Hayfa and Mohamed were both among the finalists of the UNV50 Tunisia Volunteer Award for their "innovation to inspire new forms of volunteering". Applications received for this category exhibited the different forms of creativity that volunteers used as pathways to drive inclusion and growth. But these two names stood out. Not only due to the creativity and innovative problem-solving their work demonstrated, but also their remarkable ability to engage other volunteers.

As a retiree, I didn’t expect to apply for another assignment, but the UN process of application and interview was easy to manage in my situation then, confined at home during COVID-19 lockdown. I had the time to commit to a volunteer programme, which engaged the skills I had used throughout my working life. In addition, the job brought me in touch with the continent where I had made my home for so long. -- Laurel Boland, online volunteer.

Every day, volunteers dedicate time and effort to ensure the inclusion of those often left behind, to drive climate action and advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For its 50th anniversary, UNV celebrated volunteers across the world through national volunteer awards. The award ceremonies were the results of our joint efforts with Member States governments, Resident Coordinator offices, many times volunteer-involving organizations and UN partners. 

In 1996, I was appointed by the UNDP Administrator as the new Director for the Arab States, Latin America and the Caribbean (ARLAC) section at UNV. At that time, UNV was celebrating 25 years since its founding. It was also in the process of moving its headquarters from Geneva to Bonn – resulting in more than two-thirds of its staff reassigned to new functions.

Just like the rest of the world, the battle against the pandemic is still ongoing in Tunisia. The Coronavirus has been an opportunity to learn more about the potential of volunteering, and what volunteers, who were among the first responders, can do in a health crisis context. They have been yielding impactful results and supporting with different components of pandemic preparedness and response. 

We’re talking of literally thousands of people, as I reflect upon 31 years. I served for two years in the early 1980s as a US Peace Corps co-sponsored volunteer in rural Liberia working for a UNDP Self-Help Village Development Project. Then in 1986, four years as the UNV Programme Officer at the Colombo office of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), where I oversaw the UNV Domestic Development Service volunteer programme in Sri Lanka.