10 December 2000

BONN: UNV is currently in contact with several research centres to foster initiatives that provide an intellectual underpinning for the International Year of Volunteers (IYV 2001). The aim of these initiatives is to provide tools helping national researchers produce data on the quantitative and qualitative contributions of volunteers. It also seeks to support government initiatives in the field of volunteerism.

RESEARCH

Volunteers and Social Development
UNV commissioned Dr. Justin Davis Smith, Director of the Institute for Volunteering Research in London, to prepare a background paper on the "Role of Volunteers in Social Development". The background paper considers the meaning and definition of volunteering, ways in which volunteering manifests itself in different regions and measures governments can take to encourage volunteerism to combat social exclusion and poverty.

Measuring Economic Value
Despite the social and economic importance attributed to volunteerism and the third sector, limited data exists in this area of research. A study by the ZEF North/South Development Research Centre of Bonn University and UNV aims at improving the overall understanding of volunteering in terms of its magnitude, impact and potential. International and national researchers in six countries of different income levels will begin the study in early 2001.

Measuring Volunteering Toolkit
Stimulated by IYV, the "Measuring Volunteering Toolkit" project has been launched as a practical means of studying and measuring volunteer behaviour. It will empower countries to produce their own empirical data to underpin policy measures related to volunteering. It is co-sponsored by UNV and INDEPENDENT SECTOR and will culminate in the production of a resource Toolkit.

Volunteering and Social Inclusion
UNV is conducting a study on the role of volunteers in the fight against social exclusion. It will highlight governmental and non-governmental responses to social exclusion through volunteering. It will focus on unemployed youth, the disabled, older persons and ethnic minorities. Other research initiatives currently under way at UNV and elsewhere focus on the perceptions of volunteerism; volunteerism and information technologies; corporate volunteerism; volunteers with disabilities; older persons and volunteering and indigenous people.

POLICY

Governmental Volunteer Policy
IYV 2001 provides an opportunity to raise awareness of volunteerism among governments. UNV helped create an Expert Working Group and conduct two workshops on "Volunteerism and the Role of the State" in the Netherlands. UNV representatives also took part in deliberations at the UN Commission for Social Development on volunteerism. This effort culminated in the 28 July Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) resolution on volunteerism.

Commission for Social Development to Discuss Volunteering
The recommendations from the Expert Working Group report were presented at the June 2000 UN General Assembly special session entitled "World Summit for Social Development and beyond: achieving social development for all in a globalizing world" (Geneva 2000). Geneva 2000 considered, for the first time, volunteerism in connection with social development. In the Geneva 2000 report, governments invited the UN Commission for Social Development to consider the subject of volunteering in the agenda for its session in 2001.

Volunteerism and the State
The Expert Working Group report was discussed from 10 to 12 May 2000, at a session entitled "Volunteerism and the Role of the State," in Hilversum, Netherlands, and from 2 to 3 November 2000 in The Hague, Netherlands. UNV Executive Coordinator Sharon Capeling-Alakija chaired the Hilversum seminar, which was organized by the Dutch Government. Representatives from 20 ministries of social affairs around the world took part. The report of the Hilversum seminar can be requested from NOV: www.volunteer.nl.

ECOSOC Requests UN Report
In a resolution sponsored by Japan and the Netherlands and co-sponsored by 58 other states on 28 July, ECOSOC agreed upon key principles promoting volunteerism to member states and throughout the UN system. The resolution requests the Secretary-General to prepare a report on ways governments and the UN system could support volunteering. The report will be discussed at two plenary GA sessions devoted to volunteering. The sessions will coincide with the closing of IYV on 5 December 2001. The resolution further requests the Secretary-General to report on the outcome of the International Year of Volunteers and its follow-up to the 57th session of the GA in 2002. Member states are also called upon to promote the characteristics and national trends of volunteer action in their own societies. States are encouraged to incorporate the subject of volunteering into events during 2001. UNV aims to influence governmental policy in order to help enhance conditions in which volunteerism can flourish. National IYV Committees worldwide are encouraged to review and apply the recommendations.