Volunteerism for development

Volunteerism and the Millennium Development Goals

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will require the ingenuity, solidarity, and creativity of millions of ordinary people through voluntary action. Efforts on the part of national governments, supported by the international community, can only complement what ultimately will depend on the full involvement of people all over the world. Six billion people have something to contribute. Recognising this fact is the first step on the road towards harnessing this vast resource in a global effort to meet the MDG targets.

1. The millennium Development Goals (MDGs) can only be achieved with the full involvement of people all over the world. Citizens need to take ownership of the Goals and use their ingenuity and creativity if absolute poverty is to be reduced by 2015. Efforts on the part of national governments to meet MDG targets, even when supported by the international community, will have limited impact without significant volunteer contributions. Citizen involvement is both an imperative and an opportunity, and volunteerism – when adequately supported and promoted – can be a highly effective channel through which such action can be mobilized.
2. The International Year of Volunteers (IYV) 2001 created global awareness about the massive contribution that individuals make to development through action taken on a voluntary basis. Whether expressed as volunteer service, mutual aid and self-help, campaigning or other forms of voluntary participation, the willingness and ability of people to give freely of their time out of a sense of solidarity will have a major influence on the extent to which the MDGs are attained and sustained. IYV 2001 also highlighted the need to plan strategically for volunteer involvement and for channeling volunteer effort towards activities that have a high impact on the living conditions of the more disadvantaged members of society.
3. Volunteers all over the world are helping to create awareness about the imperative of meeting the MDGs and the ways and means by which everyone, individually or through collective action, can contribute. International Volunteer Day (IVD) on 5 December of each year provides a rallying point for organisations and individual volunteers to express their support for the MDGs and to consider ways to help achieve the targets. Volunteers are being called upon to support capacity development at all levels, in particular at the grassroots, so that citizens can play a fuller role in addressing poverty issues.
4. The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is the UN organization that promotes volunteerism for development (V4D). Its work includes the assignment each year of over 8000 skilled and experienced women and men to support a broad range of development programmes, which contribute to achieving the MDGs in some 140 countries around the world. They are drawn from 174 countries, over two thirds in developing regions. The Programme provides a unique window of opportunity for qualified global citizens, whatever their origins, to share their expertise and to demonstrate solidarity with, and support for, the aspirations of the Millennium Declaration.
5. UNV has the experience and a number of assets to draw on in helping to ensure that the power of volunteerism is recognised and properly supported as a force for development. These include:
   • Being a special programme of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and working in close collaboration with its extensive network of country offices throughout the developing world;
   • Enjoying close partnerships with the United Nations and most of the organisations, funds and programmes of the UN as well as with international and national volunteer involving organisations and volunteer networks; Participating in a global volunteer network including the over 8000 UN Volunteers;
   • Running an Online Volunteering Programme (co-founded in partnership with NetAid and fully managed by UNV since 2004) that, since its launch in 2000, has seen some 40,000 people sign on.
   • Managing the World Volunteer Web, a global volunteering portal housing a growing data base of information resources that can be used for campaigning, advocacy, networking and operational activities;
   • Possessing know-how in running a global campaign demonstrated by its recognized success as focal point of the International Year of Volunteers (IYV 2001) and its follow-up.
6. Beyond the mobilisation of volunteers the UNV programme promotes volunteerism in a variety of other ways including: piloting projects which demonstrate innovate practices in promoting V4D, in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University supporting to efforts to measure the economic contribution of voluntary action at country level and having this reflected in the system of national accounts; identifying and sharing experiences in the field of volunteerism; promoting capacity development for national volunteer centres and volunteer service schemes; advising on enabling fiscal and legislative frameworks; and fostering the creation of training infrastructure for organisations to introduce and enhance volunteer opportunities for citizens. Partners with global outreach beyond the UN system include the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Inter Parliamentary Union and the International Association for Volunteer Effort.