Damascus, Syria. / Mr Kurbanov will meet with United Nations entity partners to discuss the United Nations humanitarian and development response to the crisis in Syria and its impact in the region. While in Lebanon and Jordan, Mr Kurbanov will also meet with some of the 222 UN Volunteers deployed as part of UNV’s Syria crisis response across the region (in Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt.)

People around the world are facing an interconnected array of social, environmental and economic barriers to sustainable development. In this landscape, solutions for economic and human development require collaborative efforts by multiple sectors of society such as the private sector — a key player in the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). When knowledge, technical expertise and innovative practices are applied to community investment, aligning economic development with human development, everybody wins.

Volunteering and South-South Cooperation share common ideals of mutuality, respect, and equality that make them perfect partners. Today there is great potential for them to combine for mutual benefit. The volunteering landscape has shifted and programmes are no longer confined to traditional Northern donor countries. New volunteering organizations have emerged in the Global South as volunteerism becomes increasingly mainstream, more organized, and better governed.

V-Force volunteers “discover their passion” for community development

UNV: What do you see as the intrinsic values volunteerism can bring to the human development agenda? Selim Jahan: Firstly, volunteerism is undoubtedly helping the human development agenda. Volunteers are working in areas such as education, health, water and sanitation, improving living conditions and, in a nutshell, providing people with all kinds of support. Volunteerism enhances human development, everywhere.

UNV: What do you see as the intrinsic values volunteerism can bring to the human development agenda? Selim Jahan: Firstly, volunteerism is undoubtedly helping the human development agenda. Volunteers are working in areas such as education, health, water and sanitation, improving living conditions and, in a nutshell, providing people with all kinds of support. Volunteerism enhances human development, everywhere.

Karol Alejandra Arámbula Carrillo (Mexico) has been a Online Volunteer since 2011. One of her motivations to join UNV’s Online Volunteering service was the desire to help organisations in other countries carry out their work, especially in the field of gender equality. 

As one of the thirteen women who served as engineers in the demolition and debris management operations of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Anima supported the earthquake-affected areas by using her skills in a traditionally male-dominated field. “Engineering is for boys while girls are supposed to study management and work in banks,” she recalls her uncle as saying when she was still a student asking for career advice years ago.

A young man walks down a crowded street. To the left of him is a gang offering him quick cash to join them. To the right is a group of young volunteers, cleaning up the nearby river, handing him a leaflet that says, “volunteer to make a difference”. Which way does the young man turn? To the left for quick cash, or to the right where his potential lies?

A young man walks down a crowded street. To the left of him is a gang offering him quick cash to join them. To the right is a group of young volunteers, cleaning up the nearby river, handing him a leaflet that says, “volunteer to make a difference”. Which way does the young man turn? To the left for quick cash, or to the right where his potential lies?