In his IVD message UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was especially grateful to the 7,700 United Nations Volunteers who support efforts to prevent  conflict, help societies recover from fighting,promote sustainable development and assist in crisis situations among other projects for the greater good. He said their work has advanced the MDGs and predicted they will also contribute to progress on the post-2015 development agenda. Visit site

The Daily Times newspaper in Malawi carries the full press release announcing International Volunteer Day 2012. Read

December 5 is International Volunteer Day - a day to recognise the invaluable contribution volunteers are making to communities around Australia. Visit site

Flavia Pansieri signed the Golden Book of the City of Bonn. Jürgen Nimptsch, Lord Mayor of Bonn, praised the outgoing Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme as an ambassador for sustainability and for the city of Bonn. Read this message in German by the Press Office of the City of Bonn. Visit site

On October 27, 2012 “Fiolent” Stadium in Simferopol, Ukraine gathered 36 young people from Mykolaiv, Kherson oblasts and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to participate in inter-regional football tournament.  The tournament aimed to promote “Fair Play” methodology and foster peer-to-peer exchange among young people.  The event was held in the framework of  “Young Football Volunteers: Sport and Volunteering for MDG” (YFV) project, supported by UN Volunteers Programme, UN Office on Sport for Development and Peace, UN Development Programme, Ukraine’s Football Federation, State Service for Youth and Sports (SSYS) and German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). Visit site

The Federal Government of Germany yesterday handed over the ‘Altes Abgeordnetenhaus’, the old seat of the Members of Parliament in Bonn, to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.  The key of the premises was symbolically handed over to the UN by the State Minister in the Foreign Office, Michael Georg Link, State Secretary of the Federal Environment Ministry, Jürgen Becker, State Secretary of the Federal Transport Ministry, Rainer Bomba, together with Rita Ruoff-Breuer, President of the Federal Office for Construction and Spatial Planning and Jürgen Gehb of the Federal Real Estate Office.

Flavia Pansieri, outgoing Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, signaled that this was a significant step towards a unified UN campus in Bonn.  She also said she was hopeful that the magic number of 1000 UN staff in Bonn would soon be reached.  Currently, over 900 staff work in the 18 UN organizations in the former German capital. Ms Pansieri, who will retire at the end of the year, has been invited to sign the Golden Book of the City of Bonn.

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On the eve of the United Nations Day, the UN volunteers and the World Health Organization, in cooperation with the Albanian Red Cross and the Albanian National Blood Bank Team, organized a blood donation in the UN premises. The President of the Albanian Red Cross Mr. Shyqyri Subashi, present at the event, thanked the UN for its commitment to voluntary blood donation. Visit site

At the beginning of October, UNV organized a regional consultation for a new initiative:  the Arab Youth Volunteering for a Better Future Programme. Launched in May 2011, this is a regional initiative that aims to harness the power of youth through volunteerism, drawing on the inherent core values of self-help, solidarity and social cohesion.  It will be implemented in five countries:  Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen.  Participants in the meeting, including youth, civil society and government representatives, discussed the findings from five national consultations in these countries and agreed on the strategic directions for the future of this programme.  Ghulam Isaczai, Chief of UNV’s Development Division, was interviewed on the programme. Visit site

At the beginning of October, UNV organized a regional consultation for a new initiative:  the Arab Youth Volunteering for a Better Future Programme. Launched in May 2011, this is a regional initiative that aims to harness the power of youth through volunteerism, drawing on the inherent core values of self-help, solidarity and social cohesion.  It will be implemented in five countries: Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen. Participants in the meeting, including youth, civil society and government representatives, discussed the findings from five national consultations in these countries and agreed on the strategic directions for the future of this programme. Ghulam Isaczai, Chief of UNV’s Development Division, was interviewed on the programme. Visit site

For Programme Officer Marc Liberati and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) office in Uzbekistan, now is the end of one era and the beginning of another. The successful projects that have been conducted by the UNV in Uzbekistan throughout previous years are now concluding, plans are being drawn up for future initiatives, and the agency’s staff on the top floor of the UN Office in Uzbekistan will soon change entirely. Visit site