Are the IYV 2001 National Committees and other volunteers ready?

In many cases, yes. In most of the industrialized countries it was a case of lighting a match in a gasoline factory -- we lit a match and basically we had to do nothing more. Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, United States -- these have been self-driven. There are huge constituencies who see the value of the year and how the goals of the year can strengthen their own position in their own countries. But in the developing countries where volunteerism might exist but where there often is not the necessary financial and human capacity, UNV has played a role in helping to stimulate the development of national committees. We have provided support through national UNVs to those committees to help build the capacity to make them sustainable.

A series of workshops funded by Japan at the subregional level has enabled representatives from national committees to get together and share information and to learn from each other. Some countries have a strong tradition of volunteerism and have a clear idea of what they want to accomplish through IYV 2001. They can help and support their neighbours with tools and techniques that are often more appropriate than something that may be imported from Germany, Canada or the USA. UNV has been able to finance seven regional workshops that have involved about 60 countries. At those regional workshops networks of mutual support have been created. That has been a big contribution. However, while the capacity and the ability to get going is still uneven, people now know where they can get help. They know the web site and the support that it can provide, and they know where they can get assistance from their neighbours.

What expectations do you have in terms of outcomes for the year?

We have listed a series of indicators that can help us judge the usefulness of the year; for example, legislation passed in countries that will help create better conditions and prospects for volunteers and volunteerism. Obviously we hope that there will be recognition of volunteers around the world at two levels. First, the kind of acknowledgement that is important and that we all need -- through awards, through documentation of volunteer activities and through efforts to make visible the everyday heroes in our societies. On another level, to be sustainable, I hope there will be an increase in efforts to develop mechanisms to actually measure volunteer contributions. A way to keep volunteerism on the national agenda is to let policy-makers in a country understand just how important the contributions are from volunteers in their society. Canada, the United States and Britain can say what percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) volunteering represents. Where volunteer contributions to GDP are measured it is generally between eight and 14 per cent. That is just the economic contribution. Even more important is the contribution to social cohesion.

UNV has been involved in initiating research efforts to develop measurement mechanisms. In some countries I hope the year brings better funding of volunteers and the infrastructure to support volunteering. Volunteering is cost-effective but it is not free.

I also hope the year will encourage more people to volunteer, bringing benefits to those they assisted and to the volunteers themselves. I believe that coming out of the year there will be a network of people based in countries around the world who understand that they are acting locally but are part of a movement that is global.

What impact is IYV likely to have on the UNV programme of the future?

For UNV, the year has made an important contribution to how we understand ourselves. It has helped us to put the "V" in UNV back in uppercase and in bold! It is also opening new fields for us. Just the very fact that we are the focal point for this year has forced us to go back to our roots and think about what it means to be the volunteer arm of the United Nations. I think we are in the process of coming to understand, through our own involvement in the year, that our role is the promotion of volunteerism, primarily through the deployment of people to serve. But after this international year, UNV can also become a portal on volunteerism. People can come to us on the web and ... connect up with whatever it is they want to know about volunteerism.

Experience changes you, and new opportunities present themselves. I don't think we had the remotest idea that we were going to build a constituency. And we have one now -- 10,000 strong (organizations and individuals registering on the IYV 2001 web site)! This is very precious for an organization, and I don't want to lose that -- I want to consolidate it. We need to find out from that constituency how we can continue to support them and serve them in the years ahead because we have brought new people to the United Nations, people who were not necessarily connected to the UN before. This is good for the UN, it is good for UNV.