In Esmeraldas, Ecuador, city development and political will flow together to inspire voluntary action in communities. Esmeraldas, a medium-sized coastal city of 95,000, has an active volunteer movement and a highly motivated mayor, Ernesto Estupinan. "Civic participation has increased a lot because of the help of UNV," the mayor said. "Everyone knows the work they do is very important."
UN Volunteers Berta Brusilovsky of Spain and Piedad Ortiz and Mauricio Ojeda, both of Ecuador, advise Esmeraldas' urban planners and engage communities in dialogue -listening to their needs and within months, turning plans into reality.
Engaging local carpenters and a corps of neighbourhood volunteers, the team has reconstructed six school buildings destroyed by harsh weather and falling trees.

In the city's Tercer Piso district, UN Volunteers meet regularly with residents to talk over opportunities to improve their community - inthis case, ways tospruce up the area to attract tourists arriving on cruise ships just a few hundred metres away. At the nearby port where some 4,000 people are employed, the UNV team works with NGOs to plan fishing projects such as a fishery school for 300 unemployed youth where they can acquire the skills they need to enter the trade. This work in Ecuador is part of the Intracities Volunteerism network under which UN Volunteers in Jamaica and Yemen also build chains of contacts for community development.

• Creating a forum for citizens to raise their concerns, UNV helps boost taxpayer confidence in authorities and revenue collection at Ghana's Tema Municipal Assembly (TMA). Bringing merchants, traders, butchers, drivers, artisans and snack bar owners together with the TMA, UN Volunteers work to build trust in people to honour their tax obligations. The work is part of a wider UNDP and UN-HABITAT approach to reverse low trends in revenue collection. Both sides gain. While merchants enjoy better security and sanitation at markets and an open channel to air grievances through the new Civic Action Plan Implementation Committee, the TMA reports a net increase in their revenue generation to further improve conditions in the communities.
• Encouraging active citizen participation in development, community members and local authorities in Albania collaborate with the help of UNV. Under a local governance programme supported by UNDP and UNV, they discuss ways to improve public services during training workshops conducted at the communal, municipal, regional and central levels. Beyond supporting the government decentralization plan, UN Volunteers in Hekal have mobilized local volunteers to repair a badly damaged road so that a health centre could reopen. In Cakran, UN Volunteers have promoted a training course for tailors and coached graduates on how to obtain microcredit to start up their own businesses.