UN Volunteers and the Millennium Development Goals
In 2000, ten million people volunteered to support the immunization of 550 million children as part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. The vast majority were concerned citizens, volunteering in their own communities. They gave their time to ensure that children reported to immunization stations, were properly documented, and received the oral vaccine. The total value of their support was estimated at US$10 billion; a contribution well beyond the reach of governments or international and national organizations. Equally important is that capacity was developed in the process. In return for their time, local volunteers received health training and became entry points for future development efforts in their communities.
The global challenge
The Millennium Development Goals are an ambitious agenda for reducing poverty and improving lives that world leaders agreed on at the Millennium Summit in September 2000. For each goal one or more targets have been set, most for 2015, using 1990 as a benchmark:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development
The International Year of Volunteers (IYV) 2001 created global awareness on the massive contribution individuals make to development through voluntary action. Whether expressed as volunteer service, mutual aid and self-help, campaigning or other forms of voluntary participation, the willingness and ability of citizens 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.
UNV promotes volunteerism for peace and development including through the mobilizati on of volunteers, and can be instrumental in supporting the attainment of the Millenium Development Goals (MDG). It has both experience and a number of assets to draw on in helping to ensure that the power of volunteerism is recognized and acted upon in support of the MDGs, including:
- A global volunteer network of which the more than 5,500 UN Volunteers -representing 160 nations – are currently serving in 140 developing countries and countries in economic transition
- A direct link to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), working through an extensive network of UNDP country offices;
- Close partnerships with the UN and most other UN system organizations, funds and programmes, as well as with international and national volunteer-involving organizations and volunteer networks;
- The capacity to seize opportunities, such as International Volunteer Day (IVD) on 5 December each year, and provide a rallying point for organizations and individual volunteers to express their support for the MDGs and consider ways to help achieve the targets;
- Experience in running a global campaign demonstrated by its recognized success as the focal point of the International Year of Volunteers (IYV 2001);
- The World Volunteer Web (www.worldvolunteerweb.org), a global volunteering portal, that serves as a knowledge resource base for campaigning, advocacy, information dissemination and networking;
- An active Online Volunteering service that more than 20,000 people have joined to work on international development issues that are at the core of the MDGs.
UNV also manages a range of other programme activities in developing countries such as supporting efforts to measure the economic and social contribution of voluntary action; identifying and sharing best practices in the field of volunteerism; promoting suitable capacity development for national volunteer centres and volunteer schemes; and fostering the creation of training infrastructure for organizations to introduce and enhance volunteer opportunities for citizens.
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