As we approach 2030, the global community is at a critical juncture in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. While progress on many Sustainable Development Goals has been uneven, a powerful "means of implementation" is often hiding in plain sight: volunteerism. According to the 2026 State of the World's Volunteerism Report (SWVR), an estimated 2.1 billion people—34.5 percent of the global working-age population—volunteer every single month.
That is not only a statistic to admire. It is a development asset of extraordinary scale. Yet for too long, volunteerism has been treated as a backdrop to national development, invisible in plans, budgets, and policies. My team at UNV has spent last four years working to change that.
We have provided technical support to governments across Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Latin America, the Arab States, and Europe to formally embed volunteerism into their national plans and sectoral strategies.
As a result, from Zambia’s Eighth National Development Plan to India’s National Youth Policy 2025, from Chile’s Agenda 2030 Implementation Strategy to Türkiye’s 12th Development Plan, Iraq’s National Development Plan 2024–2028, Liberia’s National Youth Policy, and Ecuador’s Plan Nacional de Desarrollo—countries are increasingly recognizing that volunteerism is not a “nice-to-have.” It is a strategic national asset.
The hidden infrastructure of development
When we talk about national development plans, we talk about GDP targets, infrastructure investment, social protection floors, climate commitments. What we rarely name is the invisible infrastructure that makes all of this function: the volunteers, the millions of people who bridge the gap between state intention and community reality.
In Kenya, which has the African continent’s one of the most advanced National Volunteerism Policy, the researchers quantified what this means in practice. Kenyan volunteers contributed an estimated 669 million hours in a single year, the equivalent of 3.66 percent of GDP. Measuring volunteers’ contribution matters. This is exactly what the Report is calling for at a global scale.
The Report introduces the Global Index of Volunteer Engagement (GIVE), a multidimensional framework that measures volunteerism across four dimensions: value to the individual, value to the community, economic value, and the enabling environment. GIVE does not just count hours. It counts hope, trust, and solidarity. And it makes the case, with rigour, for why governments cannot afford to plan without this data.
Why this matters: Benefits for countries and volunteers
The case for integration is not abstract. When volunteerism is formally recognised in national plans, concrete outcomes follow — for countries and for volunteers themselves.
For countries, the benefits of integrating volunteerism in national plans and policies are structural. Formal recognition enables budgetary support, institutional coordination, and quality assurance for volunteer programmes. It activates volunteer networks as a delivery partner for public services—in health, education, climate adaptation, and disaster response—at a fraction of the cost of equivalent public sector provision. In contexts of constrained fiscal space, this is not marginal.
From Thailand’s 1 million village health volunteers integrated into their Universal Health Coverage system to community disaster volunteers in the Caribbean and Türkiye, formalizing these roles ensures that volunteers are equipped, protected, and aligned with national priorities like SDG 3 (Health) and SDG 13 (Climate Action). In Türkiye, UNV contributed to the national policy framework — reflected in the Official Gazette publication of the 2024 National Volunteer Strategy, which formalises volunteerism within disaster risk reduction and community development. And in Chile, UNV's contribution to the 2030 Agenda Implementation Strategy helped mainstream volunteerism as a cross-cutting means of implementation for the SDGs at national level.
Integration also generates data, and data generates investment. GIVE, built on research co-led by the University of Pretoria and Northumbria University, gives planners a structured tool to demonstrate return on investment in volunteering. Better measurement attracts better policy, and better policy attracts better resources. Countries that formally integrate volunteerism—such as Kenya, the Philippines, and Rwanda—are better able to measure contributions, allocate resources, and report progress in Voluntary National Reviews.
The Report emphasizes that volunteers create “relational infrastructure”—the trust, empathy, and social cohesion that formal institutions cannot build alone. In conflict-affected or fragile contexts, such as Syria, Yemen, or Lebanon, volunteers are often the primary mechanism for service delivery. Integrating volunteerism into post-conflict peacebuilding frameworks helps institutionalize community-led governance and social stability. This improves coordination, safety, and impact. In Iraq, we supported the integration of volunteerism into the National Development Plan 2024–2028 with a specific focus on lifelong education (SDG 4) and good health (SDG 3). Volunteers in Iraq—including 200 Online Volunteers who delivered climate health information to pilgrims at the Arba'in gathering, one of the world's largest religious events — are now recognized actors in the national development architecture.
When volunteerism is recognised in national plans and policies, it stops being invisible labour and becomes a valued civic act. Legal frameworks—such as the Philippines' Volunteer Act (RA 9418) provide volunteers with rights, protections, and recognition.
The Reports documents how volunteering strengthens individual health and wellbeing, builds skills and employability, and fosters a sense of purpose and social connection. In Zambia and Liberia, UNV collaborated with UNDP on Zambia’s Eighth National Development Plan (8NDP) 2022–2026 and Liberia National Youth Policy and Costed Plan 2025–2029, advocating for the creation of volunteering opportunities specifically designed to improve youth employability skills. At the same time, the Zambia National Youth Policy was revised to embed volunteerism as a pathway to youth development.
Integrating volunteering into policies and plans addresses the "youth silo" while providing tangible career benefits. These benefits are real—but they are deepened, not diluted, when volunteerism operates within a supportive policy environment.
The road ahead
We are at a decisive moment. 2026 is the International Volunteer Year. It arrives at the halfway point of the 2030 Agenda: with five years remaining to the SDG deadline, and with the Report providing the strongest evidence base yet for what volunteerism contributes to development, there has never been a better moment for governments to act.
The ask is clear and achievable. Governments should enshrine volunteerism in their next national development plans—not as a paragraph in a social chapter, but as a cross-cutting means of implementation woven into health, education, climate, governance, and peacebuilding strategies.
They should commission national volunteer measurement using GIVE so that the invisible becomes visible and the visible becomes investable. And they should create legal enabling environments—volunteer laws and national policies that provide protection, recognition, and support to the vast numbers of people already giving their time and skills.
From Zambia's community health volunteers to Iraq's online youth volunteers, from Chile’s SDG champions to India's volunteers working to empower marginalized communities—the evidence is in.
Volunteerism works. Now, it is time to write it into the plan.