In 2018, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) launched a job creation programme for 3,000 young people in Mali. Daouda Michel Sawadogo (Burkina Faso) is based in Mopti and served under this programme as an international UN Volunteer Youth Specialist. Idleness makes young people easy prey for armed groups who can then easily recruit them.  The challenge is to help them find an occupation that meets their aspirations. --Daouda Michel Sawadogo, international UN Volunteer Youth Specialist

I support a UNDP project on Integrated Landscape Management for Improved Livelihoods and Ecosystem Resilience in Mount Elgon. This aims to empower communities to manage their production landscapes in an integrated manner for improved livelihoods and ecosystem resilience.

It is often said that experience is the best teacher. As a UN Volunteer helping communicate complex environmental issues, my everyday challenge is to make nature relevant to people’s everyday experiences and needs. Our experiences and immediate needs shape our outlook on life. However, biodiversity and environmental issues are often too complex and difficult to relate to. Most people, in their daily routines, live and work in cities, spending the bulk of their time indoors, surrounded by concrete walls and engulfed in a world that seems largely man-made.

As a national UN Volunteer, I contribute to the work of the Global Land Indicators Initiative (GLII): a collaborative and inclusive process for developing global land indicators and whose partners aim at making global-scale monitoring of land governance a reality by 2021. GLII is hosted and facilitated by the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) in the Land, Housing and Shelter Section of the Urban Practices Branch of UN-Habitat in Nairobi, Kenya.

With a particular focus on the protection of civilians, all my efforts were geared towards communicating with parties to the conflict and identifying ways forward, while simultaneously managing and preventing conflicts. I met many people – from the opposition, the towns and the villages, government representatives and ‘monyomiji’ (youth) from different tribes – to discuss the peace process and the problems faced by the communities while maintaining peace and working on the development of their respective communities at the same time.

The partnership of UNV, IBSA Fund and the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport aimed to increase the ability of Cambodian youth to build their skills and find decent work through volunteerism, as well as contribute better to their own development and the economic development of their country by reducing poverty amongst youth. 

It takes two hours to cover the 60 kilometers between Batouri, the capital of the Kadey department to the Lolo refugee site. Near the border with the Central African Republic (CAR) in the commune of Kentzou, the camp hosts a population of over 13,000 refugees from CAR. Fleeing a war-torn country, these vulnerable communities, predominately Muslims, settled at the site from the beginning of 2014.

The West Bank field office, located in East Jerusalem, supports over 800,000 refugees of whom 25 per cent live in 19 camps.  Some camps are located next to major towns, while others are in rural areas. Takuma gained first-hand practical field experience during his assignment, working with project staff across a range of sectors implementing reform initiatives identified in the West Bank Annual Operational Plan and UNWRA Medium Term Strategy. 

In 2013, South Sudan entered a civil war – a conflict which continues till today. The impact of insecurity has had a profound impact on people. Poverty has worsened, from 44.7 per cent in 2011 to 65.9% in 2018. Female-headed households (48.6 per cent of all households in South Sudan) experience more severe depth of poverty owing to detrimental social norms, and limited access to education, productive assets and resources.

The Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) and the National Service Scheme (NSS) are among the world’s largest youth volunteering schemes. They aim to help young people to reach their full social, economic and human potential, while instilling a strong sense of civic engagement facilitating greater youth participation in achieving sustainable development goals collaborated with Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India.