Country Overview: UN Volunteers in Swaziland

01 February 2003

The United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV) started in Swaziland in 1983 with the assignment of a graphic artist under World Health Organization's (WHO) Swaziland National Family Planning Programme. From 1988 to 1994, 18 international UN Volunteers worked as community development workers, and in 1997 two national UN Volunteers intervened under a joint programme by the Office to Combat Desertification and Drought (UNSO) and UNV. The UN Volunteers worked with local development committees to address raising concerns over desertification and drought in the region. UN Volunteers supported a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) project in adult literacy, and UNV civil engineers assisted in a housing project initiated by the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS). A total of 50 UN Volunteers (48 international and 2 national) have served in Swaziland since 1983.

UN Volunteers' current contribution to Swaziland
Currently, there are two international UN Volunteers working in Swaziland. A fully-funded Finnish UN Volunteer works as a reports officer and a Kenyan national is providing support to the United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS) by promoting the organization through the development of training curriculum in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for the Swaziland College of Technology (SCOT). He is also strengthening the College's capacities to use and manage ICTs, and increasing the abilities of the College's teaching staff by training them in a range of computer applications, from word-processing spreadsheets to the Internet.