The 1999 UNESCAP HRD Award winner, the All-China Youth Federation (ACYF), was founded in 1949, at the same time as the proclamation of the People's Republic of China. Over the fifty years of its existence, ACYF has grown to encompass youth organizations throughout China, and has also changed to reflect the changing nature of China's society and the changing issues facing Chinese youth. The Federation now includes 46 different youth organizations, including the Communist Youth League of China, the All-China Students' Federation, the Chinese Young Men's Christian Association, and the Chinese Young Entrepreneurs Association. Member groups also include 34 local youth organizations throughout China.

ACYF carries out a huge variety of programmes aimed at education and training for Chinese youth. Its daily newspaper, reaching millions, is one of the largest circulation dailies in China, and it also publishes a regular newsletter in English. The work of ACYF reaches every province in China, and includes such programmes as vocational training; leadership education; dissemination of information on youth rights; and environmental protection.

One of ACYF's most innovative member organizations is the Chinese Young Volunteers Association (CYVA). Established in 1994, CYVA coordinates exchange programmes between urban and rural communities, sending educated urban youth to spend six months to two years in poverty-stricken rural areas. The youth volunteers work as teachers in rural villages, helping to close the growing education gap between city and country. In one village, a volunteer physics teacher helped raise the national examination pass rate in her village from 25 per cent to 75 per cent in just one year. Another volunteer taught new fruit farming techniques in the same village, leading to drastic increases in yield. In CYVA's first year, 22 volunteers went to Shanxi Province, and the programme has grown rapidly since then. In the last five years, CYVA has posted 3,000 volunteers in 150 different project sites throughout China.

ACYF also has an extensive international exchange programme. It maintains exchange programmes with government youth groups, political party youth organizations, and non-governmental youth groups in more than 100 countries around the world. ACYF members benefit from these relationships by travelling to foreign countries every year to exchange views on youth policy formation and regional youth initiatives as well as learning about science and technology, management, environmental protection, and social and economic development.