor in this space. There is an opportunity to use these spaces as a framework for
grantmaking over a four year period.

Commodity chains
This mapping also found a common call to action on Chinese-linked commodity chains among both
program officers and expert grantees. This is one concrete area where the relation between local and
global takes form. Palm oil, metals, timber, and agricultural products were repeatedly identified as
commodity chains that have powerfully adverse consequences on IPLCs across Global South regions.

Rather than expanding Ford’s focus to include work on consumer behavior; Global Environmental
Institute and other interviewees argued that Ford’s current emphasis on just energy transition,
corporate accountability, and accountable Chinese finance is necessarily intertwined with impact on
commodity chains at the finance and producer levels, and that these connections could be targeted
more intentionally.