To facilitate learning and sharing existing knowledge and evidence of volunteerism, and better understanding how volunteerism can accelerate the SDGs, UNV will launch an online UNV Knowledge Portal at the Global Technical Meeting (GTM) in July 2020 which will function as a knowledge hub of evidence on volunteerism with a variety of data in global, regional, and national level.
This Portal will feature an Evidence Library that will synthesize evidence products from partners focusing on cross-cutting thematic areas such as youth, gender, climate change and inequality and other on-demand topics that will help enhance our understanding of the contribution of volunteering to a specific development topic. It will contain links to carefully curated evidence products – research, findings, case studies, policy briefs, and platforms on volunteerism.
To ensure the representation of the voices especially from the African region, as well as collect evidence on volunteerism from the region, UNV invites all individuals and/or institutions in the African region who have expertise in volunteerism to share their knowledge products for the Evidence Library at the global knowledge portal.
UNV welcomes all forms of existing evidences such as report, technical paper, guidance material, contributing paper, study findings, dataset, policy brief, think piece, multimedia, publications, etc.
Please join us by submitting your voice.
Deadline: 28 February 2020
For any inquiries, please contact: w.kim@unidep.org, paul.menye@unv.org (West and Central Africa) or tapiwa.kamuruko@unv.org (East and Southern Africa).
SUBMISSION CRITERIA
All submissions will go through a quality assurance and selection process based on the criteria outlined below. Submissions that are selected will be published on the UNV Knowledge Portal.
TYPE OF PRODUCT
The product should ideally be a published piece offering data, insights and analysis that advances learning or increases understanding about volunteerism including enabling environment and vis-à-vis other development issues. The product may be classified under report, technical paper, guidance material, contributing paper, findings, dataset, brief, and think piece. Its format may vary from multimedia to publications.
COPYRIGHT
The product should be an original piece for which the author/ publisher owns and/or has obtained all necessary licenses to the content, and is freely accessible (no pay wall) to the public. It should also not contain false or misleading, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, threatening or invasive of a person’s privacy or unlawful in any way.
STRENGTH OF EVIDENCE
Ideally the product should outline the problem/need for action clearly, is well-researched, and have a strong narrative drawing on multiple sources of evidences (if possible, using balanced data from both north and south sources). The contents should ideally add value to current debates on volunteering and/or address a gap in knowledge on a specific issue. Lastly the conclusions and recommendations should be clear and actionable, and supported by the methods, data and analysis.
THEMATIC RELEVANCE
The messaging and content of the product should be relevant to volunteering and the specific thematic focus of the portal, specifically:
- Volunteering for the SDGs: distinctive contributions of volunteering under specific SDG targets, including climate change, women empowerment, youth employment;
- Enabling environment for volunteering: nature and trends of volunteering, including enabling environment, vis-à-vis changing realities; volunteering policy approaches; changing terms of engagement and partnerships on volunteering;
- Future trends: issues relevant to volunteering which cover issues such as collaborative governance (governance of the commons); future of work; with focus on the global South;
- Measuring the contribution of volunteering: statistical measurement of the scale, scope and shape of volunteering across all contexts; outcomes or impacts of volunteering from the experiences of volunteer-involving organizations and beyond.
LANGUAGE AND OTHER CRITERIA
Submissions in English or French may be accepted. All other evidence related to volunteering may also be accepted, especially if coming from the global South.