Mme. President, Members of the Executive Board, I am pleased to introduce this session presenting the new Strategic Framework 2022-2025 for the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Programme. Please allow me to highlight some of the key elements of the framework – and the close cooperation between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UNV – before Mr. Kurbanov takes the floor to speak to the Framework in greater detail. This Strategic Framework is the third such one for UNV, with the previous two covering the years 2014-2017 and 2018-2021.

What motivated you to become a UN Volunteer? Led by a strong and innate desire to contribute to making a better world, I have dreamed of working for the UN since I was a child. The UN Volunteers programme provided me with a great opportunity to be a part of the organization and fulfill that dream.

In line with the theme of IVD 2021, Volunteer Now for Our Common Future, partners across the Pacific came together to honour volunteers striving to address development challenges in their communities. 

In Thailand, the UNV Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific marked IVD 2021 together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Across the region, people volunteered to raise awareness of the need for urgent action for humanity’s future. Thousands more pledged to continue volunteering every year. UN Volunteers are important to our work with forcefully displaced persons in the region – thanks to them, we are able to reach people in need. --Ms Clementine Nkweta-Salami, Regional Bureau Director for the East, Horn and Great Lakes Regions of Africa, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said in her social media message

IVD this year coincided with the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme. Country volunteer awards were organized on the occasion in several countries, including in Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia. Another highlight of IVD 2021 in the Arab States included the launch of Al Hussein Bin Abdullah II Award for Voluntary Service by HRH Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan.

Under a partnership with the Government of the Russian Federation established in 2018, UNV is offering UN Volunteer assignments in different areas of expertise for Russian nationals.

International Volunteer Day 2021 called for the recognition of volunteers and volunteerism as powerful and cross-cutting ways of achieving the SDGs and building an inclusive world. A number of UN partner representatives, influencers and national authorities shared via social media their messages of acknowledgement and appreciation for the support of volunteers.

In Ukraine, events to mark IVD kicked off on 5 December, with a workshop on Innovations for long-term volunteering. The development of volunteerism for youth was the topic of discussion at a major online event held on 7 December, hosted with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and facilitated by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

What do you do as a UN Volunteer? The Global Fund’s COVID-19 response programme aims to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the fight to defeat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and promotes urgent improvements in health and community systems.