Drawing on original research in 15 communities across the globe, the 2018 State of the World’s Volunteerism Report (SWVR) presents new evidence on the role of volunteerism in strengthening community resilience. Based on the report's emerging findings, the project is organizing Policy Challenges to bring in different groups of people to make policy suggestions, some of which may be incorporated into the final report.
POLICY CHALLENGE WITH CIVIL SOCIETY
In Myanmar, many Civil Society Organizations (CSO) enjoy an active presence and a strong cohort of volunteers. Last 24 November, CSO networks in the country’s Mon state held a Policy Challenge to brainstorm policy recommendations for building a national framework for volunteerism. Ten CSO focal points – one for each township in the state – and three from Mawlamyine participated in the challenge. The group highlighted the need for governments, UN Agencies and CSOs to all play a role in improving the communication and collaboration between the government and the volunteers, enhancing support for the volunteers and providing volunteer skills training.
INTERESTED IN HOSTING A POLICY CHALLENGE?
Hosting a SWVR 2018 Policy Challenges is an opportunity to review findings from the SWVR field research and present solutions that could be taken up by UN Member States (national and/or local government level), civil society, and UN agencies and programmes as part of resilience-building efforts. We are looking for diverse groups to discuss the emerging findings from the field research and to tell us how they would respond. We would particularly like to encourage inputs from all groups that are under-represented in decision-making processes relating to risk reduction and resilience. For more information, visit www.unv.org/swvr/swvr-policy-challenge