UNV’s distinctive contributions to development are:
1) Access to services and service delivery
2) Inclusion and participation
3) Community mobilization through voluntary action

Access to services and service delivery concerns enabling disadvantaged groups and communities to gain wider access to services and enhancing the delivery of such services. From the local community perspective, this includes

• strengthening the functioning of volunteer-involving organizations, including the way they represent the interests of local stakeholders;
• improving dissemination to communities of information on available services and conditions of access to them; and
• encouraging knowledge sharing within and among communities.

For service providers it includes upgrading the understanding of the needs of local people and effective delivery processes, as well as facilitating inter-institutional coordination. Typically, UNV has worked with target groups to better articulate their demand for services, and with service providers to ensure that they better understand local needs and are able to integrate them into the programming of service delivery.

Inclusion and participation involves promoting the inclusion of all stakeholders, in particular the disadvantaged, in processes that affect their well-being. It includes

• making information available on opportunities and requirements for participation;
• putting in place sustainable strategies and processes for participation;
• establishing and strengthening horizontal networks to facilitate access by targeted groups to decision-making processes; and
• ensuring that mechanisms are in place to facilitate dialogue between actors at various levels of decision-making.

The extensive role played by UNV in election processes is a good illustration of the value it adds in this area. Other examples include UNV efforts to ensure that women, youth, people with disabilities and those affected by HIV/AIDS, and other vulnerable groups, are included in voluntary task groups that address selective development issues.

Community mobilization through voluntary action entails fostering community mobilization through voluntary action to address local development issues. It includes

• promoting greater awareness among communities of common issues and alternative ways to address them;
• enhancing local capacity to develop project proposals and manage implementation;
• improving networking and communication among local people;
• establishing systems for interaction and knowledge-sharing;
• familiarizing local people with improved group-action techniques;
• strengthening community leadership; and
• creating or upgrading instruments available at local levels to document processes and accomplishments.

An example of this type of contribution is the support UNV provides for the implementation of self-help initiatives in a wide range of areas on the part of local volunteer-based groups equipped with relevant skills and materials, resulting in increased local self-reliance.