Proactively embracing volunteerism.

• Author: de Raad, Ad

VOLUNTEERISM CONTRIBUTES TO SUSTAINABLE CAPACITIES because it taps into and builds up the indigenous stock of knowledge, social entrepreneurship and solidarity that exists within a country. A good illustration is Pakistan, where in the wake of the October 2005 earthquake the Government decided to set up a national volunteer movement, with the support of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Programme, to channel spontaneous large-scale citizen participation in relief and rehabilitation activities into long-term disaster preparedness. Another example is the Bina Mandiri crisis centre in tsunami-devastated Banda Aceh in Indonesia, where UNV has mobilized a network of local volunteers from within the affected population to form the backbone of the centre's ongoing provision of support and counselling.

Every day across Kenya, communities rally together, following the ancient East African tradition called "Harambee", Swahili for "pulling together". They help each other harvest crops and build homes, rural schools and health outposts in some of the country's remotest areas. This same phenomenon is called gotong royong in Indonesia, shramadana in India, mingu in the Andean countries and al taawun wal tawasul in many Arab States. Everywhere we look, women and men are investing themselves and "pulling together" to bring progress to their communities. They rarely make the headlines, but their cumulative impact is enormous. They are volunteers. Volunteerism is an immense and transformative force, which if properly channelled could revolutionize the pace and nature of development. This conviction defines the UNV Programme, established by the UN General Assembly in 1970. At the heart of its mission is a strong commitment to harness the full potential of Volunteerism for Development, or V4D.

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The timing is right. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have galvanized unprecedented and quantifiable commitments to curb extreme poverty. But it is increasingly clear that efforts in many countries on the part of national governments, even when supported by the international community, will be greatly challenged to meet the MDG targets by 2015. At the current rate, progress will fall short of what is needed, and we can only hope to meet the MDG deadline and save millions of lives and livelihoods if citizens everywhere, through volunteerism, take ownership of the Goals and use their ingenuity and creativity to combat absolute poverty. V4D...