05 September 1998

BONN: UNV's Executive Co-ordinator Sharon Capeling-Alakija was a keynote speaker at the 15th Biennial World Volunteer Conference of the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) from 23-27 August 1998. It took place in Edmonton, capital city of the beautiful province of Alberta, Canada.

IAVE, created in 1970 as a world-wide non-profit organization to promote volunteering, works through national chapters. One such chapter, Wild Rose Foundation of Alberta, was responsible for hosting and organizing this the largest ever meeting of volunteers and volunteer organizations. Around 2,800 delegates from close to 100 countries attended the five day event which consisted of more than 214 workshops and four keynote sessions spread all over the University of Alberta campus.

In her keynote speech to the conference, the Executive Co-ordinator addressed the enormous importance of volunteering to a country's economy. She pointed out that "volunteering has been a driving force both in complementing government action and in pressing for reform". But she also emphasized that their contribution is too often ignored. "It's time volunteers got off the sidelines and into the centre of public opinion", she ventured and went on to suggest that governments and corporations work together to help end the "marginalization" of volunteers and to address legal and financial issues which currently inhibit their wider use.

The conference offered an opportunity for the Executive Coordinator to introduce the subject of the International Year for Volunteers 2001. With only 28 months left to go she urged action for interested parties in every country, from the public and private sector as well as from civil society, to define for themselves what volunteering means in their local social and cultural context, to identify best practices and constraints and to build up activities for the Year which are truly indigenous in nature.

Other high quality key note addresses were provided by Helen Lieberman known as "South Africa's Mother Teresa", by Huguette Labelle, President of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and Her Highness Princess Zahra Aga Khan, eldest daughter of the Agha Khan.

The many workshops offered something for everybody - from basic issues such as recruitment and fundraising to exchanges of volunteer experiences in different countries; from intergenerational issues of differing motivations and needs of young, middle-age and old volunteers to reflections on the changing global environment in which volunteering functions; from leadership questions for volunteer managers to issues relating to volunteering from a corporate perspective.

The statement to conference delegates by Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chretien was also quite uplifting when he said: "Governments have considered volunteering as the preserve of high ideals and noble intentions rather than as a source of valuable insights and action. This has been a big mistake". This statement came just after the unveiling at the Conference of a 75 page official study which shows that more than 7.5 million Canadians, or one in three adults, volunteered in 1997, 40% more than in 1987 when the last such study was conducted.

The trade fair was a splendid opportunity to see what sixty other volunteer organizations and private sector companies which support volunteering are doing and to exchange ideas, and addresses. The UNV stand was staffed thanks to Parameswaran Nayar and Roderick Todd, both Ex-UNVs from British Columbia. They volunteered their time to come to Edmonton.