This year, International Women’s Day comes on the heels of an unprecedented global movement for women’s rights, equality and justice. Echoing the priority theme of the upcoming 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, International Women’s Day draws attention to the rights and activism of rural women, who make up over a quarter of the world population, and are being left behind in every measure of development.

My daily work is very busy and captivating. I promote UNDP and the United Nations system projects and work with national and international partners to support our actions and ensure the visibility of our results. I help coordinate the communication activities of UN agencies in the country along with other UN communication officers. I meet regularly beneficiaries of UNDP, especially  young people, in order to conduct interviews or reports. I have found myself passionate about communicating about the SDGs and I regularly train local NGOs on this topic.

Under this year’s IVD theme “Volunteers act first. Here. Everywhere“, two events were planned in the Montserrado County in the North West of Liberia. For the very first time, the UNV Field Unit also organized awareness events in Grand Gedeh County (Zwedru) and Grand Cape Mount County (Robertsport).

In his opening statement, Mr Tegegnework Gettu, UNDP Associate Administrator, stated that volunteerism was strongly linked to the SDGs, as it was a cross-cutting issue. He emphasized that UNV – through this new SF – would help UNDP deliver on the 2030 Agenda. Mr Gettu noted that he was thoroughly impressed by the UN Volunteers that he had met in the field (read his full remarks.)

Remarks by Olivier Adam, UNV Executive Coordinator, on the occasion of the UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS Executive Board - Agenda Item 5:  United Nations Volunteers, UNV Strategic Framework, 2018-2021. New York, 24 January 2018. Thank you, Mr. Associate Administrator, for your introductory remarks. I am grateful to you and the Administrator for your leadership, and your strong support to volunteers, volunteerism and UNV. Mr. President, Excellencies and Distinguished Members of the Executive Board,

I am a volunteer. Most often than not the response I get sounds like ‘You are just doing something for free? Girl you should get a real job’ or ‘So you hand out fliers every day?’ Mmm.. Not really.

UNV with the special support of UNDP Sri Lanka under the Climate Change Adaptation Project (CCAP) joined hands with farm organizations, students of the Wayamba University, DMC Srilanka, the Volunteer Task Force and nearly 500 community volunteers to plant a select variety of trees on the riparian buffer of 10 selected tanks in the region of Galgamuwa Kurunegala.

Since late 2016, UNV has been strengthening efforts to facilitate the intentional deployment of UN Volunteers with disabilities, and collaborate with UN and other partners on delivering results for persons with disabilities.

The training, which occurred between 31 October and 3 November, included interactive sessions, group work, case studies, role modelling and competency design to better understand the complexity of sustainable development and to identify comparative advantages of volunteerism in implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The main causes of forest and land degradation in the country include deforestation, inappropriate agricultural practices, forest fires, over-grazing and demographic pressures. A survey conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) reported that the annual deforestation rate between 2003 and 2010 had been 1.73 per cent. If this alarming trend were to persist, 17.3 per cent of the forest in the country would disappear by 2021 and all forests in Timor-Leste by 2071.