As part of the next State of the World’s Volunteerism Report, UNV commissioned a study based on original multi-country quantitative data to understand patterns of volunteer participation during the global COVID-19 pandemic, volunteer motivations and experiences, and what these might mean for people’s voluntary participation.

​Even before the pandemic, millions of people took to the streets to make their voices heard. Rising inequalities were a common factor for these public displays, and minorities such as persons with disabilities, indigenous communities, refugees, and migrants, among others, were the hardest hit groups.

Even before the pandemic, millions of people took to the streets to make their voices heard.

Today, we live in a world without borders: we are currently experiencing a global pandemic which does not follow borders; international terrorism does not follow borders; climate change does not follow borders. To address these borderless problems, you must have citizens across the world who are equally borderless and conscious about supporting the planet. I believe this is where volunteering plays a significant role and that we must invest in a future for these responsible citizens.

Volunteers and Volunteerism

The event was arranged within the new innovative partnership between the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, UN Development Programme (UNDP), Beijing Volunteer Service Federation (BVF) and China International Centre for Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE) "Promoting Sustainable Urban Development through Volunteer Service for the Beijing Winter Olympics". The main goal of the partnership is to accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the establishmen

From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, the Mano River Basin sub-region of West Africa was torn by civil wars that started in Liberia, and soon spread to neighboring countries. With all of West Africa under the threat of destabilization, the UN Security Council deployed six peacekeeping operations across the region from 1993 to 2018, to help build peace and protect local populations.

"I started to get involved in the study and conservation of the Lomas because of my thesis. However, if I have been at it for four years, it is due to the people and organizations with whom I collaborate. United, we are achieving goals that, until recently, seemed too far away," María states soon after our interview begins. 

Hanna Yahorava, Coordination Specialist on Volunteerism and COVID-19 Response and Recovery, and Katsiaryna Andronava, Volunteer Engagement Specialist, serve with UNDP Belarus. The UN Volunteers have been working on COVID-19 response and recovery measures and socio-economic support, with the integration of volunteerism solutions. Their assignments are sponsored by UNV, from its Special Voluntary Fund.*

The campaign will call on UN Volunteers to submit videos about the work they carry out with UN entities around the world to achieve the SDGs. These will be evaluated by Kopernik and UNV, in collaboration with Ricoh, and the winners will receive 360-degree cameras and training on how to use them. After the training, UN Volunteers will use the cameras to develop further 360-degree video content about the SDG challenges they are tackling in the field.