In the past months, the Youth4Climate initiative has benefited from the efforts of two Online Volunteers: Issakha Khouzeifi and Silvia Alfonsi. Over a period of four weeks, they supported the UNDP team by mentoring young people and helping them in preparing and improving their proposals in response to the Youth4climate call for solutions.

The Great Green Wall, an African-led initiative, aims to restore Africa's degraded landscapes and transform millions of lives in one of the world's most vulnerable regions, the Sahel. The initiative aligns perfectly with the broader sustainable development goals of the United Nations. It addresses 15 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including challenges such as climate change, desertification, drought, famine, conflict and migration.  

Seven UN Volunteers are serving with UNCCD and the Panafrican Agency for the GGWI in West and Central Africa. They are based in Burkina Faso, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal. Their collective endeavors exemplify how the GGWI goes beyond 'simply' planting trees. It aims to improve livelihoods and combat climate change on a continental scale.

At the heart of this community-driven initiative are three UN Community Volunteers assigned to FAO: Fatoumata Ka, Abdoulahat Ngom and Amadou Fall.  

UNEP is actively seeking young, passionate, and skilled talent from less represented regions of the world to join the organization and become the environmental leaders of tomorrow. This online recruitment drive will last until 15 May 2023. This is your chance to help us all work together to protect our Earth; your chance to help us shape your own future. --Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, speaking to potential applicants in a video message

Q. Anita, can you tell us about the programme you are serving with? A. The programmes where I am involved are the FAO-Kosovo Programming Framework and Programme on Forestry titled "Support to strengthening sustainable and multi-purpose forest management to improve rural livelihoods and address climate change in Kosovo." Both will enhance Kosovo’s capacities for sustainable use of natural resources and contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), for instance, Life on Land.

Dyah joined the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) Project as a UN Youth Volunteer in 2018. BIOFIN is a global partnership that addresses the challenges of biodiversity financing in a comprehensive way. This initiative provides an innovative methodology that enables countries to measure biodiversity expenditure in the medium term and identify financial solutions that are most suitable for bridging biodiversity and financial disparities.

The Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) is a global initiative under UNDP that currently operates in 41 countries to create sustainable financial solutions that not only protect biodiversity, but also let it flourish. As part of the initiative, Joshua Mabeta, a national UN Volunteer Research Assistant with UNDP, has been working to achieve the broader biodiversity conservation goal by developing the Biodiversity Finance Plan.

Fresh out of university, I was intrigued by a poster advertising for UN Volunteer assignments. I applied and was soon deployed to the National Parks Directorate in Chad from 1971-1974. My UN Volunteer experience benefited me enormously, both personally and professionally. First and foremost, I met my Chadian wife, with whom I have four wonderful children, all born in Chad.