26 June 2005

Recognizing that good governance is the backbone of efforts to meet the MDGs, UNV assists all levels of governments and communities in reinforcing governing structures, creating space for participation and enhancing links among stakeholders.

On October 9, 2004, more than eight million Afghanis went to the polls to vote in the country’s first democratic presidential election. Reaching this point required the assistance and guidance of many partners, including some 600 national and internationals UN Volunteers. Working with the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), the UN Electoral Assistance Division and the UNDP Voter Registration Project, the UN Volunteers were based at the district level in every province as field coordinators and registration supervisors. As well as helping process 10 million voter applications, they also provided logistical support on the technical and administrative side of the registration activities. In recognition of their achievements, the University of Sydney presented its first peacemaker award to the UN Volunteers in Afghanistan for their engagement in the election.

In Uganda, UNV is supporting the government’s efforts to end widespread violence that threatens to derail the country’s progress towards poverty alleviation. Within the framework of the UNDP-led Good Governance for Poverty Eradication Programme, teams of UN Volunteers work with the Human Rights Commission, the Ugandan Amnesty Commission and the Ministry of Local Government to help strengthen national capacities in the observation, monitoring and reporting of human rights violations at the community level. Spread over six districts in the country’s post conflict regions, the UN Volunteers organize workshops on mainstreaming human rights policies into development planning and conduct ‘training of trainer’ seminars for local government officials on the administration of human rights in the local court system. At the community level, they encourage district leaders to use Uganda’s Amnesty Act as a tool to promote peace and reconciliation. And to ensure the country's Bill of Rights is accessible to all, the UN Volunteers have simplified the document’s terminology and language for wider dissemination and understanding by the population at large.

Up until mid-2004, less than five per cent of Cambodia’s 13 million citizens were holders of a birth certificate or citizen card. Today that figure is estimated at 25 per cent and rising rapidly as more people take part in the country’s first registration initiative. In June 2004, UNV supported Plan International and the Cambodian Ministry of Interior in launching the Government’s national mobile civil registration campaign. UN Volunteer Ayesha Noor of Bangladesh oversaw registration in Ratanakiri, one of the most remote provinces in Cambodia and home to a large ethnic minority population. Assisted by local counterparts and volunteers, she visited 49 communes in the province’s nine districts to inform people why they should register. She says for the province’s ethnic groups, a birth certificate or other official paper makes them visible. “This registration gives people the opportunity to establish their rights,” she says. ”And for children,” she adds, “birth registration provides access to schooling and health care… it is fundamental for the realization of a child’s future”.