Remarks by Ad de Raad, Executive Coordinator, a.i.,
United Nations Volunteers on the occasion of the World Summit on the Information Society Geneva, 10-12 December 2003 Read

Bonn, Germany: Every 5 December since 1985, people in countries around the world have celebrated volunteerism and recognized the crucial work of volunteer involving organizations and individual volunteers at local, national and international levels. Over the years, rallies, parades, community volunteering projects, environmental awareness, free medical care and speeches by high-ranking government officials have all featured prominently on International Volunteer Day (IVD). The largest celebration took place in 2001 at the close of the International Year of Volunteers (IYV) in over 100 countries. To many, that seemed to be the pinnacle. But don’t be deceived: volunteers of all ages, races and cultures, are still climbing. Read

From the perspective of the Programme that I represent, i.e. the United Nations Volunteers Programme, it will not surprise you that I will use this brief intervention to highlight the indispensible role that voluntary action and volunteers play in any strategy of disaster reduction, including early warning. Read

What I would like to do this morning, is to address the strong link that exists between the mobilization of social capital and volunteerism. I will do that by drawing on the work of the organization that I represent, the United Nations Volunteers, or UNV. UNV is a special United Nations programme that focuses on the promotion of volunteerism as a development concept, and the mobilization of volunteers. Read