05 December 2002

The international community has embarked on a race against time on behalf of the earth's poorest people. Today, more than 1.2 billion people - two-thirds of them women - live in abject poverty. Developing countries are working hard to provide access to food, clean water, sanitation, basic education and health services to growing populations. It is a daunting task, one that cannot be achieved alone.

Collectively taking tangible steps to raise living standards of the disadvantaged, development stakeholders have launched initiatives to address the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which came out of the Millennium Summit convened by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan two years ago. Focussing on the key challenges of human development, including reducing poverty, ensuring access to water, improving health and education, they establish clear targets to be achieved by 2015.

The Millennium Declaration also defines the roles and responsibilities of key parties: of governments to achieve or enable progress toward goals and targets; of the network of international organizations to make strategic use of resources and expertise to support and sustain the efforts of partners at the global and country levels; of citizens, civil society organizations and the private sector to engage fully in this ground-breaking effort.

In looking to the future it is equally clear that the goals themselves will not be achieved without the support of massive everyday voluntary efforts of people around the world. This simple notion needs to be recognized and factored into our thinking and actions in the implementation of the MDGs -- or any plan for sustainable development.

Volunteers are particularly valuable because of how they interact in communities at home and abroad: as they counsel, they learn through an exchange of social and cultural experience.
Voluntary action and volunteers add great value and will be indispensable in meeting the MDG targets. To succeed in advancing sustainable development in today's world, we need to share ideas and tap the ingenuity, solidarity and creativity of millions of ordinary people. And indeed, each of us should make that personal decision to get engaged.

On this International Volunteer Day, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) salutes you, the volunteers, for your myriad achievements and encourage those of you who are not yet volunteers to join our efforts to support the Millennium Development Goals. We are counting on you to sustain and intensify your efforts to help bring about a more peaceful and prosperous world.