United Nations Volunteers
Background
The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme was established by the UN General Assembly in 1970 and is administered by UNDP. Free will, commitment, engagement and solidarity are the foundation of volunteerism. Volunteerism serves the cause of peace and development by enhancing opportunities for participation by all, particularly women. Since the start of its operations, UNV has supported the UN system by mobilizing volunteers for peace and development all over the world. More than 6.500 UN Volunteers served in 2017. In its resolution 70/129 of December 2015, the UN General Assembly reaffirmed that volunteerism can be a powerful and cross-cutting means of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Policy framework
UNV works within the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) framework for Empowerment and Equality (UNDP, 2008) which is based on the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (as well as other human rights treaties) to promote equality, peace and development.Areas of Focus
In partnership with governments, civil society organizations and UN agencies, funds and programmes, UNV contributes to gender equality by raising awareness as well as the prevention and elimination of violence against women through advocacy, integration and mobilization of volunteers.
UNV captures sex-disaggregated data.
There is increasing momentum to address the evidence gap on the impact and effectiveness of volunteerism for sustainable development. The State of the World’s Volunteerism Report (SWVR) is UNV’s flagship publication, produced every 3 years. The SWVR 2018 considers how volunteerism and community resilience interact across diverse contexts. It adds to the evidence on inclusive, citizen-led approaches to resilience building – including from a gender lense. It examines how wider actors can build from communities’ self-organization in a complementary way, nurturing the most beneficial characteristics of volunteerism while mitigating against potential harms to the most vulnerable, including women and girls.