31 August 2007

Bonn, Germany: The UN Volunteers programme (UNV) is preparing to deploy the first of almost 600 UNV volunteers to the Darfur region in Sudan to provide substantive and mission support ranging from human rights and child protection to medical services, communications and logistics.

The UNV volunteers will represent more than one-third of the international civilian staff engaged in the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) mission led by with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO).

The new mobilizations result from recent Security Council decisions to implement new peacekeeping operations in Chad and in Sudan, to address the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

UNV has been integrally involved in supporting UN peacekeeping operations since 1992. Working with the DPKO Department of Field Support, UNV is mobilizing an unprecedented number of civilian staff for the operations in Chad and Darfur, in addition to the hundreds of UNV volunteers who have already been working in the region for the past four years in support of the UN, UNDP, UNHCR, WFP and other partners.

The new operations in Chad and Darfur come at a time when UNV has been consistently providing over one third of all UN international civilian staff to 18 UN peacekeeping and political field operations over the past several years. Today there are more than 2,200 UNV volunteers serving throughout the world in 18 DPKO-led operations.

As UN Member States turn increasingly to the UN to assist with major peace and security issues, the UN is facing great challenges in locating the necessary resources and logistics to get the job done. The unprecedented demand for UN peacekeeping is a critical area where the UNV program and UNV volunteers can be justly proud of their contribution.