20 June 2004

Bonn, Germany: "By working on a peer to peer basis, volunteers earn the trust of the people much more quickly. The exchange of ideas and skills helps build a lasting culture of trust, peace and solidarity which goes beyond all borders."
Lilian Martinez, UN Volunteer serving as peace promoter in Guatemala

Building trust and promoting understanding and tolerance among youth in Bosnia and Herzegovina are the key objectives of the UNDP and UNV Integrated Youth Programme. UN Volunteers are working in 15 municipalities where people displaced by the war continue to return to their former homes.

They support youth organizations to carry out confidence-building activities and skills training as a means to bring about communication between different ethnic groups and to encourage their participation in building an active civil society in the country. Volunteers have helped develop Youth Local Advisory Boards (LAB) with members from different ethnic backgrounds. “The LAB is a great opportunity for us to gather, share ideas on how to help our town and ourselves,” says Goran Knezevic, one of the LAB members. “We are encouraged by seeing that we are not alone, and there are more young people like us, who are doing their best and do not give up,” he says. UN Volunteers also help ensure that local realities both inform and benefit from the design and implementation of youth policies, including the National Youth Action Plan.

In Guinea, in collaboration with UNDP, UNFPA and local broadcasters, UNV has launched a project to promote a culture of peace using mass media, the first such initiative in this country. UN Volunteers work closely with communitybased radio stations and local NGOs to promote a spirit of trust and dialogue among the host population, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and refugees. Working in Haute Guinée and Guinée Forestière, two of the regions most affected by social tensions, the volunteers train local journalists and organizations and help develop educational radio broadcasts focusing on conflict prevention and civic education. They also mobilize local people to volunteer as peace promoters within their communities.

Taking steps to rebuild confidence and infrastructures in Liberia, devastated by 14 years of war, more than 150 UN Volunteers from over 50 countries* are supporting the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). The volunteers, who constitute about one third of UNMIL’s international civilian staff, are serving in a wide range of technical and humanitarian functions including the preparation of elections scheduled to take place in late 2005. Liberia is also an example of a growing trend in UN Volunteers’ activities in peace-keeping missions where, in addition to their assignments, they mobilize local volunteers as well as UN Mission staff to support community-level initiatives. More than 1,200 UN Volunteers are currently serving in nine UN peace operations in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), Eritrea and Ethiopia (UNMEE), Guatemala (MINUGUA), Ivory Coast (UNOCI), Kosovo (UNMIK), Liberia (UNMIL), Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), and Timor-Leste (UNMISET).

In 2003, in the aftermath of the worst flooding in Sri Lanka in 50 years, a team of Indian UN Volunteers arrived within hours to provide relief. They were among 200 Indian nationals serving at the front lines of a disaster mitigation and prevention programme developed by UNDP and the Government of India following the devastating cyclone and earthquake in Orissa and Gujarat. The experience they had acquired providing survivors with shelter, food and first aid, helping contain epidemics, rebuilding infrastructure and using ICT strategically in India was put to good use in Sri Lanka. The UN Volunteers helped authorities and communities assess damage, streamline information, distribute relief, and acted as focal points at district level for local and international donor assistance.

*Numbers of 31 May, 2004