Takako Kaneda (Japan) serves as a UN Volunteer Logistics Officer with WFP under the Human Resource Development Programme for Peacebuilding and Development. Dedicated to project and information management, HRD-UN Volunteer Takako Kaneda provided technical support to those WFP country offices in the Eastern Africa, including the most volatile countries Somalia and South Sudan.

Education plays a very important role in eradicating poverty and improving health and sanitation, leading to better economic and social development and higher living standards. On 4 November 2015 in Paris, the international education community adopted the Education 2030 Framework for Action, the foundation that will anchor global efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4).

Statistics indicate that worldwide, more than 700 million women alive today were married as children. A concerning 17 per cent of them, or 125 million, live in Africa. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have set a target to eliminate this practice by 2030. According to recent data, women who marry as children have fewer years of schooling than those who marry as adults, potentially leading to lower labor force participation and poorer long-term economic opportunities for themselves and their families.

It was all joy in August 2018 when I received an email that I had been selected as a United Nations Volunteer; I would be serving as a Public Information Officer with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). The excitement was palpable! I had been looking forward to working abroad and then out of the blue came this wonderful opportunity to volunteer in South Sudan – a nation with a chequered history, but with such huge potential. I didn’t expect it to be so sudden. Immediately, I started reading about the country, the geopolitical nuances, and my role.

The Government of Malawi has responded to this challenge by seeking to institutionalize a mechanism for sustainable peace through a National Peace Architecture (NPA).  Supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the NPA is a national initiative that will provide an institutionalised platform for proactive collaborative dialogue, peace building and conflict prevention in Malawi. 

UNESCO’s Global Citizenship Education (GCED) works to instil in learners of all ages the values, attitudes and behaviours that support responsible global citizenship: creativity, innovation and commitment to peace, human rights and sustainable development. Combined with Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) these interdisciplinary learning methodologies are integral to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4 Goal (SDG4) which seeks to promote equality and inclusive education for all.  

Drawing from a recently published book by Dr Richard Munang, Regional Climate Change Coordinator for Africa at UN Environment (UNEP) titled “Making Africa Work Through the Power of Innovative Volunteerism”, the key take-aways of the inaugural event were: Africa is at a demographic and development tipping point Currently, Africa’s population stands at almost 16 per cent of the world’s total population. By 2050, the United Nations projects that Africa will account for half of the world population growth.

I enthusiastically joined the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), sub-office Gambella, as an international UN Volunteer to contribute towards addressing the plight of persons of concern and provision of protection services which is the core mandate of UNHCR. Since December 2015, I have been the ‘boots on the ground', managing and coordinating the fleet and transport facilitation for UNHCR staff.

South Sudan has been at civil war since December 2013, claiming the lives of tens of thousands of civilians and forcing more than four million people to flee their homes. The United Nations hosts about 200,000 of those who have been displaced   in Protection of Civilians sites across the country.

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.