Volunteerism in peacekeeping and peacebuilding contributes to interventions in post-conflict environments addressing short-term, early recovery emergency needs in addition to building local and national capacities and understanding between states and its citizens to rebuild mutual trust.

In the priority area of community resilience for climate change and disaster risk reduction, the critical involvement of volunteers has been in disaster risk management, particularly by strengthening the capacity of communities to respond to and prevent disasters.

Supporting the operations of various UN agencies in humanitarian assistance and emergency relief, UN Volunteers engage in a wide range of assignments with the ultimate aim to save and protect the lives of people such as refugees and internally displaced persons, to alleviate suffering and to maintain human dignity.

National UN Volunteers come from all walks of life. In the health sector UNV’s partners have requested volunteers knowledgeable and experienced as general medical practitioners, medical specialists and doctors specialized in public health; staff counselors and psychologists; midwives and nurses, dentists, pharmacists and laboratory technicians.

This publication synthesizes the process a potential volunteer should complete in order to register with UNV.  It highlights a two-step process that covers understanding essential information for potential UN Volunteers and submitting basic information to create an account in the UNV candidate pool, then subsequently regularly tracking and updating, ‘My Profile’ – a website that allows potential candidates to access their account.

UN Volunteers are skilled and have the expertise to help alleviate the plight of people in desperate situations.  Through their commitment, local knowledge and neutral status, they are able to build bridges between stakeholders in affected communities, by promoting mutual trust, enhancing ownership and building capacity.