Strategic dialogue with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan

Mr. Shinichi Iida, Director of Global Issues Cooperation Division, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan and his team visited the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme headquarters in Bonn to have a strategic dialogue with UNV on 18 March 2014. Japan has affirmed that five priority areas in the UNV Strategic Framework 2014-2017 are aligned with the Japanese Overseas Development Aid (ODA) priorities. UNV and Japan agreed to strengthen more focused and programmatic collaboration in the areas of youth, peace building, basic social services and community resilience for environment and disaster risk reduction. UNV and Japan will continue this strategic dialogue on an annual basis.  
 
Japan has been a strategic partner for UNV since the mid 1990’s. Japan has played a leading role in promoting volunteering for peace and development in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) since 1997, including the resolution proclaiming the International Year of Volunteers (IYV) in 2001. The recognition of the importance of volunteering in the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake in 1995 and the assassination of the Japanese UN Volunteer Atsuhito Nakata in 1993 played a major role in Japan taking up this leadership role.

Japan has continued with this leadership role in the UNGA during IYV in 2001, and with the follow-up resolutions in 2002, 2005 and 2008, and again around IYV+10 in 2011. In 2012, Japan (with Brazil) co-sponsored the GA Resolution on “Integrating Volunteering in the Next Decade”, highlighting the leading role of UNV, which was adopted in December 2012. These resolutions on volunteering have supported the expansion of the UNV mandate and increased recognition for volunteering globally.