by Dr Justin Davis Smith, Chief Executive, Volunteering England

05 September 2011

Bonn, Germany: Introduction

I am delighted to be here and to have the honour of giving one of the closing addresses at this landmark conference.

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.

This is not a plea for volunteers to do everything. I am the biggest fan there is of the power of volunteering to change lives and society. But we need to be realistic. We need strong and responsive governments and businesses if we are to achieve our goals. Governments and business are necessary but not sufficient. Citizen action is crucial to the way forward.

And we have a glorious opportunity to bring these two traditions together – development and volunteering – to achieve our common goals, building on the impetus of the past three days.

The UN is taking a lead through IYV Plus 10 and the publication in December of the first global volunteering report, which will shine a lens on the crucial contribution that volunteering can make to economic, social and human development. And the Rio Plus 20 conference next year will ensure that the pressure is maintained on the development front. I hope very much that volunteering and its vital contribution to sustainability will feature at this event.

In my brief remarks today I will call for responsive actions by all three key stakeholder groups – government, business and the NGO sector – to help unleash this community power.

But first let us remind ourselves why volunteering matters. What contribution can it make to sustainable development?

Volunteering matters for a number of reasons. It helps build economic, social and human capital, unleashing the force of reciprocity and trust that binds communities together.

In the fight for sustainable development volunteers have a crucial role to play – in campaigning, in setting up green businesses, in coming together informally to set up local carbon reduction initiatives, and individually by doing their bit to reduce their carbon footprints.

Resilience

A sustainable community is not just about stronger community activity and higher levels of mutual support through volunteering. The real test of whether a community is sustainable is whether civic action can survive in times of adversity.

What we saw in London and other English cities following the recent riots was a surge in volunteering in affected areas.

Just as rioters and looters had organised themselves using Blackberry messenger, so too local people organised through facebook, twitter and the riot clean-up blog to organise community clear-ups.

The mornings after the riots they took to the streets with brooms and garbage bags to clear up the broken glass and wrecked shops.

The riot clean-ups saw thousands of people coming together through self-organisation, many outside of any established voluntary organisation.

And whilst this was clearly spontaneous we do also need to see how it depended on technologies and to see where it built upon people’s experience of organising in their communities.

A key challenge is to look at how, as NGOs, we better embrace new technologies to ensure that we are at the centre of strong online, as well as physical, communities.

We are at a crunch point where organisations risk being left behind as our citizens move onto new ways of communicating and organising.

Bottom-up action

Across the world, we are experiencing very difficult financial times. Some nations are implementing austerity packages, whilst others are currently locked in difficult negotiations about reducing public spending.

Whatever your political views on these developments, I think we all need to recognise the reality that citizens throughout the world are going to need to step up to the challenge of doing more for their community and for the environment.

And I think there is plenty of evidence that individuals do step up to this challenge.

Again, in reflecting on the riots a few weeks ago in my country, I am in awe of the heroism of those individuals who spoke out and urged calm in their communities and brought us back from the brink of further – and maybe inter-communal – violence.

And in all our countries through our histories we can see the power of voluntary action in fomenting peace and understanding.

The challenge is to ensure that the potential this creates for informal, bottom-up, community-led action is realised. This must be seen as an opportunity to do things in a different way - a volunteer-led way, where appropriate.

Responsive government  

It’s very difficult to develop ‘responsive citizens’ unless people in communities have a clear sense of responsive government.

Local, regional and national government needs to be more responsive to volunteers, more open to working with voluntary groups, and more willing to hear the distinctive voice of activists and volunteers.

I’m sure many of the young people in the audience have experienced, at times, difficulties in getting government to listen to their concerns.

The role of government is not only to be responsive; government has got to be active in creating the conditions in which people feel able and encouraged to volunteer.

We have to acknowledge that our understanding of what governments can most usefully do is far from complete; we need more research on the ways in which people respond to social situations and to the mechanisms which government can deploy.

But we know through our experience over the years that we need the practical support of governments in investing finances in the infrastructures and organisations which provide information and access to volunteering opportunities.

But while citizens are likely to get more involved, we must be clear what volunteering is and what role it has to play. Volunteers are not there to replace the role of the state, volunteers add value, they complement state services; they enhance government delivery by working alongside paid professionals.

My double challenge to the government leaders here today is to leave this conference with, first, a renewed willingness to involve volunteers and take a risk on new ways of working and, second, to explore how you can provide practical support – and that often means money! – in support of NGOs and their involvement of volunteers.

Responsive Corporations

The private, for-profit sector also has a role to play in building sustainable societies and unleashing the power of responsive citizens.

Workplace volunteering programmes, where employers support their staff to volunteer, by offering time-off work to get involved in the community, have become common place throughout much of the world and are beginning to redefine relations between staff, employers and the local community.

The benefits of such initiatives are clear cut. The community benefits through an injection of time and talents; staff reap the rewards of personal development and the opportunity to serve; and the company benefits through a more motivated and energised workforce and better public relations.

Such programmes, however, are not without their challenge. Some have focused too much on the ‘team challenge’ model, characterised by painting school walls or cleaning up parks - not activities without value, but perhaps of less significance than those schemes which have set out to harness the skills and experiences of paid staff to meet the needs of the local community.

And for some there is a danger that corporate support will edge all too close to compulsion – with progression in one’s career dependent on the willingness (and ability) of an individual to volunteer in support of the company’s chosen project.

But where they work well, where they build on the skills and interests of staff, and where they are properly resourced, such programmes have the capacity to be transformational.

Responsive NGOs

Those of us who work in NGOs also need to face up to the challenges of sustaining the strength of the voluntary spirit in our societies. We must ask ourselves whether we are doing the right things.

We must better embrace new technologies to ensure that we are at the centre of strong online, as well as physical, communities. We are at a crunch point where organisations risk being left behind as our citizens move onto new ways of communicating and organising.

We need to analyse how we involve our own volunteers – young and old - and ask ourselves whether we do the most to encourage their decision-making and leadership in our organisations.

We need to make the best use of resources and look for opportunities to collaborate and work together to make scarce public resources go further.

But this is our time. In this the International Year of Volunteers plus 10 and the European Year of Volunteering we have a glorious opportunity to showcase to the world why volunteering matters and what more can be done – by government, business and NGO’s to unleash its extraordinary power.