BEIJING — China will launch a three-year special campaign to boost the development of community-based non-profit organizations (NPOs), according to a guideline issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

During the campaign starting in 2021, efforts will be made to nurture the development of rural voluntary organizations to provide services to people with special difficulties, such as left-behind elderly persons and children, according to the guideline.

It also calls for training personnel across the country and further developing a standardized management system for such organizations in order to form a relatively mature working mechanism by 2023.

Community-based NPOs are initiated by residents of a community and mainly cater to their immediate needs such as providing help to neighbors, organizing cultural and sports activities, and providing technical services for production in rural areas.

China had nearly 400,000 such organizations as of the end of 2018.