In 2021, 164 UN Volunteers served with UNEP in Kenya in areas such as environmental law, communications, governance, and policy. As former UNEP Deputy Executive Director, Ms Joyce Msuya, said during International Volunteer Day 2021, UN Volunteers make important contributions to UNEP and around the world.

At the start of Melody's  UN Volunteer assignment in Namwala District in Southern regions of Zambia, she supported the programme's implementation in the remote District along with a senior agriculture government official. As part of her assignment, she conducted research on different well-being indicators and prepared various project documents, including concept notes, advisories, budgets, work plans and reports.

The project mainly targets women and young people of ethnic minorities and vulnerable groups such as those below the poverty line, rural residents, and persons with disabilities. Among this group are the ones in three project sites at an altitude of over 4000 meters including Yushu City, which was heavily impacted by the 7.1 magnitude earthquake in 2010.   Aimin, a national UN Volunteer Project Coordinator, has worked on this project since 2019. She supports programme management in planning, management, reporting, and coordination with various stakeholders. 

"We have six international UN Volunteers and 16 national UN Volunteers, which represents 10 per cent of the overall personnel of UNICEF. They contribute significantly to achieving results for the children of Chad," says Mariana Stirbu, the Deputy Representative of UNICEF.

Kristian Yudhianto serves in Indonesia's second-largest city, Surabaya, in East Java. As a Health Officer, his primary responsibility is to support the COVID-19 vaccination programme in the city and across eight districts. He works with other public health professionals to carefully analyze immunization data and help with logistical planning and vaccine readiness assessments.

According to the United Nations, women make up 57 per cent of volunteers globally. In the case of Venezuela, at least 60 per cent of the UN Volunteers serving in the country are women. This figure is even higher in the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in Venezuela, since the agency hosts 20 per cent of the total number of UN Volunteers serving in the country.

Under the theme Connecting Sahelian Youth for Peace and Prosperity, the Youth Connekt Sahel Forum attracted over 1,000 youth and other participants from across the region (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal).

To tackle these challenges, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and UNV launched the Data and Research Fellowship Programme in 2019. The second cohort of the programme was deployed to seven UNFPA offices in Africa to deliver on research studies related to gender-based violence (GBV) and projects that address FGM, child marriage and intimate partner violence. 

In Benin, UNFPA has established a network of Youth Champions committed to fighting gender-based violence. They serve with a project that targets gender-based violence prevention, protection and empowerment of girls and women in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, and is funded by Canada.

UN Volunteers have been key in improving food security in Cameroon to achieve WFP's zero hunger goal... Their youth, their passion for the work and their zeal to give out their expertise for humanities' sake makes them unique. -- Ms Wanja Kaaria, Country Director of WFP, Cameroon