The day I received an alert for an online volunteering opportunity with the UNV Latin American and the Caribbean Portfolio, I had already applied for different assignments throughout the years. My happiness was immense. My perseverance gave me the possibility to collaborate, not only contributing with knowledge about the reality of my own country, Venezuela, but also with other groups and situations in other latitudes, in this case Nicaragua.

The Prime Minister spoke enthusiastically about his clear commitment to create a spirit of volunteerism for the promotion of development activities in Mali and "to contribute in solving the social, economic, cultural and environmental problems in order to build a more just and prosperous society." In fact, the Malian Prime Minister sees volunteerism as "a strategy for implementing the government's projects and programmes in a spirit of participation based on the need for the socio-economic growth of communities.

We live in a world influenced by social networks, and people invest more time in them every day. Through social media we have the opportunity to share our everyday lives with others, and at the same time get inspired by other people and their posts.

Between February and May 2016, these volunteers dedicated their time, experience and knowledge to the local realities of their regions or countries, and shared their ideas and impressions about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their social networks, mainly Facebook and Twitter, using the hashtags #ODS_LAC and #UNVLAC.

Between February and May 2016, these volunteers dedicated their time, experience and knowledge to the local realities of their regions or countries, and shared their ideas and impressions about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their social networks, mainly Facebook and Twitter, using the hashtags #ODS_LAC and #UNVLAC.

International Volunteer Day 2016’s theme #GlobalApplause – give volunteers a hand, recognizes volunteers worldwide and all they do in making peace and sustainable development a reality.

Every year, around 12,000 UN Online Volunteers team up with hundreds of organizations to address sustainable development challenges anywhere in the world. The UNV Online Volunteering service enables people around the globe to find opportunities posted by civil society organizations, public institutions and UN agencies. By supporting these organizations, volunteers develop their skills and become part of a global online community of peers, sharing the goal of advancing human development.

By Toily Kurbanov, UNV Deputy Executive Coordinator, Management Services On Monday, 5 December the world will celebrate International Volunteer Day, designated by the United Nations in 1985 to applaud the inspiration of millions of volunteers throughout the world and their contributions to peace and development. 

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have an important focus on partnerships and have a vital function to achieve peace and development in the coming years. Partners in the private sector are certainly major stakeholders, and their involvement is now expanding much beyond charity. The private sector has a wealth of knowledge, expertise and implementation capacity that must be leveraged to find development solutions.

On Thursday, 13 October, as part of the first day of the Partnerships Forum in Bonn, “Blue Room talks” took place in the World Conference Center. Blue Room talks - a concept of the UNV Communications Section in collaboration with Deutsche Welle Akademie, are a way for UNV to showcase the real life experiences of UN Volunteers.