Bonn, Germany: International Women’s Day gives us the chance to recognize the invaluable contributions women make around the world, and mark the challenges we still have to meet to achieve gender equality.  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently highlighted the importance of addressing the needs of women and young people to ensure their full participation in peace-building and development.

UNV cooperates with its partners to build the capacities of women and youth to ensure their full participation in their communities.  We will continue to do so.  The commitment of UNV to provide women with a greater say in their destiny is absolute. Read

To provide the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme in Bosnia and Herzegovina with a coherent framework for working with civil society actors in Bosnia and Herzegovina to better facilitate volunteerism and civic engagement, the UNV Field Unit for Bosnia and Herzegovina conducted a review and assessment of the civil society reports and needs assessments for Bosnia and Herzegovina released since 2008. This report sketches out some of the key characteristics of and challenges facing the civil society sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Read

Pristina, Kosovo: One of the major problems hindering the development of Kosovo is corruption. Serving as a UNV Programme Analyst for Democratic Governance with UNDP, I helped organize the Anti-Corruption Journalism Award, in support of investigative journalism for transparency. Read

Pristina, Kosovo: During an IVD event organized in partnership with the IFRC and the Red Cross of Kosova, UNV presented a video showcasing the achievements of UN Volunteers and Red Cross volunteers in Kosovo. Read

Tashkent, Uzbekistan: It was a great honour for me, as the national IYV+10 Coordinator in Uzbekistan, to participate in the celebration of the birth of the United Nations. We provided our visitors with information about UNV activities and initiatives, and I referred people to our Facebook page, which I was happy to find most of them were already following.

These posts not only include reports about our activities, but also contain links to various competitions, educational opportunities, contests, projects and programmes that people can get involved in. Read

Budapest, Hungary: Over 200 international delegates are meeting in Budapest, Hungary, from 15-17 September, to discuss the future of volunteerism at the Global Volunteering Conference, "Volunteering for a Sustainable Future", co-hosted by the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme and the International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). Read

Bonn, Germany: More than 1,400 people – grassroots representatives from over 70 countries – gathered in Bonn, Germany, from 3 to 5 September for the United Nations Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental Organization Annual Conference. The conference revolved around the theme of "Sustainable Societies, Responsive Citizens."
 
The participants, representing 460 different NGOs, shared best practices, displayed their efforts in an exhibition hall, and forged documents that will be integrated into next year's Rio+20, the UN Conference on Environment and Development. Read

Bonn, Germany: We have had three days of debate and discussion, networking and friendship, looking at two of the big issues facing our planet: how to build sustainable societies; and how to build active and responsive citizens.

And crucially, what I hope this conference will have achieved, is the coming together of these debates and traditions – to demonstrate that the two are inter-connected; that we can’t have the one without the other; that the goal of sustainability will not be realised without the energy and commitment of individuals – as volunteers, as activist, as campaigners and as participants. Read

Bonn, Germany: We need to go out there to inspire many more people and encourage them to understand what sustainable societies are all about, how they can become responsive citizens, they can volunteer, become activists, make change and implement sustainable development. Read

Bonn, Germany: The 4 Awardee projects, and the special people behind them, epitomize  - precisely - the type of committed, engaged and responsive citizens we are speaking about – people whom out of free will and volunteer spirit, have stood up, joined and partnered with others, and took action to do something to make the world around them a better place. What better occasion to recognize these efforts and people - than at this Conference. Read