Yasmine Diawara Affoue, David Roland (both from Côte d'Ivoire) and Samba Kante (Guinea) are all UN Volunteers who are passionate about advocating for young people. They provide their expertise to youth and women-focused programmes of UN agencies such as the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).

UNV works with partners to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Lao PDR Development Strategy. To do so, the organization recruits diverse talents and offers a variety of volunteer opportunities.

Nelson Mandela International Day is celebrated every year on July 18 based on a 2009 United Nations General Assembly resolution. This recognized Mandela's values and dedication, including service to humanity in conflict resolution, race relations and the promotion and protection of human rights. In December 2015, the General Assembly expanded the scope of Nelson Mandela International Day to promote humane prison conditions, raise awareness of prisoners as part of society and value the social services provided by prison staff.

Since 2007, more than 95 UN Volunteers have been engaged with OCHA in Latin America and the Caribbean and 30 in Europe and Central Asia. In Ukraine, OCHA successfully used UN Volunteers to scale up its humanitarian response to COVID-19 in the face of escalating needs. 

Women's rights have been on the agenda of the whole UN system and its agencies over many years. Emanating from its triple mandate, UN Women has several key aims for their projects, focusing on empowering women, increasing women's political involvement, mainstreaming gender in national processes, greater economic security for women and ending gender-based violence. 

The UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), established in September 2014, now has over 305 UN Volunteers. On the occasion of the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, we share a video message from Mr Emmanuel K. Agawu, Chief of Operations and Resource Management at MINUSCA.

As a part of the maritime disaster assistance project, Thevuni contributed to supporting one hundred vulnerable fisheries households affected by the MV X-Press disaster through a cash-for-work programme to clean up the Negombo lagoon. Until the successful completion of the project on 31 January 2022, Thevuni facilitated coordination between government institutions and project implementation partners. She monitoring project progress, reviewing and editing reports and communications materials from the implementing partners. 

Online Volunteers are valuable assets in implementing projects that require data analysis and digital technologies. The SDG AI Lab at UNDP Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD) brought together over 100 Online Volunteers from 45 countries under its Volunteer Data Scientists initiative, a partnership with the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme. 

Mariam Diarra is one of the 49 UN Community Volunteer Midwives recruited by UNFPA to improve the quality of health services in community health centres located in six rural communities in Mali — Koulikoro, Ségou, Sikasso, Mopti, Gao and Timbuktu. The programme aims to achieve three key outcomes: zero preventable maternal deaths, zero unmet needs for family planning and zero gender-based violence and other harmful practices, such as child marriage.

Contamination of the environment with faecal matter directly affects the quality of the air, water and food that we consume. Furthermore, open defecation and poor hygiene practices are the leading causes of child mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and stunting, conditions that can have irreversible negative effects on the cognitive development of a child.