Youth Volunteers Programme

Since 1976 when the United Nations General Assembly formally engaged UNV in the inclusion of youth into development and peace building through volunteerism, UNV’s significance towards this goal has been growing ever stronger. The 2014-2017 Strategic Framework of the agency puts emphasis on youth and channels effort towards the UN Youth Volunteers Programme as a means of making consistent and tangible progress.

Since 1976 when the United Nations General Assembly formally engaged UNV in the inclusion of youth into development and peace building through volunteerism, UNV’s significance towards this goal has been growing ever stronger. The 2014-2017 Strategic Framework of the agency puts emphasis on youth and channels effort towards the UN Youth Volunteers Programme as a means of making consistent and tangible progress.

The main outcomes of the UN Youth Volunteers Programme to be achieved are recognition of youth as a driving force for peace and development, advanced capacity building to enable youth participation in the processes of peace building and human development, as well as the establishment of diverse opportunities for youth to get engaged in projects and programmes on community, national, regional and international level, within the frame of a United Nations Youth volunteer modality. Among the successful projects and developed policies, the Online Volunteering service enabling young people to volunteer via the internet, (whereby 65% of all online volunteers in 2013 were between the ages of 18 and 30), university-level volunteering initiatives, as well as the involvement of more than a thousand young professionals under the age of 30, (who qualify as UN Youth Volunteers), are some telling examples.