When Nepal experienced a devastating earthquake on 25 April last year with the epicentre close to Kathmandu, UNV responded by rapidly recruiting about 200 national UN Volunteers, funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and fielded them in such vital areas as coordination of the response effort, rubble removal and early reconstruction.

A groundbreaking partnership between the Burkina Faso Ministry of Youth and Employment, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme and France Volontaires in 2007 led to the development of the first national law on volunteerism in West Africa, and mobilized more than 13,000 youth volunteers to support national development, including more than a thousand young volunteer teachers who served in classrooms that otherwise would have been closed due to a lack of staff.

Following the momentous political transitions that swept the Arab region in recent years, the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme’s groundbreaking Arab Youth Volunteering for a Better Future regional project is building trust between young people, their communities, and governments in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen.