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.
ONLINE POLICY CHALLENGE WITH DEVELOPMENT SPECIALISTS IN LATIN AMERICA
The first online Policy Challenge took place last 24 November on LinkedIn. Three development specialists from Bolivia, Colombia and Cuba discussed controversial issues concerning the types of volunteering (formal/informal), the distinctive characteristics of volunteerism (positive/negative), the changing gender roles within the communities and the key contributions of volunteerism to community resilience. The three specialists agreed that based on evidence, volunteering could make communities more resilient. But governments, civil society organizations, UN agencies and humanitarian and development actors must focus their work on further enhancing the volunteers' capacity for self-organization and strengthen trust and social cohesion.
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