The InterDependent

They help farmers in developing countries to improve agricultural production, assist in preparing and holding elections and organize teaching programs for health care workers.

They belong to the best the UN can offer: UN Volunteers, created 40 years ago in December 1970 through a General Assembly resolution with the intent to provide volunteers to the UN Development Program and to other UN organizations like Unicef, the World Health Organization and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees at the request of UN member countries. Yet UN Volunteers are virtually unknown to the public in most countries and seldom appear in media reports on the world body. They deserve more public attention, as the volunteers embody the values of the UN: idealism, service, human interest and solidarity.

Administered by the Development Program and financed by it, partner UN agencies and voluntary contributions, UN Volunteers mobilizes about 7,500 people every year to work in its ranks. Since starting operations in January 1971, the program has engaged more than 300,000 volunteers to work on site on a wide range of projects in developing countries. A minimum age of 25 years, a university degree or higher technical diploma and several years’ working experience are preconditions for recruitment for the program, which has a roster of about 70,000 people for assignments.

The average age of a volunteer is, in fact, 37, with about 10 years of work experience. Candidates are recruited from both developed (20 percent) and developing countries (80 percent). More than 80 percent of the assigned volunteers come from developing countries and more than 30 percent work in their own country. Of those assigned, 37 percent are female and 63 percent are male. As of 2009, the volunteers came from 158 countries and were given assignments in 128 countries.

Tim McKulka/UN Photo

At Gok Machar in south Sudan, preparations are made at a support base, where a deployment of UN Volunteers and UN Police will help work on a commission overseeing the region's referendum on self-determination in January. This is just one example of the dozens of UN Volunteer programs that attract thousands of people every year.

As a rule, volunteers work with two-year contracts, though shorter assignments are possible. They receive a modest monthly allowance to cover basic living expenses as well as insurance protection, a settling-in grant, a resettlement allowance and a reimbursement of their travel expenses.

In the program’s first two decades, volunteers worked mainly on agriculture, environmental protection, health care and education projects. Since the early 1990s, the volunteers became increasingly involved in humanitarian aid, human-rights activities and, above all, peace-building operations of the UN, where they now make up a third of the international civilian personnel involved in peacekeeping missions. Under the peacekeeping efforts, they are tasked with projects of crisis and post-crisis humanitarian assistance, conflict prevention, peace-building and electoral assistance. They also provide help in projects related to demobilization and disarmament, reintegration of former refugees, medical care and logistical planning.

The main principle of their work is to transfer their skills to others: teaching farmers sustainable practices; giving advice for teacher-education programs; assisting in the repair of water and sanitation facilities. The goal is to make the local people able to run the projects later on their own.

The great advantage of the program is that the volunteers are not politicians or academics but well-qualified professionals who know the practice in all its facets. Moreover, most of them have no large cultural barriers to overcome at their assignment location, since -- as mentioned above -- the majority of them also come from developing countries.

Most important, the volunteers like what they do, work in their professions and are on assignment because they want to share their knowledge with those who need it. Volunteering is also a far-reaching emotional experience for them, as over time they and the people they help develop empathy for each other, discovering that they have common interests and that their values are similar even across borders.

The program also enables countries to create their own volunteer systems. For example, UN Volunteers operates an online service (www.onlinevolunteering.org), which connects development organizations with online volunteers who can provide services and advice in many fields over the Internet. This service now has more than 58,000 individuals and 2,000 development organizations registered.

Established in 2000, it gives participating organizations access to a broader pool of expertise and resources to enhance their capacities, while it also offers a large number of people around the world the chance to volunteer for development, without age restrictions and qualification hurdles.

Online volunteers are professionals, students, homemakers, retirees, people with disabilities and expatriates who generally support organizations over the Internet. The volunteers assist development projects in various ways: in management by writing proposals; devising fund-raising strategies; drafting grant applications; designing logos; creating the layouts of publications; illustrating training material; managing teams of other online volunteers; coordinating campaigns; moderating online discussions in information technology.

They also specialize in developing and maintaining Web sites, designing databases, setting up blogs, researching development topics and consulting.

Those who want to volunteer on site in developing countries and do not meet the requirements of UN Volunteers should go to the World Volunteer Web site at www.worldvolunteerweb.org. It is not only a useful source for information about opportunities to volunteer but also a global clearinghouse for resources linked to volunteerism.