Volunteering to Accelerate Development: Concepts and Prototype
When looking at the context in Latin America and the Caribbean, where 67.5 per cent of volunteer work is informal, the question that arises is: How can volunteering help power development and respond to local challenges? The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Argentina Accelerator Lab (Co_Lab) teamed up with Territorios en Acción, Shaping Horizons and more than 100 volunteers from Latin America and the United Kingdom to explore more.
The partners developed a prototype contribute to the promotion of volunteerism, making use of the most successful models to date and facilitating good practices and new pathways. The resulting report is intended to guide policymakers, providing basic concepts and recommendations that will contribute to the design, implementation and evaluation of volunteer programmes to drive the 2030 Agenda.
Facilitating the protection of civilians and returnees in South Sudan
On the occasion of the International Day of Peace, we interviewed UN Volunteer Geraldine Chioma Nzulumike (Nigeria), who serves as Relief, Reintegration and Protection Officer with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). She shares her experience working in a challenging duty station, where her day-to-day activities include protecting others, ensuring the safety and dignity of people, as well as providing them access to basic services.
What are the key highlights of your assignment, and who do you interact with in your daily work?
Advocating for human rights and peacebuilding through volunteerism in Afghanistan
Corina Elsa Rueda Borrero hails from Panama and serves with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) as a UN Volunteer Human Rights Officer. Based in the Central Region Office, Human Rights Service, she is involved in the verification and confirmation of human rights violations allegations and protection of civilian cases. Corina shares her experience as a UN Volunteer serving in a politically delicate context.
Corina Elsa Rueda Borrero testifies that she has always dreamed of working for human rights in a context that needs her the most.
Serving in Afghanistan, a country with a long history of armed international conflict and with a complex political scenario, a regular day for her can include meetings with civil society actors or working to confirm the number of casualties after incidents like an explosion, suicide attack, target killing or case of torture.