Isolation, war, famine, arid climate, poor access to basic social services, and lack of access to drinking water and electricity are common issues in Androy region. In the face of difficult external and environmental conditions, it has been challenging to recruit high-performing, skilled, and dedicated individuals to build a local team for the Androy region.

As the world commemorated October 17th as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, key 'Buy Malawi' strategy stakeholders recognized the initiative as pivotal in tackling poverty in Malawi. Like most developing countries, a large proportion of the population generally prefer imported products and services to local ones.

With support from the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme and Lesotho’s Ministry of Gender, Youth, Sports and Recreation (MGYSR), a decent two-roomed house was built and handed over to Ts’osane family in the Butha-Buthe district where the Ts’osane family lives. Youth volunteers and the community members assisted with the construction of the group of houses.

On the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, the UN pays homage to the victims of hunger and social exclusion to encourage multilateral partnerships that are based on solid, compassionate responses to their struggles. Poverty has numerous repercussions: hunger and food insecurity, increased crime and child mortality rates, political instability, corruption and dysfunctional governance. We are seeing now that poverty is a prime driver of violent extremism, breeding and intensifying conflicts worldwide.

Blanca is a Spanish UN Youth Volunteer; assigned in a UN Joint Programme led by UNDP in Guatemala, empowering isolated communities in San Marcos. Blanca de la Cruz (española), Joven Voluntaria ONU internacional, presta servicio en un Programa Conjunto del PNUD en Guatemala que trabaja para empoderar a comunidades remotas de San Marcos.

Mohamed Sulaiman Rameez is a UN Volunteer Youth Lead with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sri Lanka.

Two national UN Volunteers working for a UNDP project in Zimbabwe saw their efforts pay off when the livelihood of a local community they were supporting started improving. What these two national UN Volunteeers were not expecting was that their contribution brought to them something in return that was even more valuable: a feeling of joy and a connection to other people.

Astana, Kazakhstan: The only things I knew about Kazakhstan were from a comedy film, and also that it was a huge country. This was before that evening when I opened my email to discover an offer for a United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme’s assignment at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Kazakhstan.