Viktoriia Unuchko started as a UN Youth Volunteer Administrative and Communications Assistant. She supports the Sustainable Development and Environment Portfolio within the UNDP/Global Environment Facility project "Removing barriers to increase investment in energy efficiency in public buildings in Ukraine through the ESCO modality in small and medium-sized cities".

This undertaking aims to develop young women’s leadership capacities to become agents of change for their communities, contributing to social cohesion. I strongly believe in the solidarity and connection between women. Young women need just a bit of support to experience big changes. --Aleksandra Jovanović

Growing up in an open and forward-thinking environment, I am grateful for the fact that no one ever told me what to do, or what not to do, simply because I was a girl. For me, women are definitely strong enough to play crucial roles beyond the stereotypes that define them otherwise. My gender identity has, and should, never limit my potentials or aspirations.

One billion active volunteers worldwide are already making important contributions across all SDGs. In July 2020, governments and their partners will come together at the Global Technical Meeting on Reimagining Volunteerism for the 2030 Agenda to discuss what we know about the transformative potential of volunteering, and to reflect on how to maximize the impact of volunteering under the 2030 Agenda.

The Government of Bangladesh will fund these UNV assignments. With this agreement Bangladesh becomes the first country to enter into an agreement with UNV, to deploy civil servants. Bangladesh is also the first South Asian country to be a signatory to the Fully-Funding partnership with UNV.

This Portal will feature an Evidence Library that will synthesize evidence products from partners focusing on cross-cutting thematic areas such as youth, gender, climate change and inequality and other on-demand topics that will help enhance our understanding of the contribution of volunteering to a specific development topic. It will contain links to carefully curated evidence products – research, findings, case studies, policy briefs, and platforms on volunteerism.

This Portal will feature an Evidence Library that will synthesize evidence products from partners focusing on cross-cutting thematic areas such as youth, gender, climate change and inequality and other on-demand topics that will help enhance our understanding of the contribution of volunteering to a specific development topic. It will contain links to carefully curated evidence products – research, findings, case studies, policy briefs, and platforms on volunteerism.

As a national UN Volunteer, I contribute to the work of the Global Land Indicators Initiative (GLII): a collaborative and inclusive process for developing global land indicators and whose partners aim at making global-scale monitoring of land governance a reality by 2021. GLII is hosted and facilitated by the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) in the Land, Housing and Shelter Section of the Urban Practices Branch of UN-Habitat in Nairobi, Kenya.

And so I did, I joined the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Morocco as a UN Volunteer Associate Programme Manager in Democratic Governance and the experience was more than just professional. By promoting the values of volunteerism for peace, I discovered that the UNV programme was designed to help us grow in a unique way. No one is going to tell you what is the best path for you and on the contrary people are going to try to tell you to stick to the reasons that got you there.