The Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau, also known as the Shanghai Administration of Social Organizations, is a department responsible for civil affairs under the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government.

Main responsibilities are as follows:

1. Implement laws, regulations, rules, guidelines, and policies related to civil affairs. Conduct research and drafting local regulations and rules on civil affairs, formulate relevant policies and plans, and oversee their implementation.

2. Manage social assistance programs. Enhance urban and rural social assistance systems, organize and implement programs such as subsistence allowances for urban and rural residents, support for extremely poor individuals, living assistance for families facing expenditure poverty, temporary assistance, comprehensive community assistance, and relief and aid for vagrants and beggars without means of support.

3. Conduct economic assessments of residents. Develop projects, standards, and implementation measures for evaluating residents’ economic conditions. Manage the process of assessing residents’ economic conditions and providing guidance for the establishment of assessment organizations. Conduct research and analysis on residents’ economic conditions.

4. Oversee social welfare initiatives. Provide guidance for the establishment and management of various social welfare facilities and services. Ensure the care and upbringing of orphans, guide the support systems for orphaned and abandoned children, and facilitate the reintegration and employment of adult orphans in society. Take the lead in ensuring support for children living in challenging circumstances, and coordinate efforts to provide care and protection for children left behind in rural areas. Promote the implementation of rehabilitation and assistance systems for disabled children.

5. Manage elderly services. Promote the development of a comprehensive social elderly service system. Supervise and manage institutional, community-based, and home-based services for the elderly. Provide guidance for the establishment and management of elderly service facilities, and offer assistance to elderly individuals facing particular difficulties.

6. Safeguard the rights and interests of people with disabilities. Implement the living allowance system for individuals with disabilities facing difficulties, as well as the care allowance system for severely disabled individuals. Reassess the inclusion of urban and rural severely disabled individuals in the basic medical security system. Promote the growth of the rehabilitation assistance devices industry. Coordinate the centralized employment of people with disabilities according to relevant division of labor.

7. Oversee charity work. Register (identify) and manage charitable organizations. Supervise and inspect charity activities, and lawfully manage charitable fundraising activities. Provide guidance to charitable organizations and facilitate the disclosure and sharing of charity information, as well as commendation of charitable initiatives.

8. Lead the development of grassroots political power and community building. Promote grassroots democracy and guide the establishment of grassroots self-governance mechanisms. Organize the election of residents’ committees (or villagers’ committees). Spearhead the construction of community worker teams. Collaborate with relevant departments to advance the co-governance of sub-district communities. Provide guidance for the construction of community service systems, collaborate with relevant departments to develop community service policies, and lead the standardization of community affairs handling and service centers.

9. Administer relevant work and voluntary services of occupational social workers. Collaborate with relevant departments to nurture, develop, and manage occupational social workers and their professional organizations. Enhance the construction of professional social work talent teams and guide and coordinate professional social work in various fields. Work with relevant departments to promote the development of volunteer programs.

10. Manage administrative divisions and their names. Examine and approve the establishment, cancellation, adjustment, renaming, and boundary line changes of villages, towns, and sub-districts, as well as government residence relocations. Oversee the boundary lines of administrative divisions. Review and submit administrative division names for approval. Provide guidance for the establishment, cancellation, renaming, and naming of residents’ committees (or villagers’ committees).

11. Manage marriage registration and adoption registration. Provide guidance for residents’ marriage registration and adoption registration processes. Handle marriage and adoption registration involving foreign residents, residents from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, as well as overseas Chinese. Promote reforms in marriage customs.

12. Oversee funeral and interment work. Drive the reform and standardization of the funeral and interment industry, ensuring the regulation of funeral and interment service providers.

13. Register, manage, cultivate, and develop social organizations. Register and supervise the establishment, changes, and cancellations of social organizations. Collaborate with relevant departments to provide guidance and services to social organizations. Promote standardization and the construction of a credit system for social organizations. Assist social organizations in establishing their respective Party organizations. Coordinate the comprehensive management of social organizations. Guide the registration of mass activity teams and manage social organizations involved in foreign affairs.

14. Manage welfare lotteries. Plan and approve the establishment of welfare lottery sales networks. Supervise the sales activities of welfare lottery agents and the announcement of lottery results. Manage and oversee the use of public welfare funds generated from welfare lotteries.

15. Plan and coordinate work related to social construction. Conduct research and propose policies and suggestions for strengthening social construction. Supervise, urge, and evaluate social construction initiatives. Summarize and promote exemplary experiences in social construction.

16. Take charge of administrative law enforcement and law enforcement supervision related to civil affairs. Organize investigations and enforcement actions in accordance with the law to address relevant illegal cases. Implement the safety production responsibility system for the civil administration industry. Provide guidance, coordination, supervision, and management of safe production in the civil administration industry.

17. Perform any other tasks assigned by the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government.

18. Carry out function transformation. Strengthen and improve urban and rural community governance. Enhance the governance system and level, address governance shortcomings, and increase the intelligence level of community governance. Promote the reform of the social organization management system, ensure the healthy and orderly development of social organizations, and accelerate the establishment of a modern social organization system. Build a social welfare system that s with the requirements of the new era. Establish a comprehensive “five-in-one” social elderly service system and further enhance social welfare policies for children, the disabled, and other special groups. Upgrade the social assistance system, advocate for the legalization of social assistance work, foster the development of charitable undertakings, and strengthen the guarantee for civil affairs. Establish an efficient and convenient social service system, with a focus on streamlining community affairs through initiatives such as “city-wide unified processing,” “unified online processing,” and “one-certificate processing.” Deepen the reform of funeral and interment services, aim to improve their quality, and enhance the standards of marriage and adoption services.

19. Share relevant duties and responsibilities with the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission. The Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau is responsible for comprehensive planning, promotion, supervision, urging, guidance, and management of services for the elderly. This includes drafting local regulations, rules, policies, plans, and standards for the construction of the elderly service system and organizing their implementation. The bureau also provides benefits for the elderly and offers assistance to those facing specific difficulties. The Shanghai Municipal Health Commission is responsible for formulating policy measures to address the challenges posed by an aging population and integrate medical services with pension services. The commission comprehensively coordinates, supervises, urges, guides, organizes, and promotes the development of elderly-related initiatives. This includes preventive and curative measures for age-related diseases, medical care for the elderly, psychological health and care services for the elderly, as well as other health-related work concerning the elderly.