Knowledge about volunteering and its practices, dynamics, benefits and challenges, is spread across many stakeholders across the globe. To improve the integration of volunteerism in the 2030 Agenda, policy makers and development practitioners need specific types of knowledge to improve policy and practice. The goal of the UNV Knowledge Portal is to consolidate and make volunteering data accessible to inform policy and advocacy. It matches those who collect data and those who make policy. The portal covers different areas of evidence across three sections:

Knowledge about volunteering and its practices, dynamics, benefits and challenges, is spread across many stakeholders across the globe. To improve the integration of volunteerism in the 2030 Agenda, policy makers and development practitioners need specific types of knowledge to improve policy and practice. The goal of the UNV Knowledge Portal is to consolidate and make volunteering data accessible to inform policy and advocacy. It matches those who collect data and those who make policy. The portal covers different areas of evidence across three sections:

In the Arab region, volunteering is founded on the collectivist principle of Al faza’a, a surge of solidarity, where people volunteer in support of others, regardless of socioeconomic status. In the African continent, volunteering is best described as the ultimate expression of social solidarity.

A year before the global pandemic began, Francisco, who had recently graduated in medicine, was in Roraima facing the migrant emergency which is yet to be resolved. Serving as a UN Youth Volunteer during the first half of the year would teach him a life lesson that changed his perspective.

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2020 is a year of urgency – and not just because of the coronavirus outbreak. Rising inequalities, long-lasting conflicts, complex emergencies, climate crisis, migration, displacement and the threat of ecosystem collapse currently affect the lives and livelihoods of billions of people. Locally led responses to these challenges are critical and volunteers are often at the helm of local efforts.

This paper is divided into three parts. The first explores attempts to capture and describe how volunteering has changed over the years. This section examines the dominant conceptualizations of volunteering as a social practice and explores how research has taken into account the contribution of volunteering to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda. The second section briefly revisits the 1999 typology and discusses how it can be revised and updated in light of the changes described.