UNV marked this year's International Volunteer Day with a blood donation exercise in Accra on Saturday. Mr. Emmanuel Oduro-Boakye, Communications Associate for UNDP, said the decision to organise the blood donation was in line with efforts to help attain Goal 6 of the Millennium Development Goals. Goal 6 calls for the stopping and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other major diseases, by 2015. Visit site

The LEV scheme will run as a pilot project between October 2008 and June 2010 with volunteers working in Batticaloa, Kandy, Anuradhapura, Chilaw, Balapitiya, Ratnapura and Colombo. The volunteers will be selected from the University of Colombo and the Law College through a competitive process and will be engaged in legal empowerment identified by the regional centres of the Legal Aid Commission. Visit site

Premier Stephen Panga has lauded the Provincial Government Strengthening Programme (PGSP), saying the initiative will greatly assist all provinces. PGSP is a government initiative aimed at improving standards of governance and improving service delivery to people throughout the country...

Technical Adviser in the Ministry of Provincial Government David Hamilton explained the Provincial Government Strengthening Programme is working with provincial governments in two main areas.

"The first is capacity building and this is being addressed through running training programmes in areas such as procurement, planning, and budgeting... It also involves the provision of UNV volunteers to each provincial government as Provincial advisers."

Currently, four UNV volunteers are also on assignment.

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Regular evaluation of the outcomes of international volunteering and service should be a planned part of program goals. Documentation of service outcomes enhances organizational transparency and accountability, justifies the expense of volunteer programs, and provides comparative knowledge about the overall impact of international volunteering on intended beneficiaries. Visit site

On her message for IVD, Joyce Yu, Deputy Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, calls for everyone to continue to make every effort to raise awareness, measure impact, and prove to communities, to governments and to volunteers themselves, that their voluntary efforts are making a positive difference. Visit site

Local and foreign volunteers are honoured on the occasion of International Volunteer Day through events in Ho Chi Minh City and in Hanoi. Visit site

HRH Princess Basma, who was an honorary person for the International Year of Volunteers in 2001, on Thursday underscored “the remarkable progress of the volunteer movement” since the UNV programme was introduced to Jordan in 2000. Visit site

UNV Sri Lanka Programme Officer Sarah Gleave says that some feel that volunteerism is becoming less important due to factors such as globalisation, but UNV sees it becoming increasingly important in this day and age.

"People are looking for ways to be more connected with their communities... In Sri Lanka volunteerism is embedded to the system," she says.

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The Ho Chi Minh Youth Union Central Committee and UNV pledged Friday to join hands in a US$1million project to enhance the capacity of volunteers to serve Vietnam’s development. Visit site

A programme of activities to celebrate International Volunteer Day (IVD) 2008, which falls on 5 December, will take place in Ha Noi on December 7. This announcement was made during a press conference held by the Ho Chi Minh Youth Union Central Committee and UNV in Hanoi on 5 December. Visit site