With the agriculture sector absorbing nearly 30 per cent of the country’s labour force, while providing livelihoods to 70 per cent of the country’s rural population, a majority of our communities are at the unrelenting mercy of inevitable climate shocks.  The Mahaweli River Basin, the largest draining area of Sri Lanka’s extensive collection of rivers, is home to a large proportion of the small rain-fed farming communities on the island. And, unsurprisingly, climate shocks have exacerbated the prevalent poverty and food insecurity within these communities. 

From 19 to 20 November 2019, stakeholders from volunteer-involving organizations, civil society, academia, governments and United Nations entities met in Ouagadougou, to discuss how volunteerism can contribute to peace and development in the Sahel region. The roundtable was initiated by the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, in collaboration with the African Institute for Economic Development and Planification (IDEP) and the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), to produce evidence of the impact of volunteerism in the Sahel. 

On the occasion of IVD, the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme has highlighted initiatives that include more people in sustainable development through volunteerism. One such initiative is the new UN Community Volunteer category, which enables more people to participate directly in social, environmental and economic change.

Volunteerism is a significant part of Sri Lankan culture. In the World Giving Index published in October 2019 by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), Sri Lanka ranked number one in time volunteered. 

To date in 2019, 33 UN Volunteers have been serving in Kazakhstan, 25 of them on national and eight on international assignments. They are placed with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Children's Fund, UN Population Fund, UN Refugee Agency, UN Resident Coordinator's Office, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and UN Environment Programme. An additional 14 Kazakhstanis serve on international assignments abroad.

UNV is modifying its systems to make becoming a UN Volunteer and recruiting a UN Volunteer both intuitive and digital savvy. The organization-wide DT project, which is supported by the Government of Germany, represented by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), leads to new organizational capabilities, augmented by frontier technologies such as AI, Big Data and cloud computing. With efficiency gains and real-time engagement with candidates and UN host entities alike, UNV will better respond to the most pressing needs of the UN and its Member States.

In North East Nigeria, 7.1 million people are in need of urgent, life-saving humanitarian assistance in 2019, due to insurgency and climate crises. Many of them lost all their assets (internally displaced persons), some try to recover from the crises (returnees) and some are struggling to survive with food aid (host communities). Tiruneh Debena reports that all these people are exposed to hunger, unable to ensure sustainable basic food needs for their families in the last nine years. 

Across the Arab States, humanitarians have been making real change in peoples’ lives, whether on the frontlines in conflict-ridden contexts or within their own communities.

It takes two hours to cover the 60 kilometers between Batouri, the capital of the Kadey department to the Lolo refugee site. Near the border with the Central African Republic (CAR) in the commune of Kentzou, the camp hosts a population of over 13,000 refugees from CAR. Fleeing a war-torn country, these vulnerable communities, predominately Muslims, settled at the site from the beginning of 2014.

The UN Volunteer Population Data Fellows will work with UNFPA in advancing applied research, technical assistance and capacity building in civil registration and vital statistics;  in close collaboration with national statistics offices, civil registration authorities and related UNFPA institutional partners.