Volunteering guide
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Volunteering is work without pay; the branch of philanthropy in which time replaces cheque book. It is an expression of individual freedom, building on deep cultural tradition and increasingly on modern technical wizardry. Sensitivity for the needs of others is however beginning to blur with the more complex personal reward of volunteering, the patterns of which are changing fast, too fast for governments which seek to channel its direction and sometimes too fast for civil society which prefers a disciplined resource.
updated October 2008
Millennium Development Goals and Volunteering
Can the modest endeavour of an individual volunteer register any meaningful difference to a global project such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)? Most certainly, says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his 2008 report to the General Assembly: "achieving the Millennium Development Goals will require the engagement of
countless millions of people through volunteer action". The report reflects how the spirit of volunteering is spreading fast in the developing world especially amongst young people who comprise the bulk of national populations and for whom the context of the MDGs is most meaningful.
The NGO community too is keen for volunteering to evolve; it encourages the concept of active global citizenship, active not just in helping others directly but also in campaigning against unfair practices in global economics and other root causes of poverty which fundamentally constrain progress in poor countries towards the MDGs.
Volunteering at Home
Many countries are striving to create enabling environments for volunteering to flourish. In developed countries, this typically involves amendments to employment legislation, establishment of national volunteering councils, public exhortation by politicians, and training for volunteer managers. Richer countries are however no strangers to the role of volunteering in social development. In Europe and North America the culture has become embedded to the extent that local community organizations are widely recognised for their contribution to social cohesion, papering over the cracks in national welfare programmes.
Such traditions emerged from 19th century extremes of wealth and poverty not dissimilar to conditions in the developing world today. Many poor countries themselves possess cultural norms for community support, and seek to build on these to cope with new challenges posed by the 21st century, such as the explosion of population occurring in large cities. Countries emerging from periods of strong central state control face more difficulty in creating a new culture of voluntary community service. The same is true for very poor countries where all household efforts are so often dedicated to survival or where unemployment is exceptionally high.
There have been some remarkable achievements in developing countries including the adaptation of volunteering as a path to greater social inclusion for marginalised people such as those living with HIV/AIDS. In Nepal, volunteer community health workers who bridge the gap between villages and distant health clinics are often drawn from lower caste illiterates but have nevertheless become known as “miracle women”. The most spectacular programmes involve the immunisation of very large numbers of children. It could be argued that the polio vaccinations delivered by volunteers to millions of children in Somalia and Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008 represent by far the most effective implementation of a human development programme in those troubled countries.
Natural disasters have acted as a catalyst in countries where the spirit of volunteering has been relatively dormant. Examples include the Pakistan earthquake in 2005 and again after the Sichuan earthquake when 200,000 people from the more affluent regions of China spontaneously travelled to the disaster region to offer assistance. With over one million Chinese submitting applications for the chance to volunteer at the Beijing Olympics, 2008 could become pivotal in the evolving nature of citizenship in China.
Volunteering Abroad
Another tradition with its origins in wealthy countries is volunteering overseas, the ultimate experience of non-financial altruism. It offers rewards which go beyond the fulfilment of helping disadvantaged people. The best known traditional agencies offering overseas opportunities are VSO in the UK and Peace Corps in the US. Ironically, the highly professional assignments offered by such organisations are the only branch of volunteering which is not currently enjoying a period of exponential growth. Career prospects and mortgage repayments are vulnerable to the standard two year absence on local pay scales typically demanded. The time-driven modern professional seeks to obtain assignments of ever decreasing periods of commitment.
This demand for fast-track overseas volunteering experiences has in its most extreme form created a new branch of the travel business known as "voluntourism" which arranges visits to developing countries for just a few weeks of engagement on a "project" together with the experience of living within a poor village environment. The "volunteers" typically pay the full costs of the expedition. "Gap-year" students are a core market for these packages with shorter term versions available for "vacation volunteering". There is great variation in these schemes; some offer sophisticated flexibility, whilst others reduce the volunteering component to the equivalent of an excursion.
It is no wonder that development professionals, wary from painful experience of the complexity of delivering successful development projects, fear that voluntourism is turning back the clock to a paternalist colonial era. VSO's interesting Global XChange programme pairs volunteers from richer and poorer countries in a fully reciprocal package where they visit each other's homes for similar periods, the focus being on the concept of global citizenship rather than any notion of assisting poor communities.
A more positive development than voluntourism is the adoption of the concept of international volunteering by the emerging middle classes in developing countries, leading to south-south assignments. This is particularly strong in India with its burgeoning numbers of medical, information technology and business professionals who are more than capable of delivering the capacity building potential of the best overseas assignments.
Online Volunteering
Computers and the Internet have enabled a new breed of development workers and activists to emerge. The expertise of online volunteers is bridging gaps between communities and cultures in ways that were impossible even ten years ago and which overcome many of the shortcomings of traditional overseas volunteering. Many online volunteers are themselves young educated people in developing countries, increasingly connected, skilled, and passionate to contribute to the desperate needs of the global village.
There are countless examples of new technologies working for the benefit of poor countries through the medium of online volunteering. The construction of a website for an NGO in the developing world, translation services, and marketing and fundraising support are examples of quintessential online volunteering, offering real scope for the well-connected to address the digital divide. People With Disabilities Uganda (PWDU) is a peace and disability rights organization which utilises no fewer than 150 online volunteers from around the world. Even more committed to a virtual existence is SAWNET, a South Asian Women's Network which has no formal legal or physical presence.
The tendency of politicians and corporations to leverage strength through establishing regional and global groupings can now be mirrored by activists working together online, a fascinating antidote to globalisation. For example, bloggers and other purveyors of user-generated content can be encouraged to volunteer simultaneous postings of material about a single issue. The viral potential of the Internet is equally present in social networking sites but it remains unclear how this potential might be converted into volunteer effort. For the moment, young people in their millions have signed up to the many “causes” on Facebook as a relatively painless first step.
Corporate Volunteering
The spirit of volunteering has natural resonance for those major corporations which profess commitment to the world of corporate social responsibility. Companies encourage employees to volunteer for social projects, typically conceding normal company time for the purpose. The company becomes an extra link in the chain of beneficiaries of conventional volunteering, improving its image in the local or wider community, and motivating existing and prospective employees. Partly for this reason, the great majority of corporate schemes focus on local community work rather than problems in developing countries.
Some civil society organisations pause for thought before participating in corporate or "employee" volunteering schemes, some of which involve placement of corporate staff within the NGOs themselves. Schemes vary considerably in detail and it is not always clear whether the employees are volunteering in the true sense of giving personal time, or whether it is the company that is donating its time for motives which may include "teamwork" and enhanced personal development. However, such programmes can deliver valuable services and corporate volunteering shows every sign of extending to companies based in the developing world.
The Limits to Volunteering
The ambiguities inherent in corporate volunteering and voluntourism are examples of how the fashionable "correctness" of volunteering is creating hybrid commercial arrangements which push against its traditional boundaries. Politicians too are sailing in uncharted waters; for example, there are proposals in some countries that young people should engage in a period of community service as a national obligation. This releases the potential for contradiction between the concepts of volunteering and conscription as well as concern that tasks might be chosen to serve the interests of the government rather than the community.
The UN is encouraging governments to “establish the economic value of volunteering” as a tool for further promoting the concept. A number of countries have agreed to pilot this approach; they estimate that the value of volunteer effort is up to 3 times greater than philanthropic donations. However there are philosophical as well as logistical constraints to these calculations. If the voice of top-down encouragement to volunteer becomes too strong, or if the execution of an assignment encounters the realms of cost/benefit analysis, then the essence of volunteering as a spontaneous non-monetary gesture may be at risk.
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| Mozambique-Brazil Youth Exchange © Melisa Dickie / International Women's Health Coalition |
countless millions of people through volunteer action". The report reflects how the spirit of volunteering is spreading fast in the developing world especially amongst young people who comprise the bulk of national populations and for whom the context of the MDGs is most meaningful.
The NGO community too is keen for volunteering to evolve; it encourages the concept of active global citizenship, active not just in helping others directly but also in campaigning against unfair practices in global economics and other root causes of poverty which fundamentally constrain progress in poor countries towards the MDGs.
Volunteering at Home
|
| Clean-up volunteers in South Africa © Gideon Mendel/Network / allAfrica.com |
Such traditions emerged from 19th century extremes of wealth and poverty not dissimilar to conditions in the developing world today. Many poor countries themselves possess cultural norms for community support, and seek to build on these to cope with new challenges posed by the 21st century, such as the explosion of population occurring in large cities. Countries emerging from periods of strong central state control face more difficulty in creating a new culture of voluntary community service. The same is true for very poor countries where all household efforts are so often dedicated to survival or where unemployment is exceptionally high.
|
| Polio vaccine given to a child © United Nations Children's Fund |
Natural disasters have acted as a catalyst in countries where the spirit of volunteering has been relatively dormant. Examples include the Pakistan earthquake in 2005 and again after the Sichuan earthquake when 200,000 people from the more affluent regions of China spontaneously travelled to the disaster region to offer assistance. With over one million Chinese submitting applications for the chance to volunteer at the Beijing Olympics, 2008 could become pivotal in the evolving nature of citizenship in China.
Volunteering Abroad
|
This demand for fast-track overseas volunteering experiences has in its most extreme form created a new branch of the travel business known as "voluntourism" which arranges visits to developing countries for just a few weeks of engagement on a "project" together with the experience of living within a poor village environment. The "volunteers" typically pay the full costs of the expedition. "Gap-year" students are a core market for these packages with shorter term versions available for "vacation volunteering". There is great variation in these schemes; some offer sophisticated flexibility, whilst others reduce the volunteering component to the equivalent of an excursion.
It is no wonder that development professionals, wary from painful experience of the complexity of delivering successful development projects, fear that voluntourism is turning back the clock to a paternalist colonial era. VSO's interesting Global XChange programme pairs volunteers from richer and poorer countries in a fully reciprocal package where they visit each other's homes for similar periods, the focus being on the concept of global citizenship rather than any notion of assisting poor communities.
A more positive development than voluntourism is the adoption of the concept of international volunteering by the emerging middle classes in developing countries, leading to south-south assignments. This is particularly strong in India with its burgeoning numbers of medical, information technology and business professionals who are more than capable of delivering the capacity building potential of the best overseas assignments.
Online Volunteering
|
| © Radio Netherlands Wereldomroep |
There are countless examples of new technologies working for the benefit of poor countries through the medium of online volunteering. The construction of a website for an NGO in the developing world, translation services, and marketing and fundraising support are examples of quintessential online volunteering, offering real scope for the well-connected to address the digital divide. People With Disabilities Uganda (PWDU) is a peace and disability rights organization which utilises no fewer than 150 online volunteers from around the world. Even more committed to a virtual existence is SAWNET, a South Asian Women's Network which has no formal legal or physical presence.
The tendency of politicians and corporations to leverage strength through establishing regional and global groupings can now be mirrored by activists working together online, a fascinating antidote to globalisation. For example, bloggers and other purveyors of user-generated content can be encouraged to volunteer simultaneous postings of material about a single issue. The viral potential of the Internet is equally present in social networking sites but it remains unclear how this potential might be converted into volunteer effort. For the moment, young people in their millions have signed up to the many “causes” on Facebook as a relatively painless first step.
Corporate Volunteering
The spirit of volunteering has natural resonance for those major corporations which profess commitment to the world of corporate social responsibility. Companies encourage employees to volunteer for social projects, typically conceding normal company time for the purpose. The company becomes an extra link in the chain of beneficiaries of conventional volunteering, improving its image in the local or wider community, and motivating existing and prospective employees. Partly for this reason, the great majority of corporate schemes focus on local community work rather than problems in developing countries.
Some civil society organisations pause for thought before participating in corporate or "employee" volunteering schemes, some of which involve placement of corporate staff within the NGOs themselves. Schemes vary considerably in detail and it is not always clear whether the employees are volunteering in the true sense of giving personal time, or whether it is the company that is donating its time for motives which may include "teamwork" and enhanced personal development. However, such programmes can deliver valuable services and corporate volunteering shows every sign of extending to companies based in the developing world.
The Limits to Volunteering
|
| Barcelona volunteer forum 2004 © Fòrum Barcelona 2004 |
The UN is encouraging governments to “establish the economic value of volunteering” as a tool for further promoting the concept. A number of countries have agreed to pilot this approach; they estimate that the value of volunteer effort is up to 3 times greater than philanthropic donations. However there are philosophical as well as logistical constraints to these calculations. If the voice of top-down encouragement to volunteer becomes too strong, or if the execution of an assignment encounters the realms of cost/benefit analysis, then the essence of volunteering as a spontaneous non-monetary gesture may be at risk.
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