Today, United Nations Day and World Development Information Day, CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme are pleased to launch a joint publication, Volunteering and Social Activism: Pathways for participation in human development. The paper is based on a study undertaken by the three organisations in 2007-2008.  

The background study finds that both volunteering and social activism are important strategies for fostering people’s participation in social change and human development.

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This brief provides a conceptual framework to link Volunteerism for Development with a series of aging-related issues. Volunteerism can foster elders' empowerment, aiding intergenerational solidarity. The document also looks back over the Sri Lanka Elders' Committees and the work of the HelpAge voluntary home care programme, with recommendations for future policy.  Read article

In 2006, the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, along with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Ahfad University for Women in Sudan implemented an innovative program to encourage volunteerism and to mobilize local communities to combat female genital mutilation (FGM) in Sudan. The project aimed to combat FGM by drawing on volunteerism and local community action.  It has attempted to utilize a combination of new and existing approaches to bring about change in its target area, Abu Saeed in Omdurman, Sudan.

Download the report here.

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