Drawing on original research in 15 communities across the globe, the 2018 State of the World’s Volunteerism Report (SWVR) presents new evidence on the role of volunteerism in strengthening community resilience. Based on the report's emerging findings, the project is organizing Policy Challenges to bring in different groups of people to make policy suggestions, some of which may be incorporated into the final report
POLICY CHALLENGE WITH CIVIL SOCIETY IN UKRAINE
The Policy Challenge in Ukraine took place in December 2017 to discuss issues concerning volunteerism in the country particularly in light of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. A discussion led by five panelists from civil society organizations delved into the culture of volunteerism in the country. Ukraine has experienced a recent boom of volunteer-based groups providing support to Ukrainian soldiers and working on issues related to peace, health, and security. Despite this, the impact and long-term contribution of volunteerism to social cohesion in Ukraine are still not being recognized and supported properly. The participants of the Policy Challenge suggested investing strategically in volunteers to make their work more effective and sustainable. NGOs working with volunteers often do not have the resources, capacity and time to train volunteers. For volunteerism to truly thrive and be an effective development resource in Ukraine, there has to be a concerted effort among all actors - governments, civil society, NGOs, development agencies - to recognize and support the actions of volunteers.
INTERESTED IN HOSTING A POLICY CHALLENGE?
Hosting a SWVR 2018 Policy Challenges is an opportunity to review findings from the SWVR field research and present solutions that could be taken up by UN Member States (national and/or local government level), civil society, and UN agencies and programmes as part of resilience-building efforts. We are looking for diverse groups to discuss the emerging findings from the field research and to tell us how they would respond. We would particularly like to encourage inputs from all groups that are under-represented in decision-making processes relating to risk reduction and resilience.