At the time of the earthquake, more than 70 UN Volunteers were serving with 10 UN partners in some 19 duty stations across Myanmar. About one-third of these volunteers are now part of the recovery efforts on the ground with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the World Health Organization (WHO). The guiding principle here was to recruit local volunteers who knew their communities and were from within the system. 

The volunteer organization of the United Nations is United Nations Volunteers, in short – UNV, which provides grassroots-level response in emergencies and local-level support to peace, humanitarian and development initiatives.

 

Six months on, the war continues unabated.  Declared one of the deadliest conflicts in centuries on civilians and infrastructure, the evidence keeps multiplying on numerous cases of international humanitarian law violations, including against humanitarians and volunteers.  

Pakistani nationals serving UN Volunteers serving abroad bring a wealth of skills, and expertise varying from knowledge management, public information, medical field, human resources management, disaster relief efforts to engineering. During their assignments, they also transfer their knowledge to local communities and empower them. Responding to natural disasters

In a region with some of the highest rates of disease outbreaks in the world, the Africa Women Health Champions initiative provides young women from the continent with the opportunity to serve to improve the health and wellbeing of people in Africa.

The shadow pandemic of violence against women and girls is one of these issues. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about one in three women worldwide have suffered physical and/or sexual violence at some point in their lives. The scourge of gender-based violence (GBV), one of the most ubiquitous human rights violations in the world, is exacerbated during the COVID-19 crisis as traditional prevention and attention mechanisms are inhibited.

UNV and Sida have been partnering in support of peace, humanitarian and sustainable development for many years. In 2018, they renewed their partnership, in line with Sida’s Strategy for Capacity Development, Partnerships and Methods Supporting Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, (2018-2022). One of the objectives of this strategy is to broaden the Swedish resource base for implementation of the 2030 Agenda.