NEW REPORT: United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Releases State of Volunteerism Report 2018

USA - English

• USA - English

NEW YORK, July 19, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Local Volunteering is a Fundamental Coping Strategy for Communities

In a fragile and turbulent world, volunteers are active in every major shock and stress experienced by communities – from earthquakes and flooding to climate change and local conflicts. Working behind the scenes, they are the first on the ground to save lives and are the thread that binds communities together to strengthen resilience, a new report from the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) states.

The State of the World's Volunteerism Report 2018: The Thread that Binds draws on original research across 5 continents to understand how communities view volunteering. The aim of the reportis to provide an expert analysis for government and their development partners – one where the contribution of volunteerism as a property of resilient communities is maximized.

Focus groups and policy discussions for the report were organized in countries as diverse as: Bolivia, Burundi, China, Egypt, Greece, Guatemala, Madagascar, Malawi, Myanmar, Netherlands, Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Tanzania.

More than 1 billion people volunteer globally. Considering the hours they contribute, this is the equivalent to over 109 million full-time workers. This global volunteer workforce, or "Volunteeria" as the report calls it, exceeds the number of people employed in 6 of the 10 most populous countries. The vast majority of volunteer work happens informally, where 70% are working directly with people in their communities and the other 30% through organizations. Women represent 57% of all volunteers.

As volunteers are active in every major shock and stress experienced by communities, decision-makers need to better understand the relationship between volunteerism and community resilience so that voluntary action has the best opportunity to contribute to the collective and public good. "By unpacking the distribution of the costs and benefits of local volunteerism under strain, the report examines how governments and other peace and development actors can contribute to making peoples' actions in volunteering a real part of community preparedness", says Toily Kurbanov, Deputy Executive Coordinator of UNV.

The report recommends:

• Providing adequate support and resources so that volunteer groups and networks can step up from coping to preventing shocks
• Ensuring access to volunteering opportunities, including for those who prefer to work informally, and moving a piecemeal volunteering projects
• Supporting equal distribution of volunteer labor and impact

Notes to editors:

For more information and interviews please contact:
Jennifer Stapper, Communications, External Relations and Communications Section, UNV
[email protected]
+49 (0)15201522181

Vanessa Loney, PR Consultant
[email protected]
+1 (484) 800-1299

To read more from local volunteers:
UNV Blog Entries
https://www.unv.org/swvr/resources

About the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme
The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is the UN organization that contributes to peace and development through volunteerism worldwide. Volunteerism is a powerful means of engaging people in tackling development challenges, and it can transform the pace and nature of development. UNV is active in around 130 countries every year. UNV, with Field Units in 86 countries, is represented worldwide through the offices of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and reports to the UNDP Executive Board.

For more information go to: https://www.unv.org/swvr/resilientcommunities or follow us on Twitter @UNVolunteers and on Facebook

SOURCE United Nations Volunteers