27 May 2003

UN Volunteers in Brief
Created by the UN General Assembly in 1970 and administered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Volunteers (UNV) programme aims to support sustainable human development globally through the promotion of volunteerism, including the mobilization of volunteers. Some 5,000 UN Volunteers -- two-thirds of them from developing countries -- serve annually in over 150 countries. In supporting development efforts of the developing world, UNV activities focus on social development, poverty reduction, HIV/AIDS, local governance, humanitarian relief, peace efforts, environment and information and communication technology.

UN Volunteer Activities in Viet Nam
There are currently 18 UN Volunteers serving in Viet Nam, from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Nepal, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the USA as well as from Viet Nam itself. In the last five years, some 187 international and national UN Volunteers have been assigned to Viet Nam in the areas of poverty alleviation, social development, ethnic minorities, environmental management, HIV/AIDS and gender. Major financial support has come from UNDP, UN agencies, the Asian Development Bank, Australia, Belgium, Finland, France, Japan, Netherlands and Sweden as well as from UNV's Special Voluntary Fund.

Examples of effective UNV contribution to poverty reduction and social development are:

Training of Disadvantaged Youth by strengthening the capacity of the Hoa Sua Vocational Training School in Hanoi), a non-profit school managed by a group of local women. Training involves catering, sewing, small business management and foreign languages.

• Best practices for accounting and management have been introduced and a multi-parties support network established. To date, 90 per cent of nearly 1,000 graduates have secured full-time employment, of whom half are young women. Since the beginning of 2003, the school has been fully self-sufficient. Policy-driven Support and Capacity Development is a key feature of UNDP's assistance to Viet Nam. The UNV Social Work Support Programme improves the provision of social services to vulnerable groups through building the capacity of national institutions and establishing a more effective network for psycho-social services at central and provincial levels. This project works with the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Vietnamese Red Cross. To date, 900 social workers have been trained in counseling people in need, and in providing assistance to groups and communities. A social work education curriculum is being developed.

• Transfer of Knowledge through Expatriate Nationals -TOKTEN UN Volunteers is a new UNDP/UNV initiative to mobilize overseas Vietnamese professionals as volunteers byutilizing a needs-based approach and mainstreaming TOKTEN involvement into project development activities. A TOKTEN database/roster and web page have been developed in collaboration with the Government Committee for Overseas Vietnamese (COV)and is updated regularly. UNDP/UNV and COV are currently planning the future direction of the programme.

• International Year of Volunteers (IYV 2001) saw volunteer promotional activities take place throughout the country. A booklet, "Volunteers in Viet Nam", was published to help volunteer involving organizations find partners in development and to guide individuals who want to volunteer. The Government of Viet Nam has supported volunteerism through establishing a National Committee for Volunteers and delegating to the country's Youth Union the task of setting up teams of volunteer medical and healthcare workers to serve in 25 rural provinces. The Ministry of Information and Culture produced a half-hour documentary entitled "Volunteers in Viet Nam", which was aired on national television. It highlighted volunteer contributions of local and international organizations, governments and individuals concerned with volunteerism.