The United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV) is the United Nations programme that supports sustainable human development globally through the promotion of volunteerism and the mobilization of volunteers. It operates against a background of growing recognition that volunteerism brings benefits to both society at large and the individual volunteer; that it makes important contributions, economically as well as socially; and that it contributes to more cohesive societies by building trust and reciprocity among citizens. Universal and inclusive, UNV embraces all types of volunteer action while holding to the values of free will, commitment, engagement and solidarity, which are the foundations of volunteerism. UNV engaged 7,521 UNV volunteers in 2007, on a total of 7,766 assignments. With an average of 39 years and the requisite professional skills and qualifications of some 5 to 10 years relevant experience, UNV volunteers served in 139 countries in 2007 and came themselves from 162. The majority – 77 per cent – come from developing countries themselves. One third of UNV volunteers served in their own countries, with the others carrying out international assignments. The financial equivalent of programme activities exceeds US$150 million annually. UNV is headquartered in Bonn, Germany and has approximately 150 staff positions – the majority in Bonn with some dozen positions in different UN peacekeeping missions, and other Headquarters locations (e.g. New York and Tokyo). The major organizational groups within UNV are: - The Office of the Executive Coordinator, comprising also Special Operations, and units for Evaluation and Management Support;
- The Programme Development and Operations Group (PDOG) comprising three geographical sections, as well a Volunteer Resources Unit and a Research and Development Section;
- The Support Services Group (SSG) comprising sections for Information Support Services, Finance, Human Resources, as well as Units for Common Services and Administration; and
- The Partnerships, Communications and Resource Mobilization Group (PCRG) comprising units for Donors Relations and for Communications.
Organizational setting The Programme Development and Operations Group (PDOG) of UNV has primary responsibility for programming in the organization and includes three geographic sections (Africa; ARLAC - covering Latin America, the Caribbean and Arab States, and APEC – covering Asia, Pacific, Europe and CIS).
The Executive Board in June 2006 approved the Business Model (BM) as the main planning and programming framework for UNV. This is the basis and provided the framework for the UNV Corporate Plan 2009 – 2011 that presents high-level corporate outcomes and outputs for both programme and management processes, thus capturing all of UNV’s work. Under the goal of UNV, which is to contribute to peace and development through volunteerism, there are four outcomes: (1) Contribution of volunteerism to development is recognized globally; (2) Volunteerism is integrated into development policies, strategies and programming; (3) Volunteer engagement in development is strengthened and diversified, and (4) UNV is recognised as a relevant, results-based and efficient organization.
It is in this context that the PDOG has formulated a programme strategy for the period of 2009 – 2011. In integrating volunteerism into development programming, specific focus and sub-focus areas have been identified for special targeting: Delivery of Basic Services - Strengthening local governance
- Primary health care and HIV & AIDS
- Functional literacy
Crisis Prevention and Recovery - Disaster risk reduction
- Early recovery including livelihoods
- Local conflict resolution / reconciliation / peace-building / human rights
Environment and Climate Change - Community-based natural resource management and sustainable biodiversity conservation
- Community-based adaptation to climate change
- Food security through sustainable livelihoods
The strategy also has three crosscutting social inclusion pillars i.e. youths, gender, and marginalised groups. In addition, partnership must be an integral aspect of any UNV intervention.
The focus of this consultancy will be the Practice Note on integrating volunteerism into food security through sustainable livelihoods. UNV intervention in this focus area is driven by a number of factors including global recognition of the role of volunteerism in environmental protection as well as General Assembly resolutions and the UNDP Executive Board calling on UNV to contribute to the global environmental and climate change agenda. The global environmental movement has been based on volunteerism. It is driven by individual volunteers and volunteer-involving organisations from all focus areas and levels of society carrying out initiatives in the field of environment and climate change, as well as promoting environmental social action and volunteerism. The Johannesburg 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (Rio + 10), in its call for major groups to participate in implementation, specifically singles out volunteer groups. An internal review of projects financed by UNV-administered funds between 2006 and 2009 revealed that almost 40% of said projects integrated volunteerism in the context of activities addressing environmental issues and concerns . 963 million people do not have enough to eat and the number of undernourished people in the world increased by 75 million in 2007 and 40 million in 2008, largely due to higher food prices . Climate change is likely to further impact the four dimensions of food security: food availability, food accessibility, food utilisation and stability of food systems. At the community level, sustainable food production depends on agricultural practices that respect local ecosystems. Community volunteerism can play a crucial role in promoting ecologically sustainable agricultural development.
In partnership with other UN agencies, funds and programmes, UNV volunteers can support development efforts in this area by: - Promoting volunteer collaboration and self-help among small-scale farmers and community members on agricultural planning, production, storage, processing, transport and marketing;
- Connecting communities with agricultural extension workers, services and Farmer Field Schools;
- Promoting the introduction and use of fuel efficient cooking stoves and new agricultural practices;
- Promoting the use of renewable energy, sustainable lifestyles and building environmental awareness;
- Promoting community collaborations on solid waste management including their contributions/fees to sustain these efforts; and
- Helping to integrate community volunteerism into learning at Farmer Field Schools so that local farmers, trained in the ecological principles of sustainable agricultural practices, can multiply the results by volunteering to train other farmers and mobilizing community volunteers.
UNV will actively pursue partnerships with UN agencies, funds and programmes such as FAO, WFP and UNDP which are directly responding to the food crisis. UNV will also work closely with the UN working group on the Food Crisis established by the Secretary General as a coordination mechanism. In its Decision 2008/22 from 26 June 2008, the EB states: “Notes that the United Nations Volunteers programme can effectively contribute, at the community level, to addressing environmental sustainability, including climate change, and encourages the United Nations Volunteers programme to engage in community-level natural resources management and climate mitigation and adaptation activities, upon request by programme countries”.
The UN General Assembly resolution responding to the triennial report on IYV follow up, states: Recognises that greater efforts are needed to ensure that climate change and the environment feature on the volunteerism agenda of Governments and the United Nations;”
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/WSSD_POI_PD/English/POIToc.htm
See UNV internal review report “Review of UNV-funded projects by UNDP/UNV focus areas,” UNV R&D unit, April 2009.
FAO news release, 9 Dec 2008, available at: http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/8836/icode/
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