Mateo, to continue your and Simone's reasoning
You write that the first and foremost thing we need to work on first is the identification of the problem. What is the main issue we are looking for in our community? Does it address everyone's problem?

Yes ... that's absolutely right. But you go on to write about the failure of these attempts. And the problem is, if you ask the question from your texts who are WE ? and who do WE need to look for a common problem ? The answer is this: it is the work of a volunteer center, whose task, together with all stakeholders, is to identify the problems that exist in a given local community and contribute to solving them, involving more people who care about this or that problem. And when such a volunteer center starts working in a local community, the answer to the question: who are WE? It is the VC and all its surroundings. This is the idea of volunteer center, which builds its work in full cooperation with NGOs, business, media and authorities, as an open platform for identifying problems and involving more people to participate in solving them. The VC is a very strong idea that Kenn Allen helped me to understand and promote many years ago.

Simone, thank you, but there is no contradiction here, because volunteer centers (VC) can be created on the basis of NGOs, as well as youth volunteer centers in educational institutions. Simply, if the VC is created on the basis of NGOs, it only changes its mission, on the basis of which its work is restructured, which will not require additional costs. If we talk about the main difference between an ordinary NCO and a volunteer center (the legal form of the VC is also an NCO), the usual NCOs are problem-oriented organizations, and the VCs are socially-oriented. That is, an NGO is aimed at solving the problem that it is concerned, and the VC is aimed at the entire community, in whose territory it operates, wanting to involve as many people as possible in solving the problems that concern them and thereby makes its significant contribution to solving community problems. This idea fully corresponds to youth VCs in educational institutions, where the main task of VCs is to involve as many students as possible in volunteer work. Thus, involved volunteers create a huge added value and increase the sustainability of communities.

Thank you Simone for supporting this point of view about the role of volunteer centers that, working in a network (from local to global) around the world, could really mobilize volunteers on a mass scale to participate in the processes of achieving the SDGs, which in the Decade of Action 2030 is extremely relevant.
And it especially concerns the involvement of volunteers at the local level, where many people express a desire to participate in volunteer activities, but due to the lack of a place (volunteer center) where they can offer themselves to help others, do not participate in it. For example, in Russia, according to 2018 data, such potential volunteers up to 50%. It is the volunteer centers that will help to choose an organization in accordance with the interests of potential volunteers and to select an organization in the activities of which they can participate.
Indeed, the most developed experience of creation and activity of volunteer centers is in the USA, the UK and other countries. And the most extensive experience of creation and activity of volunteer centers is spread by IAVE. Now it is in great demand

To wrap up, some of my takeaways:
Be big on engaging schools, from lower levels to universities:
Maybe on the former, lower levels of education, there is less evidence and less practices but linking everything up with efforts taken by UNESCO on global citizenship and education for sustainable development, can be big win if we are able to mainstream, simplify and spread best practices through all encompassing partnerships. For universities, there is huge potential, a lots of stuff, is happening already but I think many small local universities in emerging and developing countries, still do not have the grasp or technical understanding to invest in volunteering initiatives but surely initiatives are there, no doubt.
Moreover working with school would allow us to link “mainstreaming, traditional” volunteering with activism….
Bringing forward the discussions on informal, grassroots level volunteering:
Here UNV is breaking ground and experts like Bianca could really provide incredible insights, perhaps creating a learning framework where we learn from what already exist in the communities. Perhaps a standard ( woow, tough word) or a better understanding on how to practice supportive justice could make total sense.
Incentives…
There were some relevant and interesting examples, it is not going to be easy to find the right balance but I think it is important because these are ways to enlarge the net and have more and more volunteers, especially among those who never volunteer before, after all we should “mobilize everyone, everywhere”….
Inclusion
Here we need to be really creative and imaginary, sports can play an important role. This would be a good way to “Going Together”….
Localizing the SDGs through Volunteering
This is probably more related to the 2nd discussion group but still it is a big idea. Very few are getting the thing of localizing SDGs and perhaps it is our fault in the developing sector to make things more complicated than they really are…I think this is one of the best way of “Going Faster”
Then on “Going further”: it will be great again for UNV to enable such discussion in the future, it will be really good.
BIG THANKS FOR THE Boram, Katrina and Tom for allowing such discussions

Hello everyone! Thank you very much for this knowledge exchange platform. I would like to share with you some insights on how we have incorporated an innovation focus in the development of UNICEF Nicaragua’s volunteering strategy.

At the beginning of 2018, UNICEF launched a Global Volunteer Initiative to support Country Offices in designing context-driven volunteering strategies. With punctual experiences working with group of students, UNICEF Nicaragua decided to be part of this initiative and seize the opportunity to structure its approach of volunteering and to innovate at a programmatic level. To do so, in March 2018, UNICEF Global Volunteer Office team came to Nicaragua and ran a workshop to build UNICEF Nicaragua’s volunteering strategy. At this early stage, three key elements of any innovation process were contemplated.

First, the volunteering strategy was designed to generate an added value in comparison with business-as-usual approaches; in other words, an acceleration of results for children had to be observed.

Second, users were brought to the designing phase of the strategy. Besides the UNICEF Nicaragua’s Programme team, four University students – the target audience – participated in the designing workshop of the strategy, interviews were conducted by UNICEF Nicaragua staff to students and concepts were prototyped and tested in a University. These efforts guaranteed that the users’ insights, vision and expectations were at the center of the strategy design process - also known as Human-centered design.

Finally, from the very beginning, although a low-scale demonstrative phase was planned, UNICEF Nicaragua’s volunteering strategy has been built with the perspective to be implemented at scale in the future.

Concretely, within a horizontal triangular relationship between UNICEF, the volunteers (University students) and their Universities, the methodology facilitated to support the volunteer groups in designing and implementing their projects is an adaptation of UPSHIFT (https://www.unicef.org/innovation/upshift). Attractive for young people and based on human-centered design concepts, it constitutes an excellent tool to develop the volunteers’ skills and elaborate innovative community interventions(https://www.unicef.org/nicaragua/media/1936/file/Manual%20Voluntariado%20UNICEF.pdf). For example, after a series of trainings, one of the volunteer groups designed specific games to transmit to children from a vulnerable community of Nicaragua’s capital Managua, self-care messages to prevent sexual violence.

Besides programmatic results and partnership aspects, the volunteering strategy has successfully tested an intensive engagement model. Beyond traditional participation schemes, the initiative has allowed for forming young change agents who express a high level of commitment with UNICEF mandate.

Raaida Hi,

I want to continue the discussion of your ideas on the first aspect. I agree that human needs should be at the forefront, but I suggest that we look at this aspect from a different perspective. And indeed, to help people in need in solving their problems, in particular, volunteer organizations, whose unique mission is to solve this or that social problem, are called upon. But human needs consist not only in the desire to get help to solve a social problem. I mean that no less important are people's needs to help other people, that is, the desire to be volunteers. And as we know, the involvement of people in volunteer activities is done by volunteer centers, whose mission is to involve more people in volunteer activities to participate in the work of other organizations. Thus, volunteer centers and, first of all, local centers are designed to create conditions and opportunities for people to find a place for their volunteer efforts in their local community. Thus, the more volunteers will be involved in the activities of organizations of social, environmental or other orientation, i.e. in connection with a particular SDG, the more sustainable local communities and society as a whole will become, contributing to the achievement of the SDGs. It is in the setting and implementation of a large-scale task of involving more volunteers in volunteer activities in connection with the SDGs, which can be implemented through the creation of a network of volunteer centers (the main elements of the volunteer infrastructure), that an innovative approach to understanding of volunteerism as a gas pedal of the processes of achieving the SDGs.

Dear Boram and Katrina, dear all, thank you for all the interesting messages in this debate, reading which makes realize that every country has unique achievements and opportunities to be used in other countries.
In order to accelerate the processes for achieving the SDGs, it is up to all of us together to ensure that the activities and contributions of volunteers are most fully manifested at all levels (from community to global), recognized, valued and measured, leaving no one behind.

Here I will present my view of the big ideas and approaches for the "Decade of Action 2030," which I think should come from the global call of GTM, including, among the main ones, the following:
- Developing a global, national, and community dialogue about volunteerism as a key accelerator of SDGs processes;
- Creating an enabling environment (removing barriers) for volunteering (formal and informal) and linking it to the SDGs;
- Improvement of methods for measuring quantitative indicators of citizen participation in volunteer activities and volunteers' contribution to GDP and to SDGs
Based on the Russian experience, which may be useful for other countries, I would like to show the role, relevance and universality of these approaches with respect to volunteering as an accelerator of the achievement of the SDGs. (this review was prepared based on the analysis of open sources, as well as my knowledge and experience at the national, local level in Russia and at the global level as a member of the IAVE Global Network of Volunteering Leadership

A brief situational (critical) analysis. In recent years in Russia there has been a steady growth in the number of citizens involved in volunteer activity, made possible by the unification of public and state efforts and a targeted state policy in the field of volunteerism. Among the basic measures of the state support of volunteering we shall mention: changes in the legislation on volunteering; adoption of the Concept of development of volunteering in Russia till 2025 (the Concept); development and introduction of standards of support of volunteering; creation of the uniform information system "Dobro.ru"; annual all-Russian contests and forums on recognition of volunteers; financial means for support of volunteer projects and many other things. According to the data given in the Concept, in 2018 15% of adult citizens confirmed their participation in volunteer activities. At the same time, it is noteworthy that up to 50 percent of respondents, expressed their willingness to volunteer, but did not participate in it, indicating the presence of barriers to volunteerism. Thus, the efforts of a large part of potential volunteers remain unclaimed and unrealized. It must be concluded that in order to significantly build volunteer capacity to achieve national goals in alignment with the SDGs, all barriers to formal and informal volunteerism must be removed. Thus, rethinking the role of volunteerism in society as a key resource for achieving the SDGs should be one of the important challenges for Russia in the upcoming 2030 Decade of Action.

Consider how the proposed big ideas and approaches can contribute to change ?

1. Given that the contribution of volunteers is a key resource and an accelerator for achieving the SDGs, dialogue on rethinking the role of volunteerism is essential and new relevance at the global, national and local levels. Such dialogue is necessary to significantly raise awareness of the SDGs among citizens, NGOs, other organizations, and policymakers. Thus, while the level of awareness of volunteerism in Russia has significantly increased in the past few years as a result of public and governmental efforts, the public awareness of the SDGs and, all the more so, of the role of volunteerism as an accelerator in the processes of achieving the SDGs is very low, except for a small number of NGOs and business organizations, and even more so, for those who are aware of the inseparable connection between volunteering and the SDGs. Examples of the state's underestimation of the role of volunteerism in achieving the SDGs include the fact that the annual state reports on the development of volunteerism in Russia do not include any mention of the role of volunteerism in relation to the SDGs. Another example is the lack of involvement and consideration of the opinions of volunteers and volunteerism experts in the preparation of the Volunteer National Review (VNR), as a result of which the role and impact of volunteerism on the achievement of the SDGs was underrepresented in the VNR- 2020.
Сonclusion. An extensive dialogue on rethinking the role of volunteerism through the UNV, VGA, IAVE, IFRC platforms will significantly raise awareness of volunteerism in relation to the SDGs and bring volunteers together globally, nationally and locally to achieve it.


2. Improvement / revision of national legislation is caused by the need to create a favorable environment for volunteering (formal and informal). The following main gaps in the Russian legislation are among the problems that need to be addressed as soon as possible: 1) volunteerism in Russia from 1995 to the present is legally defined as a form of charity, which is a serious barrier preventing the implementation of volunteerism on a broader scale and the understanding of volunteerism as a powerful way of strengthening solidarity and civic participation; 2) lack and/or inconsistency in legislation of basic concepts related to volunteerism, their inconsistency with the fundamental international concepts of the UN (ILO, UNW); 3) informal volunteer activity is not defined by legislation, not enough studied and therefore not included in official statistics; 4) in legislation on labor (Labor Code) there are no norms about volunteerism, while ILO defines volunteerism as a form of volunteer labor; recognizes it as the most common form of unpaid labor within the non-profit sector.
As a result of these and other gaps in legislation, the potential and contribution of volunteering is clearly underestimated and under-represented in socio-economic indicators and in the processes of achieving the SDGs. Adoption of a basic (framework) law on volunteering which includes fundamental concepts and conceptual approaches based on the values of global volunteering in line with UN recommendations (ILO, UNV) will contribute to creation of a coherent system of volunteering legislation at national and global levels and an enabling environment for volunteering; building national volunteering policies in line with the SDGs.


3. The need to improve Russia's national methods of measuring the quantitative indicators of citizens' involvement in volunteer activities and volunteers' contribution to GDP and SDGs is caused by the existence of methodological and statistical problems in measuring the quantitative indicators of volunteerism.
Thus, in Russia the quantitative data on volunteers provided by state statistics, federal agencies and leading Russian research centers differ significantly from each other, which often raises doubts about their correctness and reliability. The main reasons for this situation, in our view, are: 1) lack of unified methodology of measurement and evaluation of volunteers' activity; 2) non-compliance of the tools and methods applied by Russian researchers with universal approaches and methods of ILO; 3) disconnection of state statistical agencies with the organizations developing volunteering, civil society institutions, academic and research centers.
Conclusion and recommendations: Establishment at the national level of consultative bodies to bring together representatives of government agencies, state statistics system, research centers, organizations involving volunteers, civil society institutions, academic institutions to develop and implement common methods and approaches to the measurement of volunteerism based on international definitions and methods of measuring volunteering, consistent or comparable with the methods and provisions of the 19th ICLS resolution.

Blockchain holds great potential for UNV and in supporting volunteering for the SDGs. A blockchain powered system component to capture volunteer hours deemed in furtherance of the global SDGs could accelerate SDG contribution of both onsite UN Volunteers and Online Volunteers. Global SDG accredited hours stored in users value vaults (wallet) as blockchain utility tokens is a viable technology that is currently available on the market and already being incorporated into Online Volunteering (www.onlinevolunteering.org) opportunities capturing volunteer hours on blockchain that are negotiated between the Host Entity and the Online Volunteer;  UN Volunteers serving with UN Host Entities have their hours captured on blockchain that could potentially be scaled-up to other partner organizations such as the Federation for the Red Cross and Red Crescent Society

3) A new initiative on promoting Sustainable Education, Mission 4.7 (based on the SDG target focused on Sustainable Education) I think volunteering could be a great tool to promote it. Former Secretary General Ban Kim Moon is one of the promoters. It is also a way to remind ourselves that volunteering is a tool at disposal of many areas/sectors….and well sustainable education is simply a BIG DEAL and too often neglected…

https://www.mission4point7.org/
https://www.unsdsn.org/mission-4-7-a-global-initiative-to-achieve-sdg-target-4-7-to-be-launched-at-the-vatican-youth-symposium-on-december-16

hope it will help
simo

2) An op-ed piece of the Executive Director of UN Habitat, Maimunah Mohd Sharif that basically introduces a new Report by UN Habitat “Cities and Pandemics – towards a more just, green and healthy future”. I did not read it yet and I am not sure if it covers or links with volunteering but it would make total sense
She says: “Local leadership needs to ensure all sections of society are involved in discussions on preventing COVID-19, including the marginalized and those living in informal settlements. Once vaccines are available, full participation of all community groups will be essential in planning effective and equitable distribution”
https://unhabitat.org/opinion-piece-by-executive-director-on-how-cities-can-build-a-healthier-future-for-all

Hello everybody, today a bit of sharing of some interesting stuff I found on the net:
1) An article from the New York Times that basically says that volunteering could really enhance the health and wellbeing of persons, especially the elders. Basically it is the story of how a retired citizen was missing out volunteering during the pandemic.
It ends with this:
“Last year, an elderly woman staying at the homeless shelter pulled me aside to thank me after I handed her a lunch of tomato soup and a turkey sandwich. She set down her tray, took my hand, looked me smack in the eye and asked, “Why do you do this?”
She was probably expecting me to say I do it to help others because I care about those less fortunate than me. But that’s not what came out.
“I do it for myself,” I said. “Being here makes me whole.”
Here the link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/health/volunteering-health-benefits.html

My name is Daniel Newton Obaka. I am the Co-founder of the Global Integrated Education Volunteers Association (GIEVA). We want to share a GIEVA Volunteer-Ambassador Programs which we plan to implement in the first quarter of 2021. Post COVID 19 Era calls for constructive and sustainable partnership platforms that mobilize people to see that "it is better to give than to receive

When the Global Integrated Education Volunteers Association(GIEVA) started operation 2006, as non-governmental organization, we discover that there were little or no no platforms to inspire volunteers to engage in the noble cause of community-centered services for common good. Creating and reimagining a model to inspire the army of unemployed and under-employed university graduates, the GIEVA-Volunteers-Ambassador Program(GVAP) was started with the following objectives:
• Engage the unemployed and under-employed armies of university, polytechnics, secondary school graduates in science, technology, engineering. & mathematics (STEM) to acquire practical training and gain job skills through the volunteering scheme in readiness for effective workforce participation.
• Mobilize the unemployed and under-employed university graduates towards green agro-allied innovation, clean energy, biomedical sciences, and information technology through appropriate mentoring and training in readiness for internship and gainful employments with partner organizations.

The GIEVA Volunteer-Ambassador Program (GVAP) enables Volunteer -Ambassadors to share stories about GIEVA Organization’s current educational impacts and its potential for long term socio-economic transformation for common good.
GVAP represents GIEVA Organization as volunteers and ambassadors to share this vision and inspire others to do the same. They are the ambassadors to call on and invite others for support.
GVAP mobilizes and trains the children of the common farmers and extreme poor families in the underserved rural communities to engage in constructive education for change.
GVAP is the CITIZEN Response Group – A Frontline volunteers for Common Good.

At not-for-profit GIEVA organization, our mission is preparing and inspiring new generation of African youth for constructive engagement and empowerment for sustainable future in the service of humanity through networking, partnership, educational & cultural exchange, advocacy, and volunteerism.
Our Volunteering adventures engage expert instructors, business/community leaders, and mentors to provide extraordinary access that inspires and stimulates passion for volunteering among new generation of youth and generate friendship among people for whom volunteering is a building bridge between the community and the volunteers for common good.
The mission of the Volunteer-Ambassador Program:
• To identify corporate organizations, individuals, business companies, non-governmental organizations, and government agencies to Inspire young people to see the world with positive vision and imbibe a mindset to build a sustainable society for common good through volunteering, mentoring, and advising.
• To share their experiences with their peers and colleagues about GIEVA Organization and how the organization empower young Africa leaders through education, volunteering, and entrepreneurial building.

Purpose:
Through Volunteering involvements in the community, and personal interactions, Volunteers/Ambassadors promote GIEVA Organization’s empowering education advising and mentoring through self-giving and service in their local communities and beyond with the goal of preparing them to become inspired to recognize the value of volunteering and acquire job skills for common good.

Volunteer/Ambassador Requirements:

Attend two seminar/workshop programs, preferably one domestic and one international via online delivery

Complete/sign Volunteers/Ambassador Agreement Application form to:

Serve a minimum of one-year commitment
• Participate in GIEVA Volunteers/Ambassador Webinars
• Have digital online access

GIEVA Volunteer-Ambassador Benefits

GVAP Mileage Reimbursement
GIEVA Organization will reimburse Volunteer-Ambassador for mileage to and from speaking engagements and other events or activities.
GIEVA Organization will reimburse for all expenses of events organized by Volunteer-Ambassador to promote GIEVA Organization in the community
GIEVA Volunteer-Ambassador Credits
1. Program Credit for Names of Partner 4-Year College/University Added to the Mailing List
Upon submitting the names of presentation attendees, Volunteer-Ambassadors will have the opportunity to be awarded Volunteer-Ambassador Credits with each credit points equivalent to $1.00:

Each International Partner School Admission with potential for admission application fee waiver, opportunities for gaining partial or full scholarship for academically outstanding international students earns 50 credit points

Each name of supporter of GIEVA Organization programs and services earn 50 credit points

Each new name obtained to be on GIEVA Organization Supporter Mailing List either in the course of presentations or one-on-one sharing about GIEVA Organization’s activities and programs during the year earn 5 credit points subject to a maximum of 100 persons in a year.

Program Credit for Blogging
Start a Blog that will link to the GIEVA Organization website or post a program review to receive a 25 credit points

Credit for GIEVA Organization Alumni Formation.
Alumni Group with a minimum enrollment of 15 active members and meets to discuss GIEVA Organization issues 5-10 in a year earns, the GIEVA Volunteer Ambassador Award.
Credit for Staffing Institution Outreaches Program, and Volunteer Initiatives
Presentation at Institution Outreach programs with not less than 25 students earns a special award.

The Friends and Family Incentive:
Active GIEVA Volunteer- Ambassadors who have achieved the goal of adding 10 households to the mailing list are eligible for the GIEVA Organization Friends and Family (FF) Benefit.
FF is profiled and included on GIEVA Organization website
FF gets discounts for all educational services offered by GIEVA Organization to members of the family and recommended students.
FF is offered free holistic educational advising and mentoring to only household members
Annual Award for Friends and Family of GIEVA Organization in Diamond, Gold, Silver Support categories.

Traditional model of volunteering and innovations for the SDGs
The discussions and experiences shared on this platform have been fascinating especially the examples on how communities and organizations have embraced different models of volunteering to advance human progress. I would like to bring in, a related focus on informal models of volunteering and how they can be transformed to scaled for the sustainable development agenda.
To start with, I am both fascinated and equally frustrated by the discourse of volunteering especially from my region which comes with volumes of acclamation that volunteering has been part of the DNA of pre to modern day society. That volunteering was so powerful and transformative, that it can change the course of history and presents a multiplier effect for solidarity and cooperation, my frustration!!!
There are different volunteering models such as Ubuntu (South Africa), Harambe (Kenya) and Zunde raMambo (Zimbabwe) among others yet it’s difficult to pin down evidence on how these informal volunteering models can be adapted to scale in development and for the SDGs in particular.
If these informal volunteering models has always been part of our pre-existence and have been the default form of social contract and solidarity in the community, are in abundance, unlimited, so where is the missing link, why are they missing from our planning manuals and public policies. Why are they not ‘naturally’ informing planning and implementation of different development goals and agenda?
Usually, I end up with many questions with no answers:
• What innovations are needed to transform informal models/practices of volunteering so that they can be used and appropriated alongside other development resources in public policy and development plans;
• Why can we not reference these rich volunteering roots and leverage them into a transformative force for the SDGs and other development objectives;
• Why have these models and infact volunteering remained only as a point of circumstantial reference without tangible and concrete attribution in development;
• In terms of scale, informal models of volunteering have remained limited in scale and probably one reason why planners don’t go ‘volunteering’ in the first instance when they are on the planning board!
• Is volunteering being impacted negatively by government policies and practices in development?’
Despite this rather gloomy picture, there is resonance and agreement that volunteering has been part of humanity and is a powerful means of cooperation. But then, how do we make it the tool we want with respective to service?
Trends are pointing to the need to revisit, reimagine and recalibrate these forms of informal volunteering into innovative and creativity models that can impact on service!
An example of a small scale yet powerful informal volunteering model comes to mind. Not so many years ago, the Soroti community of the Ateso ethic grouping in Eastern Uganda, fade-up from years of high level crime rates including those perpetrated on women and young girls warmed up to the idea of a protection and security volunteer action group (VAG). The VAG committee comprised equal representation of youth (girls and boys); women, persons with disability and men who sat under a fig tree every month to receive reports of any form of crimes committed in the community. The committee would then coordinate with law enforcement agents for follows- up. In a short time, crimes had reduced tremendously. This form of a spontaneous and informal volunteering model has since been replicated in other adjacent communities with impact and in other instances, transformed and supported into what is now called neighborhood watch committees. But here comes yet another dichotomy: where do we draw the line in as far as transforming and supporting informal volunteering, a practice that has always survived on its own steam for years?
Writing from the global south, many countries relate to one form or another of informal volunteering. I would like to solicit your views on how we can reimagine informal volunteering models so that they can be picked and applied in different development context including the SDGs and help to solve some of the complex development challenges that we face in our times.
------------------------------

Hello everybody, just some ideas for the day:

One thing I realized is that is important to create a momentum beyond the IVD, like keeping the “buzz” going on. Rather than just do an incredible prep work for 2 months before the 5th of December, it is essential to have activities, even small throughout the year. Obviously UNV has a big role to play here.

Second, one emerging issue is the importance to work with schools. This is huge or better GIGANTIC task.


Third, the issue raised by Bianca, “Supportive solidarity” working with communities, “listening more, stepping back”, this would be essential to come up with some sort of principles, does it make sense or instead are we at risk of solidifying and stratifying what we want to try to “eliminate”? I think Bianca here can provide lots of ideas.
Forth, this community has a huge potential for growth, this I think it was the first time UNV opened a space for debating and this is really GREAT, so maybe this could become something more permanent, dynamic and "live".

Hello Katrina and Boram, sorry for the intrusion but it would be great if we manage to invite to the discussions more folks from countries who still are not more represented here. For example, Japan, South Korea, Singapore...India, Philippines who have a big volunteering infrastructure ….Maybe a targeted mailing to few of the practitioners. Hope you do not mind....

Hello everyone,
I am Ify Eneanya from Nigeria. I am thankful to be a part of this online conversation. Also, thanks to the moderators for this great conversation. Part of my contributions on this very interesting topic would be promoting a basic understanding and inclusion on volunteerism. Let people know the reason why they volunteer and what they volunteer for. In order to achieve this, volunteerism needs to be brought down to the community level since the aim of the SDGs is to bring in development where it is lacking especially at the local levels. The people at this level needs to be part of volunteering activities and programs. This will help them better understand what volunteerism is. I believe that when the people have the opportunities and are taught about it, they will do better.

Also, volunteerism should be inculcated in children and youths. Volunteer programs should be institutionalized in school curriculums at the community level. This will enable the children and youths have a sense of participation and ownership. In this regard, volunteerism can become a part of their culture where they can act as their own advocates and facilitators.
A committee can be setup for documentations where community schools can give reports on their contributions, experiences, and achievements on volunteerism in the light of achieving the SDGs. This, calls for partnerships and recommendations whereby, government and organizations can provide technical support in the aspect of data management.

Warmest Regards.

Inclusive Volunteerism is a catalyst for promoting sustainable development. Different models exist. For instance, our organizatio (FBIN)'s Volunteer For Life (VFL) project launched during 2019 IVD celebration in Nigeria adopts an integrated and comprehensive model that promotes inclusive Volunteerism as a fun activity, career path & skills development accelerator and community engagement catalyst using a multi-sectoral and intergenerational approach to encourage mutual learning and ideas exchanges

Hi there, I’m Xin from Beijing Volunteer Service Federation (BVF). Great to hear your brilliant ideas and projects in this online discussion session. I’d like to share some efforts done by Beijing volunteers and our support for volunteers since the outbreak of covid-19 pandemic, which are contributing to the SDG 3 and SDG 8. We have an online platform called “Volunteer Beijing”. As of December 14, 2020, there have been 11,143 volunteer service projects about epidemic prevention, released through the "Volunteer Beijing", and 248,418 volunteers have been recruited citywide to help prevent and control the epidemic. Volunteers are indispensable for the hard-won covid-19 containment results and economic recovery.

Community volunteers played an important role in curbing spread of virus, improving neighborhood sanitation, and helping the self-quarantined people to get their necessities, like food, water, and medicine. Both the young and the elderly were widely mobilized in their communities.

The “Volunteer Beijing” platform launched an online psychological counseling service via “Volunteer Beijing” WeChat Official Account. During the pandemic, psychological consultants cannot provide face-to-face consultation with patients, while lots of ordinary people suffered from anxiety and sleep problems. “Volunteer Beijing” enabled those who have qualifications in counseling psychology to volunteer online and to offer free psychological counseling service to the nationwide affected people, ranging from the anti-epidemic front-line workers, quarantined personnel, the infected people, ordinary citizens, and their families and friends.

Another project was launched to provide service and support for the family members, especially the children, of the medical staff, including those who volunteered to provide medical assistance to combat covid-19 in Hubei province. Volunteers assisted them with the purchase of daily necessities, helped with the utility bill payment, provided guidance on studies and online teaching for kids, greeting and chatting, and psychological consultation.

BVF also launched additional insurance for volunteers, which was the anti-epidemic service insurance. Based on the pre-existing insurance already in place for the real-name registered volunteers, free insurance was provided for anti-epidemic volunteers on the frontline who were registered in the “Volunteer Beijing” platform with their real names. The insurance claim amount is 500,000 CNY.

I have been reading once more the contributions to the debate. When I read Chris’s thoughts and Boram’s reply, what came to my mind is that the BIG V ( I am sure you will forgive my unorthodoxy here) originates from small gestures of generosity and altruism and then it goes in crescendo. Step by step or better small action after small action, we get to the BIG V that is the best form ( even if done individually or informally) way of helping out someone or a cause and many of us have been referring to the important role played by self-help groups.
Now let’s move beyond the discussions on typology (I think this is past thinking) as well as we should refrain to get too much into categorization (it is really tempting here in Nepal in a recent virtual forum to get inputs from youth on the upcoming national volunteering policy, at the end of the day, we had to divide groups according to specific sectors, you can imagine which ones…education, health and disaster management and for me this is not the most appropriate way to proceed otherwise we keep moving on through a silos approach.
If we recognize the “building up” process from generosity/altruism to more organized forms of it, the BIG V, then what comes to my mind is the verb “mainstreaming” and this is our challenge.
Mainstreaming means recognizing that we are into something much bigger than we often think: How we recognize small informal acts of generosity and self help as part of a broader continuum that leads on the other extreme to the BIG V, is going to define the way forward to achieve the Agenda 2030.
So let’s be cognizant of different forms, all EQUALLY important ( I love it when I read the adjective “dominant” paradigms/approaches) and let’s try to build on it.
Mainstreaming means counting all those involved in any forms/acts that potentially leads to the BIG V, so the BIG V is not a sector but it is one form of expressing the best of the human nature.
It’s really about finding commonalities and then be adapted as per needs and thinking as per designing thinking as suggested already will help us tremendously to think beyond the boxes.
Mainstreaming means really make it so obvious, so natural to be part of this and here the other challenge, reaching out those who do not care.
At ENGAGE we found a way, sports, to reach out youth who never volunteered before and through their passion for sports, they built important relationships with peers living with disabilities and also very key and they are building an understanding of what it means being excluded.
This is the decade of action and Secretary General Guterres has been talking a lot about new forms of participation to public discussions to shape the right, inclusive public policies to achieve the SDGs from the grassroots.
Volunteering could tap into such discussions because they are also part of that continuum I spoke earlier on.
So to wrap up: what are the innovative, out of the box ways to involve those who never volunteer before?
Can we start by proposing one off micro actions and then see how to build from there?
Let’s not scare off people and let’s have local and national volunteers where the main criteria is NEVER EVER having volunteered before.
Could helping and promoting the SDGs be considered a form of BIG V? After all, achieving the SDGs starts from small actions at individual levels, not only from governments’ policies.
We do not need UNV programs in all the schools but we need a volunteering club in each of them.
And what about the universities? Oh gosh this is huge and in the Asia Pacific there is still so much to do here.
When in Malaysia I talk about setting up a volunteering club in the universities, I am not fully understood. How is this possible in 2020?
Then while we recognize all forms of actions related to the BIG V, we need more BIG PEOPLE talking about it. Now all leaders talk about climate change because it is our challenge of course but they also do that because there has been pressure on them to do so….and it worked!!!
If we have Guterres talking about climate change and also the role of volunteers, if we have more UN country resident coordinators talk more about gender violence and the potential role volunteering could have to a) create awareness against it b) empower girls who are normally the victims (imagine a program where girls victim of burn violence could volunteer, I would call it a life changing leadership experience), if we have more big people talking about the BIG V, then also politicians hearing this word so often, then they will realize that the BIG V is a BIG DEAL
Maybe do we need a Greta or Malala for the BIG V? Maybe these modern heroines should talk about volunteering as a tool to achieve campaign goals… they are already doing that with their calls for mobilization but people do not get it, the message is about mobilizing to achieve a goal rather than thinking about people deciding to do something for a cause.
The BIG V is crosscutting and can truly be the engine to empower the march towards the Agenda 2030.

Hello everybody this is Simo, I am writing from Nepal where I co-founded a small NGO working in social inclusion, specifically focused on disability.
I am really catching up here…
Katrina wrote the following:
“how we can better maximise the potential of volunteering to engage and empower the youth to both reap the benefits of volunteering (skills building, new networks, etc) while contributing to societal development”
This question is really crucial for me and perhaps finding the answer to it could unleash new energies and new enthusiasm for our sector, unbundling it actually, really making it possible to have volunteering or THE BIG V as I preferred to call it , as the best, coolest personal development and leadership tool ever…
If we unlock the personal development aspect of the BIG V, (focusing for a while more on the “taking” part of the BIG V equation), we really could have an incredible tool to reach to the school and this something that has already emerged in the discussions.
Are we entirely sure that we have done a good enough job to engage schools? I am not too sure about this, for me it is a huge untapped potential because if we really want to build a culture of service, we need to work with teachers, with parents and of course with kids and youngsters and have them embrace the BIG V but…..
We need to get their buy in and this is so tricky: it is not just about doing some good community work but it is about help your daughter and son to achieve new levels of self confidence, of empathy (Yes I think that in the era of AI, we need to go back to the basics, empathy and what better tool than the BIG V to talk about empathy and solidarity?) and other important skills.
In the other discussion group, there are different opinions about the role of governments and how involving them too much, risk “stifling” the free creativity and imagination of not for profits…
I am not going again on this but I believe that involving the governments is key especially if we want to strategize on how to “conquer” the education sector because the global call for action will work only if we manage to get schools involved much much much more.
It is also important to have schools and governments (schools both private but especially public) involved if we want to really be inclusive of all citizens willing to volunteer.
I am referring to youth who belong to minority groups, youth are discriminated because of their social economic status or because of their disability or because of local traditions and also to make sure that girls and women have much more opportunities.
So here ideally we could have the Ministry of Education launching schools’ challenges to promote the BIG V locally and again this is somehow linked to the issue of governance discussed in the discussion group no. 2, reaching a model where it is possible to promote, support volunteering across all the sectors is really important but also daunting to achieve.
National Agencies promoting volunteering could not only implement programs ( possibly with NGOs) but also play the backstopping role that is needed, a sort of one stop shop to advise and help line agencies to promote volunteerism, a role in which local UNV country offices could also tremendously help.
This is also essential to recognize the BIG V: Can we have localized forms of awards instead of having just one big award nationally? Can we make it also simpler, more manageable for schools or youth group to be able to organize such event, not once in a year but multiple times…because this will immensely help creating a culture of service at the grassroots.
About platforms promoting volunteerism: I think they are important and there should be much more of them around but we should not entirely depend on them otherwise we risk to further excluded all those youth (and not youth as well)that are the ones who could benefit most from a volunteering experience because that will uplift their process of SELF-EMPOWERMENT.
Last but not the least: one of the nicest surprise of the Global Technical Meeting was the focus on informal volunteering and this is a revolution I believe and I am really glad that UNV is embracing this because this could positively disrupt UNV business model (let’s go beyond placing UNV volunteers the UN Agencies) and work more on helping strengthening the eco-system.
Very last for now: the global interactions organized by IAVE where also UNV attended ( at least Boram in the last one) are good, I believe UNV has a strong mandate to help governments in developing countries to support such conversations locally (we can start with civil society) and nationally and then, very importantly, build alliances with the communication industry to make a big quantum leap to move policy discussions to the people and citizens because ultimately we are in a business of ACTION.
In Nepal there was a great work by UNV and other organizations for the IVD 2020 and I really hope we will build on it….but we need more discussions, more interactions and we need to solidify and strengthen the great team work that made the IVD 2020 possible

Hey there, I am Heba from Bevol International Platform and just like everyone else I am really happy to join in too!
Reading several of the interesting comments being made at this discussion and, to my surprise, even stumbling upon the name of Bevol platform, which I came here to talk about, being mentioned by Juhe Whoo (Hi Juhe, nice to meet you!), I now feel very much excited to share more about Bevol and how it actually combines a really good number of suggestions made and puts them into practice and piloting -and, in fact, has been doing so for a good while of almost 2 years now. It is amazing that Bevol represents exactly what you are call a BIG idea and how, therefore, the discussion here is a great match for many aspects of what Bevol endeavours to achieve. Bevol, first of all, is a social media platform operating with 5 languages so far and the rest are, hopefully, to come. It mainly connects three different parties:
1. volunteers
2. non-profit institutions and volunteering teams that are looking individuals willing to help with their time and effort
3. companies that want to fulfill their social responsibility by supporting volunteering
Bevol connects these three parties in a win-win based and sustainable manner. This happens as following: Obviously, non profit institutions and volunteering teams are having volunteers lending a hand.
Volunteers themselves, on the other hand, are having their work documented as their Bevol profile becomes sort of their volunteering CV (and, by the way, each profile has a unique QR code for easier transference of their volunteering information and documented work). Moreover, volunteers get a certain number of points as a reward after each volunteering task/mission they complete. The number of these points is automatically allocated according to variables such as the difficulty level, duration of the task etc.The higher number of points a volunteer has, the higher ranking International Volunteering Card they get.
Last but not least, companies are given the space where they can announce special offers and discounts on their products and services whose beneficiaries, depending on the choice of the company, can be the holders of one International Volunteering Card category or another (and normally, of course, the higher ranking category of the International Volunteering Card is, the more offers its holder is eligible for).
This win-win based and sustainable cycle is the basic mechanism of how Bevol works, and as you may recognise, it combines multiple needed and, also here, suggested strategies, tactics and ideas. I do suggest that you take a look at the platform here: https://bevol.org/. Let me also mention Bevol won the Gold International Stieve Award for Best Tech Startup of the Year 2020. One of the comments made by the esteemed judges were: "Bevol utilized the biggest two waves of the 21st century -social media and crowdsourcing". Another judge stated "Wow, this is really a cool idea about the works to spread the culture of volunteerism and social responsibility. It going to be the future thing. Impresses with the idea and the way that you started this." I also truly believe that Bevol has a great deal of prospects to offer for the 2023 agenda, I truly believe it is indeed "going to be the future thing"!

Hello everyone and thanks for dropping by! We’re almost in the final week of this discussion and we’ve heard lots of great ideas already. Let me try to summarize:

We’ve heard that people should be at the center and core of volunteering solutions, innovation and learning processes. This also means understanding how volunteering could activate people’s participation, and ensuring that this value of volunteering is also recognized and supported, in addition to the already well-known knowledge that volunteering is a means for delivering services.

In particular, youth participation through volunteering was also highlighted, along with some questions on how we can better maximise the potential of volunteering to engage and empower the youth to both reap the benefits of volunteering (skills building, new networks, etc) while contributing to societal development.

We’ve also heard some ideas on where and how to start – which is always the most difficult part I think!

Understanding how people get together and self-organize is important to help ensure that the volunteering structures we have/develop are sustainable and inclusive – especially to marginalized groups and women.

Then there is also the need for better ways to generate and use existing data and evidence for designing and implementing new solutions.

We could also try to do better in recognizing and supporting diverse volunteer actions – formal or informal volunteering - through mechanisms like awards, gamification, etc.

And finally, there’s also the need to bring together the different voices and diverse partners from all backgrounds and walks of life to discuss, co-create and make these ideas a reality!

So turning back to you again - what do you think of these so far? What is still missing?
Would you have other disruptive ideas on how to catalyze volunteering for the SDGs? Tell us!

Tangible innovation can only happen when we understand the context in which a community is embedded. Thus, volunteering can only be a catalyzer for innovation when it is articulated to concrete human needs.

The exercise of social innovation, -that is, the development of creative and practical solutions to complex social problems-, requires three aspects to connect:
What do people want? - Desirability
What is technically and organizationally possible? - Feasibly
What is financially viable? - Viability

Now more than ever, volunteering organizations need to re-invent themselves, creating dynamic structures and flexible models to enable social innovation — always putting human needs at the center of the process.

Hello Team,

Great conversations going on here on Reimagining Volunteering for 2030 Agenda,

Having been part of GTM 2020 as a facilitator, I hereby submit some of my 6 Big Ideas for consideration.

Some of this ideas have been tested in our organization and they seem to work very well.

The Big Ideas Include:

Big Idea 1: Global Volunteer Application
Big Idea 2: Global Volunteer Awards
Big Idea 3: Global SDGs Ambassadors
Big Idea 4: Point Based Volunteerism
Big Idea 5: SDGs Mashinani
Big Idea 6: School, Institutional Volunteer Curriculum
For more insights or explanation about the 6 ideas please check the link herein.

https://youtu.be/QY-K2kJAU8c

The 2030 Agenda of the UN, aims to improve living conditions for all people in entire the world. In order to reinforce the contribution of volunteering in SDG achievement, volunteering should become itself a way by which the volunteers can improve their own lives.

For example in Africa where the population is too young, it is difficult for a young to engage in volunteering when he is poor and doesn't get a job.
I think that the UN should put in place an international system of account of credit that will be accredited each time that the volunteer participates in volunteering missions. This account, should be taken in to consideration by the local governments, UN agencies, NGOs, and private sector into their mechanisms of offering jobs, scholarship, and elearning. This can encourage youngs to commit more to the volunteering

Good day, everyone, I am Galina Bodrenkova from Russia and am very grateful to the moderators for the invitation to join this interesting online discussion. It was a great honor for me to participate in GTM-2020 and now, in continuation of this important process, on the examples of my country and my own ideas to rethink the role of volunteerism to achieve the SSD, I will try to offer my ideas, and now the first of them, which I will develop further in the discussion.

Today, as the whole world faces the KOVID 19 pandemic, we realize that KOVID will leave sooner or later. But it is extremely important that the whole world has come together to fight the pandemic. I am sure that this is an example of how the whole world should really come together to achieve the SDG. There is a lot of work to be done, but the main thing is that all people and institutions are involved in this global process with an awareness of how important the SDGs are to the overall sustainable development of the world.

Thanks very much for your insightful comments, Sarah! I can definitely relate to all you have said and particularly the importance of income generating groups which are very common in Burundi as well. This is key to fully understand the everyday volunteering experience in Burundi (and as you say in Kenya and other African contexts and perhaps elsewhere too?) as an activity that is not disconnected from people's own livelihoods. It's not about "full-time" volunteers but understanding how volunteering is integrated into people's routines and how to catalyse this force to create policies and structures that can support them.

I think this has a lot to do with local agency and resilience and how external actors need to support existing efforts instead of replacing them by models that can be successful elsewhere but that might do more harm than good when local communities are not involved in the decision-making. With my colleague Alice Chadwick we have written a short paper about resilience and locally owned solutions that might be of interest to this discussion, it can be downloaded from this link: https://www.iave.org/virtualforums2020/volunteerism-and-community-resilience-locally-owned-solutions-delivering-impact/

Good to hear from Buanca. I am happy that you have done research in Burundi and so you understand how groups are mobilised for a common goal for the good of members. This is similar as here in Kenya and I think the surrounding countries and maybe further on in Africa. These group members then choose officials among themselves. They can have different goals that bring them together. Some come together so that incase one member has a personal problem, the rest come in to contribute some money to support her. Some groups are prayer groups and many other reasons. But now, many are changing to be income generating groups through projects. Yes. These group leaders do not refer to themselves as volunteers. But it is purely volunteerism since they are not paid by the members for the service the give. They have alot of responsibilities to ensure that they deliver for the group to be successful. Some meet once in a month and some opt to do it twice in a month. Some groups are purely women alone and some include men and usually men take leadership roles.
Most challenges these groups face is luck of training among the leaders. These leaders can be more productive if they utilize their new skills to empower the group.

Hi everyone,

I am Bianca from Brazil and happy to join this online discussion. This is such an important topic - thanks to all who have shared interesting examples and thanks to Boram for such an engaging moderation.

I think a key aspect in this discussion relates to the aspect of ‘togetherness’ that we often celebrate in volunteering but sometimes also take for granted by not unpacking challenges. As I write I am thinking of the International Volunteer Day theme this year #IVD2020 and how much of the volunteer experience is about relationships. I echo what Chris Millora said about community participation and how Sarah Igobwa emphasised the importance of rural women’s involvement in their own villages for impactful changes.

As we know, volunteers mobilise in many different ways and some people won’t necessarily call their ‘doing good’ as ‘volunteering’, particularly when acting occasionally or individually. When doing research with volunteers in Burundi, something that stood out to me was how much the sense of group belonging was a strong driver for volunteering. This is because volunteers then also help each other within the group, strengthening relationships and creating safety nets. So I think that in this discussion about models and approaches to volunteering we need to better understand how groups get together, what volunteer local structures look like and which kinds of challenges exist in different contexts.

For most local volunteers I met in Burundi, for example, establishing local committees to organise activities (i.e. regular meetings, clear roles, etc.) was raised as a critical aspect to the sustainability of volunteer groups. This comes back to the point of volunteer leaderships referred to before in the discussion and which is key to build trust within communities. However, I would mention particularly the challenge of genderised labour divides (e.g. volunteering ‘automatically’ presumed as part of female care responsibilities; not uncommon to see more men than women in leadership positions even when the majority of members in a volunteer group are women; etc.).

In my previous experience as a volunteer in Brazil and current volunteering work in the UK, belonging to a volunteer group has always been a personal driver for my engagement. Some challenges I have come across though relate to assuring continuity within group structures (e.g. volunteers are mobile so structures need to be flexible enough to account for that) and juggling partnerships with public sector (e.g. managing partnerships with local governments can come across particular political agendas).

I am afraid I don’t have clear-cut answers to the provocative questions raised but these are just a few thoughts from my side to add to this interesting discussion! :)

In delivering impact through our work VSO draws particularly on the SDG principles of universality and leaving no one behind. SDGs set an ambitious agenda for addressing the challenges of marginalisation and poverty worldwide. Through our programs we contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. At VSO, we also believe that the SDGs will not be met without mobilising and engaging citizens across the world to support, demand and oversee and deliver the SDGs. Through our work we strive to take volunteering out of the margins and place it firmly within mainstream development discourse and practice. https://www.vsointernational.org/about/vision-values-and-strategy

VSO follows a distinctive and innovative Volunteering for Development (VfD) approach which is people-centred, structurally rooted and relationship-based, facilitating partnerships between volunteers, local organisations and the primary actors (people) they work with. It builds on VSO’s People first principles, relational volunteering approach and core approaches that focus on resilience, social accountability, social inclusion and gender equality.
https://www.vsointernational.org/our-work/volunteering-for-development

At this juncture, it would be pertinent to share some of the reflections on volunteers’ contribution towards social accountability practices to better understand the ways in which they are contributing to empowerment of voice and choice of marginalised groups within and between communities across different countries.

Volunteers (international, national and community) contribution is best exemplified in their ability in rights awareness, capacity enhancement and agency building with primary actors and opening spaces for dialogue with duty bearers, leading to improvement in access to public services and systems.

The communities and primary actors are using tools and participative processes that they learned, like social audits, community score cards, MILE (Measuring Impact for Learning & Empowerment) which are important for establishing accountability between right holders and duty bearers including international NGOs such as VSO. However, the challenges of addressing invisible power exercised at the community level remains which often works as barrier for the poor and marginalized to exercise their agency fully.

While demand side of accountability is often met through various capacity building initiatives within VfD approach, there are operational challenges in addressing supply side of social accountability especially in situations where fragile governance systems persist. Institutional weaknesses and biases often create challenges to build the accountability understanding among the public service providers.

A particular challenge and an opportunity is how to work with volunteers for bridging, linking and building pro-accountability coalitions within the community, in the country and globally. Other actors like media and the private sector also play significant role in creating spaces for expanding the scope of VfD. How to bring these players is to be explored collectively by all agencies working on volunteering for development.

Digital technologies have also come to the aid of promoting accountability practices and it is one area that has potential to expand the scope of volunteering for development impact. Indeed COVID-19 has accelerated the need innovations in this sphere which VSO has used and experienced as part of its Covid-19 response. A significant learning that we have had as an organisation how the network of community volunteers and youth agencies helped communities to resiliently manage the pandemic. How is their agency recognized and promoted as a significant enabler for putting back the SDGs on track?

It would be of great relevance to engage with some of these issues in this forum.

Volunteering in itself is not relevant without involving the stakeholders. It has its own dynamic and technological difference and gap should be looked as, not as limiting factor,but strengthening factor. The SGDs on one hand are achievable but on the other hand time is limiting hence we can only achieve 2030 goal only if volunteering is involved( as stated earlier). However, we should look at technological difference as some of these goals require technical and manual assistance for them to be pushed forward and achieved. Hence, a model is needed that will consolidate these differences and be practically used in all geographical spheres without discrimination and exclusion( no one should be left behind)

Dear Colleague,

Lots of thank for approaching the world community for an integrated action to achieve the SDGs by time. In fact, all the 17 Goals and its 169 associated targets are interlinked, but our responses to achieve the goals are fragmented till now and we are nowhere near the path to success of 2030 Agenda by time. Thus the plan of action to integrate volunteering into the 2020 Agenda for sustainable developments is the first most essential step towards the success of SDGs in actual fact. Thanks again for this great endeavor for the betterment of all humanity worldwide.

Now our biggest challenge is to encourage all for an integrated action for the success of SDGs by time. How to unite all beyond the inherited system of thought divided by several political and religious strictures?

From last many years, just after the UN-SDGs was crystallized, I have tried to contribute the basic ideology to approach the global community for the proposed integrated action to make volunteering a transformative force for the 2030 Agenda through many platforms, but till now I haven’t got any positive response.
Now I believe, I am on the right platform from where I can get some affirmative responses and appreciation for my plan of action to integrate volunteering in to the 2030 Agenda, in a simple practical way and that would not need extra cost or efforts for its implementation.

Here I am representing my idea step by step, seeking your attention in this regard.

…………………………………………………………………………

UN-SDGs – Addressing the biggest global Challenges – With simple solution (SDG 4.7 & SDG 16.a) to save people and this planet


“There can be no sustainable development without peace (SDG 4.7 & SDG 16.a) and no peace without sustainable developments.”
Presently, United Nations Sustainable goals is an essential need of this contemporary world that we do need for the betterment of our future generation on this planet, but presence of racism, radicalization, political collisions and war are creating basis for worldwide humanitarian crisis that adversely impacts every aspects of our social and economical developmental efforts. It means we are only dedicated for “Peace through prosperity” ignoring the ideologies for “prosperity through peace”, so the achievements of scientific insight are resurrecting beyond the process of Nature, and the graces of humanity are descending to a dangerous abyss, making the implementation of SDGs patchy so far.

What is the solution in actual fact?

In fact, it is impossible for any individual organization or political, professional and scientific insights to overcome the perils that would destroy this planet more than our imagination. Thus we will have to look beyond the perception of this current human race divided by several political and religious strictures, to unite the global community making the SDGs a household word. Although it appears impossible, in actual fact it is possible through the “go-between” the basic potential of literature, following the core value of SDG 4.7, to crystallize the progress of SDGs through academic sources.
“Educating the mind, without educating the heart is no education at all.” -Aristotle
Now it is only the graces of literature that could educate the mind and heart together. There is no doubt that the greatest aspect of literature is that it enthralls our mind and spirit from childhood to the end of our lives. It is a major part of our intellectual heritage, as important as our scientific and professional insights; it influences our inherited system of thoughts and throws into relief our genetic nature. Always literature had been the treasure house of wisdom that guides human conscience towards final home whatever our faith directs us.

Presently conscience of our young generation between 10 to 24 ages is lethally vulnerable, being used in all form of violence and it is the biggest global challenge that needs a “unanimous conclusion” to accelerate the academic sources to educate our children to overcome the compartmentalized of technical and policy work by promoting integrated approaches to the interconnected economic and social challenges confronting the world. In fact, all the 17 goals and its 169 associated targets are interlinked, but the efforts to achieve the goals are fragmented, making the SDGs a tool for unjust political or unfair professional beneficence. Now immediately we will have to look straightforward to encourage the young generation for global unison and integrated actions by offering clear guidance to approach the SDGs in a practical and proper way.

More than that, the gap and difference between languages, culture and norms of the religious teachings are providing the safe ground for the business of racism and radicalization that exacerbate the basis of war and terrorism according to their own political stances and positions hindering the progress of SDGs. There is no doubt, till now we are only destroying the embodiment of terrorism, ignoring it brutal ideology invincible befor the world’s leadership and all the leading religious teachers struggling with the ensign of peace and cultural diversity. Presently in these circumstances the world’s money and gun power are not potential enough to combat the sources of racism and radicalization that conceal their sins behind religious narcissism. It means now it’s the time to represent the history of humankind on Earth within scientific insight to prove that the definitions of all the leading world religions are based on their contemporary needs, to help human being to evolve under Natural process on basis of peace and solidarity, not to rule over the people from other community or sect and the religious sanctity is not a subject to obtain the narcissus and terrestrial bliss among the rot of massacre.

These are authentic facts that cannot be ignored at any cost, thereafter, it had been always lethal to write or address in favor or against the institutionalized faith of human being divided by several religious and political strictures. So the world community needs an innovation of intellectual power (literature) to redefine the conscience of our young generation that enthralled in mazes of inherited religious and political thoughts, terrestrial glamour and the lethal aspects of frustration, while developing their scientific and professional skills. This is what we mean is the definition of “UN-SDG 4.7”, the only one way to help the world community to achieve the “UN-SDG16.a” as an essential need to speed up the progress of 2030 Agenda.

Presently the novels and literature of great authors from all around the world that recommended for “unabridged school edition” mostly navigates the conscience of the new generation to an elusive world that is out of their imagination to advance the cultural diversity that we do need to build a “fairer world”. No doubt, it represents the great ideologies that related to past and present situation, but without a proper solution that we do need to advance the cultural diversity in actual fact. It serves as an entertainment for moral advancement within a limit and also helps the students to develop their communication skills. Here what we need is an extension of that idea by developing the graces of literature for both entertainment and enlightenment, to build trust among all cultures and norms, as we do need to advance the cultural diversity to contribute for the success of all sustainable development goals.

……………………………………………………………………………..

Thanks for the time and review, looking forward for your response

With Greatest Regards
Ajay Singh

Hallo everyone,
Thank you for this platform ,indeed so many thought and great ideas...so thinking on the line of narrowing down to hands on and skill based volunteerism which will enhance or create a greater impact on achieving better results. ...taking for example matching youths who need to learn skills such as carpentry, photography, art,catering, agricultural business etc with student or leacturers training /trained volunteers in the given fields willing to impart their knowledge and skills....giving them an opportunity to experience diverse cultural heritage in different countries. Having a platform that grants volunteers quality information on the volunteer opportunities across the board as well as exchange of experiences from the volunteers as well as the recipients enhances the capacity to come up with best practices tailor made for individual countries and communities....In short having a global volunteer platform where volunteers,organization's get to meet and learn what is working best for different communities....I think engaging in education volunteering is also a great idea and would go along way in promoting the hands on and skills program....for the volunteers ,they get an opportunity to engage in tourism and rich cultural experiences

Hello everyone, I'm Hussain Hamzah from Nigeria. Volunteering work has made me to achieve more towards self development and self confidence. Through volunteering I believe the world can become a better place for everyone if the the youth can have more interest in volunteering work because youth play a vital role in promoting policy making. Based on my experiences in volunteering work I believe we can still play a big role by bringing the youth and also engage them in volunteering work towards the development of society and community.

Good morning and greetings to all. Firstly , my thanks to moderators and Boram Kim for accepting my request to join in this discussion group. I work as evaluation and learning expert (social accountability and participation) at VSO International. I find the conversations so far very useful. and I would be happy to learn and share knowledge and practices at this forum. Happy to share my perspectives and understanding in the future postings. regards

Thank you so much Borum. I believe together we shall achieve and make this world a better place.

To add on what I has pointed out earlier, inorder to engage rural women more effectively, we shall keep in mind that very early morning hours are usually dedicated to do morning errands in the home. Once in a while, they could sacrifice and come for early morning meetings if there need be. So, their volunteer activities should be arranged at a convenient time for them to be productive. Some spouses may become a barrier but incase of such incidences, they would rotate duties daily. I would also suggest that this allowances to be given to those who have volunteered on that particular day. Allowances that are not honored will kill the vision and it will be very difficult to start off again. For the PWDs, there are some who cannot do particular activities, I would suggest collaboration with the Social Services department, for example here in Kenya who would guide and advice further. I think we shall have addressed the root of the rural problem and they will be happy to be part of the SDG achievement.

Thank you Boram, I suggest the first thing we should do is to empower the woman. We should start with her mind. Traditionally, women did not attend this kind of meetings in most communities in Africa. They have to understand first that they have a part to play in the society. They matter and they have to be heard. And also make them know that their opinion is valued. We then move a step by empowering the economically by supporting them create income. Having her own money, will give her confidence to embrace the SDGs. eg, She will walk to a child's school knowing she can afford to buy what the school requires - Goal no 4. She will go back home with vegetables in the basket for her family Goal No2. She will be able to buy her immediate requirement in the home Goal no.1. etc.
We should then empower her by introducing to her the 17 SDGs. Let them know the importance of each SDG. Most of them if not all, do not know what SDGs are. Train them and give them an opportunity to suggest how they would like to participate in achieving each goal. Knowledge is very important here. Select a few women for example first from different areas then increase the number. Covid 19 may limit our efforts, but we could do it in different areas so that the whole community is covered.
Introduce them to the new technology as we go through the SDGs. They should be able to communicate effectively. Most of them have the old type of mobile phones. Very little knowledge on WhatsApp which is more effective. This would ease their training.
Not forgetting persons with disabilities(PWDs) should also be part of the training.
In order to make this successful, you should provide them with some allowances that will enable them to start up.

Hi

I'm Chris Millora from the Philippines and really glad that we are having this discussion!

What has struck me about the world of volunteering is that there are so many aims, approaches and assumptions to it - and, my research has made me realise that often this models are being influenced by how people and polices understand 'development'. For example, many people think development is economic growth - so there are volunteering approaches where the focus is in measuring the economic contribution of volunteering. The abundance of these models point to two things - there are models that are more dominant while other models are less dominant. For example, it is only very recently that we are recognising the significance of informal volunteering - eg helping out an neighbour buy groceries, volunteering for church service etc - because the 'dominant model' have always been that volunteering is done through organisations like Red Cross, Save the Children, etc. The second aspect is that these diversity of models should be seen as a resource rather than a challenge - how do these different models interact? Do they support or crowd out each other? For example, in the Philippines, the politics of local responses to COVID-19 have led to volunteers being arrested under malicious (see some of my observations here: https://twitter.com/chrismillora/status/1258344478148001792).

Having said this, I believe that a valuable approach to volunteering is that of 'community participation'. This means that volunteering is seen less as a formal service delivery tool to achieve development outcomes (eg SDGs) rather as a helping activity that people do everyday, part of communities' cultures and identities. I have written a bit about this here: https://people.uea.ac.uk/en/publications/tolerance-and-inclusion-volunteering-enabling-community-cohesion-and-embracing-diversity(84f28874-4a94-48a3-80d2-ab224f87da15).html where I argue that everyday acts of helping brings communities together, when face with a shared problem, people turn to each other for support. When seen this way, we begin to realise that people are already contributing to the SDGs in various ways and scales - the challenge is how to document them and for institutions like the UN - how to support them and recognise them. So if we want to accelerate the SDGs - I think we need to look at these forms of local organising seriously. We need to think about to what extent can these be supported without influencing their efforts and co-opting their agenda!

What are some of the concrete steps to do this? It's difficult - and would be great to talk more but here are some ideas:
- When we develop a programme or policy, perhaps we can begin with asking what knowledges, practices, capacities are already existing in the communities we work with (and then take it from there!) rather than coming in with pre-set ideas/agenda/solutions.

- Related to this, there are loads of planning and research tools that are founded on participatory ethos. It's easy for people to say, 'yes let's listen to the voices of the poor!' or 'we need to involve 'poor women' in decision making' but how to do this? The Institute for Development Studies in the UK has put together this useful website https://www.participatorymethods.org/ where you can see practical tools on participatory methods - from participatory mapping exercises to participatory bugetting! Really interesting and fun methods and they have been effective, based on my experience, in engaging with people with various literacies as well!

- Finally, I think we need to embed a learning component in our programming and policy-making. When we write a policy or develop a programme, it is not always perfect - but wouldn't it be great if we can embed in the process a sense of reflection and action - whereby we think about about what we learn and then try and change things (even just a little)? I noticed that people often think of policies as a static process. You think of a problem, you offer a solution. When one embeds the lens of learning, he/she considers, who defines the problem? How can we learn from each other in terms of developing solutions?

That's all for now and looking forward to engaging more! :)

From the Arab states, the Head of Women’s Organisation in the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, noted that equality in leadership positions within volunteering organisations is a useful way of promoting equality across the formal volunteering sector, and that the IRCS has done this by promoting both men and women to leadership positions. She emphasised the importance of private sector volunteering partnerships, and gave the example of a private partnership the ICRS agreed, which enabled the rebuilding of a training & development centre in Iraq, which is used to support young volunteers’
projects and boost their experience – contributing to the SDG 8.

Through my experience in the village, we have to involve the rural women in their own community so that the impact is realised. They have to be part of the system. A womans life is all round. She is a home maker, she creates income, she is a mother, she is the first nurse in the home, she would come out to volunteer in various activities. In most cases, they are left behind to participate in leadership roles because they are busy doing these errands. If we could use the activities they are good at by encouraging them and add value to it by supporting them financially, train them, find market for their produce that creates some income, empower them they would gain confidence, take leadership roles and start achieving the SDG goals.

Good afternoon from Nigeria ,I represent the Nigeria Volunteers Network

En America Latina y el Caribe, la mayoría del voluntariado (mas del 70%) se realiza de forma informal, segundo los datos del ultimo Informe sobre el Voluntariado en el Mundo de UNV. Existen limitados datos hoy en día, sobre la contribución del voluntariado a los ODS, con lo cual me parece que una primera importante acción seria investigar más, producir más datos, sobre como el aporte actual del voluntariado a los ODS. Eso permitiría por un lado reconocer la labor que los y las voluntarias están realizando, incluir sus aportes en los planes y programas de desarrollo a nivel regional, nacional y local, y poderlo maximizar. Al momento, en mi opinión sería necesaria reforzar las alianzas con el sector académico para producir más datos e investigaciones sobre el aporte del voluntariado a los ODS.

Hello everyone! I am so glad that you took the time to get here to join our online consultation! A very warm welcome on behalf of UNV.

This virtual forum is the space for us to share, discuss and uncover approaches and ideas that are considered new or those that UNV is to explore more to position volunteering as a transformative power to accelerate progress towards the SDGs. As you know, we have 10 years to go, and everyone everywhere is to take action with urgency and does one’s part.

I am Boram from UNV Headquarters in Bonn, Germany and am very delighted to be moderating this consultation together with my superstar colleague, Katrina. We have about four weeks to engage in this space, so please join us in sharing out-of-the-box thinking and practical suggestions informed by your expertise and experiences across the globe. I am excited to learn from each and every one of you in the coming weeks.

And now it’s over to you - "What are the models and big ideas that can catalyze reimagined support for volunteers and approaches to volunteering in the context of accelerating progress to achieve the SDGs?"

To be able to contribute by leaving a comment, make sure you have created a user account (see the ‘How to join’ tab in case of any trouble).

Looking forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions – to shape the future of volunteering together.

Boram