03 Dec International Volunteer Day Forum 2018
Since its adoption in 1985, International Volunteer Day has provided an annual opportunity to highlight the contributions volunteers make globally. As Dominic Allen shared, the UN also named 2001 the International Year of Volunteers. However, most of us in the service community would agree that we still have a long way to go to gain widespread recognition for volunteering and volunteers. Of the 230 subindicators for the SDGs, none focus on volunteering.
During the High-Level Political Forum in July 2019, the United Nations will be reviewing the voluntary national reports on progress on the sustainable development goals from 51 reporting countries. The goals particularly highlighted for review next year will include goals 16 and 17 that have to do with strengthening civil society institutions, good governance, and partnerships to achieve the goals. Wes Moe noted that the number of countries mentioning volunteering in their reviews has gone from 40% to 60% this year.
The UN’s Global Technical Meeting on Volunteering in 2020 is part of UN Volunteers’ 15-year agenda to gain recognition for volunteering. Improving impact measurement is a major part of that agenda. While all acknowledge the challenges involved, service organizations need to shift from output measurement to outcome and impact measurement.
Michael Moscarelli’s presentation indicated some of the concrete and measurable ways in which volunteers, both local and international, are helping communities prepare for unknown conditions. He made the important point that resilient communities are more like to be inclusive and be made up of resilient and empowered individuals. Volunteering builds networks which are key to resilience.
To view or download the video of the session, click here.
- Rebecca Nelson of America Solidaria convened and moderated the session.
- Wes Moe of Volunteer Groups Alliance explained the work of his organization and key spaces for promoting volunteering with the United Nations (click to download presentation).
- Dominic Allen of UN Volunteers shared some key results from the 2018 State of the World’s Volunteerism report (click to download presentation).
- Michael Moscarelli of Partners of the Americas described how their Farmer-to-Farmer program is building community resilience and empowerment (click to download presentation).
Other forum attendees offered the following resources:
PYXERA Global’s Global Pro Bono State of the Practice report: Semi-annually PYXERA launches a survey to capture the trends in Global Pro Bono and evolving role of corporations to leverage the professional skills of employees to provide pro bono assistance to non-profit organizations, educational institutions and government agencies. The 8th survey will launch in January 2019.
Case studies from the PYXERA Global Common Performance Indicator project: A report that highlights four companies who stood out among companies that used 13 common performance indicators to measure Global Pro Bono’s impact on employees, host clients and companies.
Service Year Alliance also released a report on the impact of service years in the USA that indicated that service year alums are twice as likely to complete formal education as students who did not volunteer for one year before entering the university.