Resolution A/RES/73/140 was co-facilitated through the Third Committee of the General Assembly by the Permanent Missions of Brazil and Japan, and was cosponsored by 124 Member States. The resolution follows the Secretary General’s report ‘Plan of Action to integrate volunteering into the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’, which was presented to the Third Committee at its opening session on 2 October 2018.

In Niamey, 10 UN volunteers serve in UNHCR offices as interpreters. Thanks to their commitment, capacities in languages and communications as well as linguistic and cultural proximity with the refugees, they improve the quality of protection and assistance provided to refugees, facilitate interviews, registrations, medical services etc., to better guarantee their rights and well-being. Gabriela Fana Kidane, a young Swedish interpreter of Eritrean origin is an international UN Volunteer with UNHCR in Niamey, Niger.

Where public support and social safety nets are absent, volunteering emerges as a fundamental survival strategy. For example, the SWVR found that in the Dzaleka refugee camp in Malawi, a group of people with disabilities organized to improve their limited access to education and to address their social exclusion in the camp. Without the voluntary networks they established, their needs would have remained invisible to others in the camp.

For this special day, the National Volunteer Coordination and Promotion Committee and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme will organize a panel discussion on the impact of volunteering on resilient communities in the region with the participation of Representatives of the Government of Senegal, United Nations Agencies, local and international volunteers.

In Asia and the Pacific, there are nearly 29 million full-time equivalent volunteers. Volunteers are answering the call to serve their communities, strengthening local ownership and building their communities resilience against natural disasters, economic stresses and political shocks.

Prior to the thematic solution forum, H.E. Serei Chumneas, Under Secretary of State, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Kingdom of Cambodia, spoke about the development results of the IBSA project at the 15-year Anniversary Celebration and Report Launch of the IBSA Fund.

"I was born in Gaza and I have always lived in the Strip," Alaa explains. "I was aware of the situation that civilians are facing here, as I have experienced it in my daily life. But through my volunteering experience with OCHA, I became acquainted with a large amount of data, statistics, and reports that have deepened my knowledge of the problems affecting the Strip: from unemployment to the shortage of electricity, water, drugs, and so on."

The 2018 GSSD Expo will be one of the last major opportunities for stakeholders to come up with evidence-based policy dialogues and knowledge discussions before the Second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation (BAPA+40) scheduled to take place in Buenos Aries March 2019. The theme of the 2018 GSSD Expo is “Showcasing Institutions Supporting South-South and Triangular Cooperation in Preparation for BAPA+40”.

Farah is only 10 months old. Her pain cannot be expressed by words: only through tears. Farah spends nights and days crying because of her unimaginable suffering from malnutrition. She lives with her parents in Ash Shamayatayn district in Taiz Governorate. “There is nothing that I can do” her father told us. Although he is a college graduate, he has not been working since the war started – RDP staff, Yemen

International Volunteer Day is celebrated by many non-governmental organizations, civil society, and the private sector, among others. It is also marked and supported by the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme. UNV coordinates a campaign to promote IVD every year, building on the impact volunteers have in communities, nationally and globally for peace and development.