United Nations Volunteers, in partnership with different UN entities, supports the UN System efforts to shape the post-2015 agenda.

United Nations Volunteers, in partnership with different UN entities, supports the UN System efforts to shape the post-2015 agenda.

UNV Executive Coordinator Flavia Pansieri is in Australia this week meeting with government and civil society representatives to share information about the unique contribution of volunteerism to peace and development and the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers (IYV+10).

A famous Arab proverb states, "The 1,000 miles walk starts with one step." In the case of southern Morocco, local communities of the Iguiouaz oases and UN Volunteers have been making progressive strides in adapting to climate change to protect their environment. The population of this region relies mostly on farming, arboriculture and livestock farming, but fertile land is scarce when rain is infrequent. To address this situation, 600 community members have mobilized to strengthen the ecosystem's resilience to climate change and increase the adaptive capacities of the communities.

Among the 7,000 islands and 19 million people that are the Philippines, the nation faces issues in making progress towards two MDGs in particular: enrollment of children in schools, and reducing the maternal mortality rate. In order to address these concerns, UNV has taken the initiative to raise awareness of MDGs through campaigns. In the "Stand Up Take Action" initiative, volunteers aimed to present the MDGs "in motion" to as many people as possible: One activity included a bicycle ride and another involved 100 university dancers at a local shopping mall.

It was like a "battlefield from a scene in a war movie," is how one disaster management officer described villages after the tsunami of 2009, the worst natural disaster for Samoans in living memory. Despite the challenges that natural disasters present in terms of progress towards the MDGs, an incredible surge of post-tsunami volunteerism has surfaced to help communities recover and ensure that they could protect themselves against future calamities.

Painting the MDGs.

In many cities and town across Uzbekistan, UN Volunteers not only help communities but are simultaneously changing the notion of what it means to volunteer in this part of the world. They visit schools and engage children and youth to volunteer.

As part of the next State of the World’s Volunteerism Report, UNV commissioned a study based on original multi-country quantitative data to understand patterns of volunteer participation during the global COVID-19 pandemic, volunteer motivations and experiences, and what these might mean for people’s voluntary participation in the remainder of the Decade of Action.