First and foremost, thank you for inviting me to be with you today. It is an honour to be here alongside such distinguished colleagues, to be part of this important event, and to have the opportunity to share some observations.

There is a school of thought suggesting that volunteerism is on the decline, that the economic and social stress created by factors such as unemployment, natural disasters and civil conflict lead to more self-centered behaviour as people concentrate on dealing with their own immediate problems of survival. Here today, I challenge that school of thought. Instead, I would say that such hardship catalyses social ties and draws people and their communities together; that it inspires the traditions of engagement, trust, solidarity and reciprocity that exist in every society; that it draws together key actors – non-governmental organizations, governments, the private sector, academia and the media – in the concerted effort to provide support and relief to those in need.

There is no doubt that the movement we all belong to forms an important part of what is in fact global social capital. It is the “glue” that holds society together. It is the force that constitutes an enormous, positive resource for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals - a set of time-bound, quantified targets for combating poverty in its many dimensions. Achieving the Goals by 2015 will mean more than 500 million people will be lifted out of extreme poverty and more than 300 million will no longer suffer from hunger. There will be dramatic progress in health and education and significant improvements in environmental sustainability and gender equality.

But reaching these goals will require the ingenuity, solidarity and creativity of many millions of ordinary people through voluntary action. Consider, for example, the ten million people, mostly from their own communities, who volunteered in the year 2000 to support the immunization of 550 million children against polio and whose contribution, in economic terms, has been estimated at more than US $10 billion. Consider too, the 300 million volunteers from over 100 countries who campaigned to ban antipersonnel landmines… and the Mine Ban Treaty that was subsequently signed in Ottawa by 122 states. There can be no doubt that efforts on the part of governments, supported by the international community, can only complement what ultimately will depend on the full involvement of people all over the world. Six billion people have something to contribute. Recognizing this fact is the first step towards harnessing this vast resource in a global effort to meet the MDG targets.

And in our work at the United Nations Volunteers (UNV), we continually challenge ourselves to find ways to further harness the potential of local voluntary action for development, to unleash the positive energy that comes with citizen engagement. We are expressing our approach through three dimensions, namely individual volunteers, volunteer-involving organizations and volunteer networks – with the focus of all three on driving forward the volunteer agenda on a sustainable basis. UNV helps developing countries address human capacity limitations in achieving the MDGs through the services of skilled and experienced professional women and men – more than 7,300 last year – who are willing to volunteer talent and time in a wide range of areas of development and humanitarian work. UNV also helps strengthen the operational capacity of local volunteer-involving organizations so that they can scale-up and replicate activities which help meet national policy objectives. Our third area of focus is to contribute to the strengthening of networks that enhance transparency and accountability and which provide space for individuals and groups to learn from one another about best practices in volunteerism for development. One such example is our work in managing the WorldVolunteerWeb, a global volunteer resource for advocacy, information dissemination and networking.

The International Year of Volunteers 2001, sponsored by 123 governments, including Spain, put volunteerism on the world map. Built around the four themes of recognition, facilitation, networking, and promotion, the Year generated a great deal of interest in ways that governments, the UN system, the private sector, academia and others could strengthen the environment within which voluntary action by ordinary citizens takes place. And we are now seeing the fruits of IYV. There is notable increase, for example, of national and local volunteer schemes; of initiatives to measure the economic contributions of volunteer action; of supportive national legislation; and an exponential growth of electronic networking among volunteer involving organizations and individual volunteers. Academic research on different volunteer topics is on the rise and we are seeing the private sector opting more and more for employee volunteer schemes as part of corporate social responsibility.
In all these positive developments however, there has been a missing link – the deliberate and systematic connection between volunteerism and mainstream development. We see this first in the North. While volunteerism is widely recognized and celebrated on the domestic front, this recognition rarely extends to inclusion of support for voluntary action in ODA policies and programmes. And in the South, volunteerism is often dismissed by the international development community as contributions in-kind which local people provide to match externally supported development initiatives. The fact that such contributions are inspired by similar motivations and aspirations that drive volunteerism in the North – and that they need similar recognition and support – is rarely factored into development thinking and planning.

Does it matter? I believe the answer to this is a categorical Yes. It matters that AIDS sufferers can rely on the very best support from volunteers in their communities. It matters that a culture of voluntary parental participation is in place to complement government efforts to improve the quality and coverage of local schools. It matters that youth groups get involved in sustainable environmental awareness campaigns. It matters that womens’ local volunteer-based associations strive to gain the legal status that facilitates their efforts to advocate for basic human rights. It matters that community members invest volunteer time and skills in helping to upgrade slum dwellings of neighbours and friends. Above all, it matters that we put policies and programmes in place to ensure that we fully tap the potential and extraordinary contribution of volunteerism to tackle the major challenges of our times.

Through volunteerism, people become active development actors, rather than passive aid recipients. That matters a lot!

So what, together, are we doing and what more can we do? Here, I would like to take the opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to the government and the people of Spain for their support to the UNV programme. The invaluable role played by the Prince of Asturias, Don Felipe de Bourbon, in his capacity as Eminent Person for IYV and as the Honorary President of the Spanish IYV Committee in 2001; the hundreds of Spanish volunteers who have served, and continue to serve, with the UNV programme in areas ranging from humanitarian assistance, electoral operations and human rights to democratic governance, HIV/AIDS, environmental protection and private sector development; the many Spanish Universities who have engaged so actively in the effort to bridge the digital divide. Demonstrating its commitment to and belief in volunteer action, the Government of Spain, through AECI, has, over a period of more than 20 years, provided much needed support by contributing financially to our Programme as well as making statements in key international fora. Such support is highly valued, not only by colleagues in UNV itself, but also our partners in the field.

Beyond our immediate collaboration, I would also like to recognize the Spanish people’s compassionate response to those hit by natural disasters such as the earthquakes in El Salvador, Turkey and Iran, and, more recently, the Tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. Closer to home, I still vividly recall the solidarity expressed by the Spanish people following the 11 March terrorist attacks last year… not only for those directly affected but also for those sharing the same nationality or origin who perpetrated the attacks.

What more can we do? If the MDGs are an opportunity, they are also our responsibility. Indeed, we all have an extraordinarily critical and complementary role to play in helping to harness and channel volunteer energy towards achieving the MDGs. We must ensure that we all live up to the volunteer related commitments made around the International Year of Volunteers, to put in place enabling fiscal and legislative frameworks, to introduce training for and recognition of volunteers, to integrate volunteerism into national planning; we must continue to provide the necessary resources to help volunteer involving organizations live up to expectations placed upon them; we must engage the private sector to partner with others in the global development effort; we need to strengthen existing alliances and form new ones so that the full weight of the volunteer movement’s collective knowledge, experience and networks can be brought to bear on the major challenges of our times. At the end of the day, opportunities and responsibilities are two sides of the same coin.

In a few months time, world leaders will gather at the United Nations in New York to review progress made over the five years since the adoption of the Millennium Declaration of 2000. The picture is varied. There is a general consensus that, under certain conditions, the MDGs are attainable. Indeed, in some sectors, and in some parts of the world, the signs are quite positive. But a significant number of countries are falling behind and some are widely off track, especially Africa, South of the Sahara, Central Asia, parts of South Asia and the Andean countries. There is no question that there is an enormous financial resource gap or deficit in poor countries. And unless rich countries do much more to live up to their commitments in aid, trade and debt relief, the MDGs will be but a distant dream.

But that is focusing on development deficits. Let us rather focus on a development asset that every country, no matter how poor, can count on, and which has been largely neglected so far in discussions on achieving the MDGs. And that is the powerful force represented by volunteering, by people and for people.

While I say this, let me also be clear on a couple of points.

First, we are not suffering from the rose tinted spectacle syndrome. Tragically, every day hundreds of millions of people struggle to overcome the daily grind of hunger, disease, and ignorance. But there is also a wealth of good will and solidarity, knowledge and social networks, to be tapped in local communities all over the globe, with support from outside. This is all about the capacity to cooperate – to get things done.

The second point that I would like to emphasize is that focusing on volunteerism as a path to help meeting MDGs in no way absolves us – as individual global citizens, governments, the United Nations, the private sector, academia and others - from meeting our responsibilities.

In closing, significant strides have been made in the last years in gaining recognition of the role and contribution of volunteerism and the myriad of ways in which voluntary action can be encouraged and supported. The trail has been blazed – now we have to go down it because it leads to a safer, more prosperous and equitable world for all. If all the energy, creativity and commitment exemplified here at this congress is representative of what the volunteer movement can offer – and I believe it is – just imagine what together we can achieve.

I thank you