There are over 73,000 persons of concern in Zambia, including refugees, asylum seekers and former refugees, many of whom have been living in the country since the 1950s.

"It takes a village to raise a child. Same goes for peacekeeping."  Silvia Kavrochorianou (Moldova), UN Volunteer Civil Affairs Officer with UNMISS

What are the key highlights of your assignment, and who do you interact with in your daily work?

For the past two years, Susan has been serving as a UN Volunteer with the UN Economic Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP). As the Occupational Safety and Health Officer, she has drafted a specific occupational safety and health policy, which is in the process of implementation.

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.

Despite the progress Tunisia made since establishing a new constitution in 2014, there are many elements in the democratic transition that have not yet been completed. These include justice and security sector reform, anti-corruption and revision of the legal institutional framework. In addition, Tunisia is facing new challenges, such as countering terrorism and extremism.

"At the beginning of the pandemic, there were no specific treatment modalities, and no vaccines were available for COVID-19. It was important to isolate the people infected from COVID-19 and contact tracing on time to stop the spread of the virus."

Some of the recommendations include:

The Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) is a global initiative under UNDP that currently operates in 41 countries to create sustainable financial solutions that not only protect biodiversity, but also let it flourish. As part of the initiative, Joshua Mabeta, a national UN Volunteer Research Assistant with UNDP, has been working to achieve the broader biodiversity conservation goal by developing the Biodiversity Finance Plan.

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.