It’s 1981, a young German, Gudrun Merzenich travels from Germany to Sri Lanka to support a grassroots enterprise that helps local small-holder farmers. Gudrun is with the United Nations Volunteers (UNV). Volunteering shapes her future career choice – the service of others transpires into a medical career in Bonn.
Fast forward almost 50 years, Raoul Herbert, another German with UNV supports operations in the United Nations’ Ukraine crisis response and its spillover to neighbouring countries. Raoul assists displaced Ukrainians in humanitarian and development projects in Moldova.
What binds the two Germans, Gudrun and Raoul – volunteering and UNV.
The volunteer organization of the United Nations is United Nations Volunteers, in short – UNV, which provides grassroots-level response in emergencies and local-level support to peace, humanitarian and development initiatives.
Last year, 12,840 volunteers called UN Volunteers supported over 50 UN agencies in 169 countries worldwide.
UNV was founded in 1970 to promote volunteering as a concrete solution to development challenges. In 2006, it moved its headquarters from Geneva to Bonn.
Some argue, volunteering, is that still relevant? And if it is, then why now – what’s the need of the hour?
The polycrisis in many parts of the world sets the tone for the United Nations’ action on the ground and UNV is firmly part of that response. Wars in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, political volatility across the Sahel, and multiple natural disasters – volunteers are no longer just needed for development initiatives but for responding to crises and emergencies as they unfold.
The half-century that sets Gudrun and Raoul apart witnessed immense changes across the globe. The importance of volunteerism as an expression of international solidary, agency for change and people-centered development, however, remains intact.
What also remains intact is the commitment of Germany to partner with UNV on volunteering and how it has evolved.
From Peru where almost 650 volunteers serving online provided information on basic services to refugees and migrants to Niger where some 250 volunteers campaigned online via social media on breast cancer awareness and women’s rights.
And from the human catastrophe in Gaza, where UN Volunteers on the ground are reaching out to support people’s access to medical assistance and food. To the Ukraine response, where UN Volunteers like Raoul assist in the humanitarian response to the influx of refugees and displaced people.
The common denominator for funding some of above assignments is UNV’s Special Voluntary Fund, which is sourced by 13 countries – Germany, by far, is the largest supporter.
This Fund supports the United Nations’ action on the ground and online through the swift deployment of volunteers during times of crisis and emergency. The Fund is also utilized for volunteering assignments in support of diversity, inclusion, gender parity, and to create opportunities for persons with disabilities.
Connecting the dots from the first volunteer assignments with UNV half a century ago to now, and from local agricultural development to polycrisis response.
The voices of Gudrun and Raoul – and more than 1000 other Germans like them who have volunteered in the UN system – make up the very fabric that defines United Nations Volunteers today; multilateralism, solidarity and inclusion.
This blog is simultaneously published in German in Zeitschrift für die Vereinten Nationen | German Review on the United Nations.