If there were a way to sum up the role of volunteers in helping achieve the MDGs, it would be “not without”. For it is clear: none of the Goals will be met if not also for the engagement, through voluntary action, of many millions of citizens. As this report will demonstrate, UNV’s contribution in making this happen – whether mobilizing volunteers, supporting volunteer involving organizations, or advocating at the international level – continues to reach new heights. In fact, we are gaining ground on all fronts.

Of course, the starting point for countries in working towards the MDGs varies considerably. In places that are rebuilding after war or natural disaster, many people face a number of challenges that hinder their full participation in contributing to the Goals. To reach such populations, UNV works to help create a favourable environment for development to occur. Before Afghanis voted last October 2004 in the country’s first democratic election, UN Volunteers supported the efforts of the United Nations to register 10 million people. And in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, a city devastated by the 26 December tsunamis, UN Volunteers mobilized local volunteer groups to set up community centres to provide counselling and disseminate aid information.

These dedicated men and women form part of a broader force of UN Volunteers who in 2004 constituted UNV’s seventh year of consecutive growth: 7,300 people from 163 countries served in 139 countries worldwide. The largest concentration of UN Volunteers was in Africa (3,050), where 63 per cent of the volunteers were themselves African. The number of UN Volunteers from developing countries reached 5,617 or 77 per cent – the highest level ever and a remarkable indicator of South-South cooperation. And through UNV’s Online Volunteering service, celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, people from the South and North have continued to connect with organizations working for development by way of the Internet.

In the past year, UNV took every appropriate opportunity to advocate the role of volunteerism in development and the importance of engaging volunteers in the campaign to reach the MDGs. Highlights included the report of UNV to the UNDP Executive Board; its role in co-organizing the first International Conference on Volunteerism and the MDGs held in Islamabad, Pakistan; and its participation in the World Conference on Disaster Reduction organized in Kobe, Japan. The World Volunteer Web, the global online volunteer resource base managed by UNV, has evolved to be a prime tool for networking, information sharing and dissemination, and advocacy. As the focal point for International Volunteer Day (IVD), celebrated on 5 December, it is holding true to its mandate of furthering the momentum that was realized during the International Year of Volunteers (IYV) 2001.

In the second half of 2005, UNV will have two opportunities at the 60th Session of the United Nations General Assembly to advance global support for volunteerism in development: the 2005 World Summit and the Report of the UN Secretary-General on the Follow-up to IYV. These high-level gatherings will enable UNV to push forward the volunteer agenda with world leaders and decision-makers. Most importantly, it will provide UNV the chance to further strengthen its work and encourage more people to take part in activities that contribute directly to the attainment of the MDGs. There is no doubt in my mind that the inclusion of volunteers as partners in this united effort will make the realization of the Goals that much closer.