In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), refugees, displaced persons and women are particularly vulnerable to economic shocks because they are disproportionally represented in the labor market as either informal laborers or underpaid and unpaid caregivers.

A crucial part of Anton’s work is to promote gender equality and raise awareness about domestic and sexual violence against women; an issue that has worsened during the lockdown period, as witnessed by the dramatic increase in reported cases.

As part of a team, Louise works on the implementation of two counter-trafficking projects, which strengthens the knowledge and capacity of the government to respond to trafficking. The projects include awareness raising in communities, which aims at informing community members about trafficking and related risks.

Alexandra Palmquist, UN Youth Volunteer in Environment and Climate Change with UNDP Bolivia Alexandra arrived in Bolivia six months ago and works on environmental management, monitoring activities, assessing outputs, and preparing reports.

Abeche, Chad: When the closure of the United Nations Mission in Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) was announced by the UN Security Council in May, 2010, I was already posted in Abeche as a UNV Project and Advocacy Officer. “You need to experience a liquidation phase at least once,” I was told by colleagues who had.  Some said, “I did it [the liquidation], and I will not do it again.”  Others said, “This is the most stressful period of a mission.  If you can be in your unit liquidation team, you will learn a lot.”

In 2017, Sida and UNV signed the first agreement to supporting full funding of UN Youth Volunteer assignments for Swedish Volunteers. During 2020, 118 Swedish nationals served as UN Volunteers, 116 of whom were funded by the Government of Sweden.