30 August 2002

Johannesburg, South Africa: Panellists taking part in a side event on community involvement and volunteering at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) have urged governments to increase cooperation with voluntary organizations in a bid to improve chances for a cleaner, safer and more prosperous world.

"Volunteers are our greatest strength," said the President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Juan Manuel Suarez del Toro Rivero. IFRC represents nearly 100 million volunteers worldwide.

Noting in particular the role volunteers play in disaster situations and in the fight against disease, he urged governments to consider the contribution of volunteers to development. "Governments need to build effective partnership with voluntary organizations, and include them in discussions around development," he said. "They need to listen carefully to their ideas and proposals. And they need to take the concrete actions to encourage and promote and value voluntary action."

South Africa's Minister of Social Development, Zola Skweyiya, called for greater recognition of volunteers, including thousands of local volunteers assisting at WSSD. He acknowledged the important role volunteers play in tackling problems facing his country, most notably the HIV/AIDS pandemic and widespread poverty.

The Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Zéphirin Diabré, who chaired the discussion late Wednesday, noted that informal mutual aid and self-help or formal service volunteerism contributed to "almost every area" of development. "Efforts of the international community to address the major global challenges would be greatly weakened without voluntary action."

A strategic approach to volunteerism could complement the actions of governments and other actors to address many global challenges, said Robert Leigh of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV). "It is hard to see how many of the goals being discussed here at the WSSD can be satisfactorily resolved without a massive voluntary effort from the grassroots, with appropriate support," he said.

Mr. Leigh recalled that on 5 December 2001, at the close of the International Year of Volunteers, Member States at the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 56/38, which includes a set of recommendations on how to move forward to ensure that measures be taken to "maximize the contribution of volunteerism".

Dr. Najma Heptulla of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Council, said all parliamentarians rely to some extent on the efforts of volunteers in their campaigns and that similarly, all parliamentarians have acted as volunteers in the democratic process at some stage. Describing a resolution of the Inter-Parliamentary Union on the promotion of volunteerism, she recommended that parliaments involve encourage volunteer activities in all sectors of society and incorporate volunteerism in their planning activities.

The private sector is increasing its support to volunteerism, said Jane Nelson of the International Business Leaders Forum. She also noted that one of the gains from the Earth Summit in 1992 was increased pressure from consumers on business to be more socially responsible. She recommended that businesses help promote volunteer activity by contributing their knowledge and skills, by donating products, by carrying out social marketing and by giving back a percentage of their profits to the communities in which they work.

UNV, in collaboration with IFRC and with the support of the IPU, hosted the WSSD side event. UNV, IFRC and IPU have formed a partnership to promote volunteerism globally. The organizations have held successful meetings this year at the World Assembly on Ageing in Madrid in April, the Fourth Prep Com for the WSSD held in Bali in June and the World AIDS Conference in Barcelona in July.