by Karena Cronin

05 December 2007

At the end of a musical, the cast comes together to recognise the musicians, the conductor and the light and sound engineers. In doing this, the cast is e ss entially saying: Thank you, this would not have been po ss ible if it weren’t for your skills, ideas, creativity, energy and not least, your commitment.   

International Volunteer Day (IVD), in some sense, is like that moment at the end of a musical. It is an opportunity for those at the centre stage of civil society to jointly raise their hands in recognition of the innumerable contributions of volunteers and volunteering – to make visible the often-times under-recognised yet indispensable role that volunteers play day in and day out to reduce poverty, advance equality, respond to disaster and to promote empowerment and human development.    

Measuring the economic value of volunteer activity, which has been estimated at 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in some countries [1], is one way of highlighting the extent of volunteer contributions. The fact that volunteering is increasingly being quantified around the world is indeed a positive development. However, it is also useful to focus more narrowly on the individual volunteers, who driven by a commitment to an issue or simply a desire to help, give their time, skills and energy. By emphasizing the individual volunteers and the specific contributions they make to civil society organisations, social movements and communities, the value of volunteers and volunteering comes alive in a different way.     

Take CIVICUS for example. We have long relied on the spirit of volunteerism to advance our work to strengthen civil society and citizen action. International volunteers from volunteer sending organisations such as Australia Volunteers International (AVI), VSO and UNV have made and continue to make innumerable contributions to our research efforts drawing on their technical skills but also their unique cultural background. Off-site volunteers, some of which are UNV Online Volunteers service, help to fill critical gaps in our in-house language and ICT capacity enabling us to engage a broader and more diverse audience. The CIVICUS Board Members, who collectively po ss e ss an impre ss ive array of expertise, give freely of their limited time to provide invaluable guidance and support to our programmes and operations. We also have one volunteer who serves as our UN representative in the United States and also writes regularly on i ss ues of UN reform and relations with civil society for e-CIVICUS.   

With the first ever CIVICUS Youth A ss embly held in June 2007, youth volunteers are increasingly being engaged in CIVICUS’ work. For example, the youth volunteers develop the content and structure of the Youth Assembly and identify strategies for creating greater synergy between the CIVICUS Youth and World Assemblies.

More recently, a couple South African youth volunteers added enthusiasm and energy to the organisation, while helping to realise key strategic goals by conducting youth focused membership outreach and supporting this year’s Stand Up and Speak Out Against Poverty and Inequality mobilisations. Older volunteers have also been incorporated into the CIVICUS team, for example from the International Senior Lawyer’s Project, which provides volunteer legal services by skilled and experienced attorneys to advance democracy and the rule of law.   

While volunteers from a myriad of backgrounds have clearly played a critical role at CIVICUS, we have not yet maximised the potential for volunteer engagement at CIVICUS. Having recognised this, CIVICUS is now in the proce ss of developing a volunteer management scheme that reflects our mi ss ion, vision and values.

At this stage, there are currently more questions than answers: As an international membership organisation, how do we ensure that our volunteers represent the diversity of our members, not just in terms of regional diversity but also from a perspective of promoting social inclusion, inter-generational dialogue as well as south-south and south-north knowledge building and exchange? What mechanisms and systems should be put in place to help ensure that volunteers are meaningfully engaged while at CIVICUS? What role can volunteers play in enhancing our accountability to our mi ss ion, members and supporters? What are the best approaches for empowering our volunteers, so that they gain ownership over their work and a sense of satisfaction from what they have learned as well as contributed? And lastly how do we ensure that volunteers are sufficiently recognised for their work and that their pa ss ion for engaging in social change through volunteering remains strong?   

International Volunteer Day is indeed a day to recognise and reflect on volunteers and volunteering from a professional perspective. However it also warrants consideration at the individual level. As individuals, joined together by shared concerns over poverty, inequality, violence and injustice, what does International Volunteer Day mean to us personally?

Can the organisations we work for help us to translate this day, and more importantly the spirit of volunteerism more deeply into our personal lives. These are questions the CIVICUS is asking itself and its employees and we would encourage our members and supporters to do the same.