International Year of Volunteers Plus 10
The tenth anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers(IYV +10)
Background
The year 2011 fell 10 years since the International Year of Volunteers in 2001. Under General Assembly Resolution 63/153 (2008) the United Nations called for this anniversary to be marked across the planet.
A range of partners and stakeholders have therefore agreed to promote the values of volunteering, to recognize the positive impacts of volunteering, to build and reinforce volunteering networks, and to facilitate people’s contributions to peace and the Millennium Development Goals through volunteering.
The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme was designated as the focal point for IYV+10 in order to catalyse action at the national, regional and global levels. As focal point, UNV facilitates spaces for dialogue and act as a conduit for stakeholder voices, while advising on how to deepen and broaden the concept of volunteerism.
Stakeholder mobilization
Under Resolution 63/153, governments, Volunteer-Involving Organizations, the UN system, civil society organizations, businesses, academic institutions and other partners are all called upon to join together under the umbrella of IYV+10 and its objectives.
UNV is supporting national volunteering coordination structures; and bringing diverse stakeholders together towards a comprehensive volunteering vision and agenda for 2011 and beyond. UNV is also encouraging linkages between varied national members and partners of the international stakeholders committed to marking IYV+10.
National and international UN Volunteers have been recruited to support work on IYV+10, strengthen links with stakeholders and partners at the national level, and monitor initiatives developed during the Year. Online volunteers are also dedicating time and energy towards supporting IYV+10 initiatives.
Communication, promotion and recognition
UNV administers a website for the whole volunteer community: www.worldvolunteerweb.org. The site is being redesigned, and will feature written and audiovisual content and downloadable tools for all stakeholders to share. Different social media are also being used to mark IYV+10 all over the world.
A multimedia exhibition will be held in the lobby of the UN Secretariat Building in New York. Photographs showcasing the contributions of volunteers worldwide will be selected from the contributions of volunteer organizations.
Events
During the first half of 2011, a series of five regional consultation meetings were organized in Ecuador (28–20 March), Turkey (18–19 April), the Philippines (3–4 May), and Senegal (30–31 May for Francophone Africa and 6–7 June for Anglophone Africa). These events brought together hundreds of stakeholders from civil society, the private sector, national authorities and academia, UNV Field Units and other United Nations entities.
A global conference on ‘Volunteering for a sustainable future’ will be organized during 15–17 September in Budapest in partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE). The conference will bring together UN member states and Volunteer-Involving Organizations, plus partners from academia and the private sector.
The 64th Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference will be held from 3–5 September hosted by the German government and the city of Bonn. The event, which usually brings together more than 1,000 NGO and UN delegates from all over the world, provides a chance to advocate for volunteering within the overall theme ‘Sustainable Societies, Responsive Citizens’.
As per General Assembly Resolution 63/153, two plenary sessions of the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly shall be devoted to the follow-up to the International Year of Volunteers and the commemoration of its tenth anniversary, under the item entitled ‘Social Development’.
The sessions will be organized around International Volunteer Day on 5 December and will provide an opportunity to highlight the achievements of the year. Recommendations will be presented to policymakers and all stakeholders involved in facilitating volunteering worldwide, with particular attention paid to the contribution of millions of volunteers from all walks of life towards the achievement of the MDGs.