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VOLUNTEERING/
WORKING WHERE?
source: www.unvolunteers.org
www.unvolunteers.org/infobase/
news_releases/2005/05_05_27_
DEU_peacekeeperday.htm
www.cev.be/facts&figures.htm
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The United Nations Volunteers is the United Nations organisation that supports sustainable human development globally through the promotion of volunteerism, including the mobilisation of volunteers... - it was created by the UN General Assembly in 1970 to serve as an operational partner in development cooperation at the request of UN member states. It reports to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and works through UNDP's country offices around the world;
- UN Volunteers serves the causes of peace and development through enhancing opportunities for participation by all peoples. It is universal, inclusive and embraces volunteer action in all its diversity. It values free will, commitment, engagement and solidarity, which are the foundations of volunteerism;
- in 2004, its seventh consecutive year of growth, the UNV programme mobilised some 7,300 volunteers, representing 166 nationalities, who served in 140 countries. Currently, nearly 70% are citizens of developing countries while the remaining 30% come from the industrialised world. In 2005 (until the end of May), 52.2% are at work in Africa. The remainder are to be found in Asia and the Pacific (17.4%) in, Latin America and the Caribbean (16.4%), Central and Eastern Europe (8.0%), and in the Arab States (6.0%). 30% serve in the world's poorest nations -- the least developed. Half work outside capital cities, frequently in remote towns and villages. This is in response to expressed needs, and it reflects the commitment which volunteers bring. Included here are the field workers serving at the grassroots level in Asia, the Pacific and Africa. These are practitioners with excellent track records in village-level community work; they exchange skills and knowledge among countries of those regions.
- UN Volunteers’ largest operation to date was in Timor-Leste, where more than 2,000 volunteers assisted the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). At present, nearly 60 UN Volunteers remain in the country, helping conclude the UN Mission of Support in Timor-Leste (UNMISET), which officially ended mid-May 2005 after three-years of providing assistance following the country’s independence in May 2002.
- in Afghanistan, 600 UN Volunteers were part of the concerted international effort in 2004 to register and process some 10 million voter applications in preparation of the country’s first democratic presidential election. They were placed in each province as field coordinators and registration supervisors, as well as provided logistical support on the technical and administrative side of the registration activities; (1)
- the current largest deployment of UN Volunteers, more than 550, is with the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC).
Looking for overseas volunteer programmes organised by your own country? There are several opportunities both in the public and private non-profit sector: just to give you an example…- overseas volunteer placements are common in France and both faith-based and non faith-based associations have since the 1960s organised volunteer placements for international solidarity in developing countries. Important measures have been taken by the French Government to encourage well-qualified young people to volunteer overseas. In 2004, there were approximately 2,000 French volunteers overseas in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2002 alone, over 1,600 French volunteers went overseas (European Union and beyond). In relation to the activities in which these international volunteers are involved, management, accounting, finance, information technology and marketing are the most sought-after skills. (1)
(1) [ www.cev.be/Documents/Facts&Figures_France.pdf]
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