A group of 40 UN Volunteers belonging to local communities was deployed by WFP in Iraq’s Duhok Governorate, which is located in the Kurdistan Region. In line with the Public Distribution System reform agenda, this group served alongside field enumerators to register Duhok residents. Serving tirelessly for three months, volunteers supported the registration of the newly issued PDS cards and also updated the residents' demographic information in the system - between 50 to 100 family registrations were carried out daily. Volunteers did so by using digital tablets.

As soon as I landed at the airport, loud French voices reminded me of how not francophone Burundi is, because Kirundi, our national language, does most of the work. I was at first nervous, for I hadn’t really used the language since high school. But as soon as I settled in, French eased its way back in during my conversations with colleagues, neighbors, and taxi drivers. The latter would always greet me with a "Tu es gabonaise?" (Are you Gabonese) full of suspicion, and I would wonder how striking it was that I was not from here.

WFP supported the government as it mobilized to provide immediate food assistance to families in the areas hit worst by the flooding. UN Volunteers were an integral part of the WFP team.

The Great Green Wall of the Sahara and Sahel initiative is one of the most ambitious programmes to combat climate change and desertification and fight food insecurity and poverty on the African continent. Adopted by the African Union in 2007, the Great Green Wall initiative brings together more than 20 African countries, in addition to international organizations, research institutes, civil society and community-based organizations. 

In Lebanon and Gaza, high unemployment, soaring costs of living and limited social assistance at the national level have forced millions into poverty. Lebanese people, in particular, suffered financial and humanitarian setbacks following the explosion at the Port of Beirut in 2020.  With the Lebanese pound incurring a loss of more than 90 per cent of its value to the economic challenges that continue to limit any growth — the conflict in Ukraine adds more difficulties — the biggest of them all, a decrease in food imports.

When Esi took up her position as UN Volunteer Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, she immediately identified implementation bottlenecks as the main problem with FAO projects in the country. Prior to her arrival, projects required, on average, up to two or three no-cost extensions to complete deliverables. This was beyond the project timeline, which could take up to two years.

It is estimated that more than 1.32 of 6 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants are in Peru (

For Zambians, food insecurity is an urgent issue. Around 18 per cent of the country’s rural population require urgent action to protect their livelihoods. A further 15 per cent are only marginally able to meet their food needs, while three per cent of the country’s 17.8m people are already facing considerable food gaps.

International Volunteer Day 2021 called for the recognition of volunteers and volunteerism as powerful and cross-cutting ways of achieving the SDGs and building an inclusive world. A number of UN partner representatives, influencers and national authorities shared via social media their messages of acknowledgement and appreciation for the support of volunteers.

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