In Tunisia, young women and men continue to experience political, economic, social and cultural marginalization, especially in the south. The obstacles to inclusion are complex and multidimensional, so the United Nations launched an inter-agency project to promote social cohesion and sustain peace through endogenous processes, mechanisms and structures. Nine national UN Volunteers with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have been coordinating this project.

“What we are doing here is giving an opportunity to Colombian society to heal,” Álvaro Javier Riascos Gómez says. He had already collaborated with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) since 2015 within different initiatives, but it was in 2018 that he began to serve with the UNDP Country Office as a UN Volunteer. For almost two years, this volunteer was in charge of monitoring the Reincorporation Process of former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) members in the Department of Cauca, in western Colombia. Álvaro served as a technical assistant and worked very closely with the governmental Agency for Reincorporation and Normalization (ARN).

Along with the challenge of tackling the worst public health emergency of the century comes the responsibility to show solidarity across sectors and generations. This responsibility is willingly assumed by volunteers ready to help their communities face the crisis everywhere around the world. A pertinent example is Kosovo*, where youth constitutes the majority of the population. Here, UN Community Volunteer Tatjana Nedeljkovič (25) assists her neighbours in becoming more resilient amidst the pandemic , with the supported by the joint UN Youth for Kosovo project.

Young UN Volunteers Silvija, Kristina and Meti do their part in assisting their community to overcome the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic. Although they have different educational backgrounds (music, medicine and literature), all three are members of the UN Volunteer cohort in Serbia, with the mission of being the link between the Roma community and governmental institutions.

"I work closely with local partners to develop integrated sexual and reproductive health services, includng maternal and adolescent reproductive health and family planning, especially for vulnerable people," Anta Diop says proudly. "In Senegal, we  believe that a small daily deed can change the lives of many people. It is a real honour to participate in building communities." The 24-year-old joined the management team of the Saint Louis health district in northern Senegal a few months ago as a UN Community Volunteer.

As the leading humanitarian organization addressing hunger, the World Food Programme assists nearly 100 million people in 83 countries each year. In 2019, WFP in the Eurasia region welcomed two UN Volunteer specialists from the Republic of Korea, who contributed to its framework through monitoring and research.

“As a UN Volunteer, volunteerism is embedded in the heart and can be reflected at any time. When the novel coronavirus outbreak occurred in China, during the emergency, every UN Volunteer came forward to join the fight” says Zhao Tiansong, UN Volunteer serving as a Coordinator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) China’s Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Development Project.