The high-level gathering convened more than 450 onsite participants and more than 3000 online viewers. They included representatives from the Government, UN partners, members of the Diplomatic Corps, Volunteer Involved Organizations, academia, influencers, and volunteers who came together to recognize the spirit of volunteerism in shaping a better world.

Barry’s driving motivation to become a UN Volunteer stems from his proud South African roots and lived experience. He witnessed, firsthand, the growing pains of the newly democratized rainbow nation under the inspirational leadership of Nelson Mandela. As a senior civil servant during the post-Apartheid era, he was pivotal in the reconstruction and development of a new government. Decades later, this is a repetitive theme at the core of Barry’s DNA.

Collaborating with people with Down syndrome is very rare or almost never happens in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Non-governmental organizations estimate that slightly more than a thousand people with Down syndrome live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while only three to four of them are permanently employed.

As peace gives impetus for Iraq to move from a crisis context to development, United Nations Volunteers (UNV) looks forward to working with the Government of Iraq and integrating volunteers into the country's sustainable development agenda. --Kyoko Yokosuka, UNV Deputy Executive Coordinator These were the words of Ms Kyoko Yokosuka, UNV Deputy Executive Coordinator, as she addressed the audience at the high-level International Volunteer Day (IVD) event in Baghdad. 

The project sustaining peace and social cohesion in Bosnia and Herzegovina through enhanced inter-municipal and inter-entity cooperation on local services is implemented by UNDP in nine locations acorss the country. It engaged 18 UN Community Volunteers within their communities. At the beginning, two of them shared their positive stories and experiences about their volunteer engagement.

My motivation to become a UN Volunteer stems from my belief in the power of every individual to effect change and contribute to the creation of a more just and sustainable world. --Naida Spahic, UN Volunteer Grant Investment Package Monitoring Assistant with UNDP, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"Our team specializes in the development of investment cases for health, spanning non-communicable diseases, tobacco and alcohol control, air pollution, primary health care, health tax revenue and road safety," states Luis D'Souza, Policy Analyst with UNDP HIV, Health and Development, Türkiye.

With approximately 1,3 million population, Timor-Leste has made milestones in ending violence against women and girls and intimate partner violence. More than 75 per cent of the population under 35 and more than half of the youth live in rural areas and have been unable to shift the high tolerance for men’s perpetration of violence against women.

Carol is an Irish-funded UN Youth Volunteer with the UNDP Multi-Country Office for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean serving as Assistant Gender Analyst. She majored in political science and economics and her interest in gender issues and equality led her to work in multiple organizations and other volunteer positions. Her work experience and passion for development called her to be a UN Volunteer.

I always wanted to work in the UN system but didn't have the experience. So after completing my graduate degree in social sciences, I started working with a Finnish non-governmental organization as a gender focal point. My university degree in gender and the new gender role seemed like a match made in heaven. A few years into that, I came across an opportunity as a UN Volunteer. It was for a pioneering strategic gender mainstreaming programme. I recall we were a group of 12 volunteers supporting the UN Development Programme's (UNDP) regional gender advisors.