Forum

IVCO 2023 Challenge Paper: A New Generation of Volunteers as Changemakers

Aga Wiesyk — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 00:27:39 +0000

Launched in partnership with IAVE, the IVCO 2023 Challenge Paper, available in English, French and Spanish, was written by Dr. Moses Okech of Makerere University in Uganda with Professor Matt Baillie Smith and Dr. Bianca Fadel of Northumbria University in the UK. It aims to frame and inform conversations at the conference. Its goal is also to advance the volunteering sector’s collective knowledge of how to design and implement more responsible and impactful volunteering with and for young people.

Understanding Inequalities in Volunteering Research and Evidence

Forum — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 14:08:12 +0000

This paper is based on a study commissioned by the International Forum for Volunteering in Development with two objectives: to deepen Forum members’ collective understanding of inequalities in volunteering research, their root causes and how they are manifested; and to use this improved understanding to propose concrete ways in which a range of actors in the volunteering research space can address these inequalities.

The report addressing these objectives through two research questions –

Why is there inequality in volunteering research?

How does inequality in volunteering research manifest?

Based on the findings from these questions, it goes on to ask what concrete proposals can be made in which a range of actors in the volunteering research space can address inequality in volunteering research.

In the report, the research findings are presented in three sections:

(1) Why is there inequality in volunteering research and how does it manifest?

(2) Implications of the imbalances; and

(3) How do we change inequalities in volunteering research?

The report is available in English, French and Spanish

A New Dawn for Volunteering in Development

Forum — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 10:39:52 +0000

This collection brings together the research that was prepared by Forum in advance of the IVCO 2022 conference on the theme ‘A New Dawn for Volunteering in Development’. It includes a Framing Paper and Report for Forum Members based on the collective strategy process led by Nick Ockenden, as well as thirteen shorter ‘think pieces’.

IVCO 2022 marked an important moment for the volunteering sector. As we emerge from three years of COVID-imposed restrictions, the theme ‘A New Dawn for Volunteering in Development’ gave us a lens through which to explore what we have learned, how we have innovated, what the new normal might look like, what we have allowed to fall out of focus, and what comes next. Conversations at IVCO 2022 covered a wide range of issues, including COVID as a catalyst for change and the need to continually innovate, decolonising our practice, diversifying and blending different models of volunteering, and doing more to address climate change. These conversations were framed and informed by the papers in this collection, which includes a framing paper and thirteen short ‘think pieces’.

The framing paper is Nick Ockenden’s outstanding A New Dawn – Strategic Pathways for the Future of Volunteering in Development. Drawing on a collective strategy process carried out with Forum’s members and the wider volunteering community, the paper sets out the challenges and opportunities facing our sector in the coming years, and offers pathways to help organisations prioritise and effectively navigate the post-COVID environment.

In the think pieces, leading voices from across our sector address the IVCO theme from thirteen distinct perspectives. To highlight just a few, Dr. Rebecca Tiessen of the University of Ottawa re-examines the concepts of prosperity and flourishing and asks what they mean for volunteering in development. In a challenging piece, Ratherford Mwaruta of the Zimbabwe Workcamps Association asserts that international volunteering echoes the relationships and power dynamics of coloniser and colonised while failing to address the root causes of poverty and inequality. In a similar vein, Dr. Alice Chadwick El and Samuel Turay identify a gap between rhetoric and reality on decolonisation and localisation, and call on us to centre Southern expertise and re-imagine the connection between volunteering and development. The Peace Corps’ Agnes Lam and Kris Besch share the ‘ingredient list’ of core attributes that the Peace Corps has identified as essential to their work, Dr. Cliff Allum and colleagues ask whether we are responding to the call for urgent action on climate change, and Helge Espe of Norec asks whether partnership is ‘just another buzzword’.

On the design of volunteer programmes to facilitate the entry and re-entry of young people into work

Aga Wiesyk — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 01:56:35 +0000

This paper, published jointly by the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, focuses on identifying the main features of volunteer programmes and, more generally, the types of volunteer programmes or work that are likely to be effective in promoting the integration and re-integration of young people into decent employment.

VSO Ireland Barncat report on short term volunteering

Aga Wiesyk — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 01:07:34 +0000

Is the climate right for VSO Ireland to actively recruit experienced professionals for short-term placements overseas, and which models of short-term volunteering will ensure the greatest impact for the communities VSO works in?

The following report, commissioned by VSO Ireland and written by Hannah Grene, Barncat Consulting, provides a perspective on whether, where and how to send increased numbers of skilled volunteers on short-term placements (defined by VSO Ireland as anywhere up to 6 months) to programme countries. The report concludes that short-term volunteers can make a meaningful contribution to programmes and to development goals, if such placements are carefully planned and implemented as part of a larger plan.

In Time, an Egg will Walk on its Feet! The Experience of Ethiopia in Building National Voluntary Infrastructure

Forum — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 20:02:34 +0000

Government and civil society in Ethiopia have made great strides in recent years in building infrastructure for national voluntary service. This piece unpacks the ideas and principles that informed this progress, including a focus on youth employment, efforts to promote volunteering, strong standards for national volunteering, and placing sustainability at the centre of the design.

Ọmọlúwàbí – Rethinking Volunteering Through the Lens of African Communalism

Forum — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 19:55:28 +0000

This piece by Oluwafunmilayo Taiwo, a BeyGOOD x Global Citizen Fellow, explains that volunteering is embedded within the traditional communalism of many African cultures, including the ọmọlúwàbí, or public morality, philosophy of the Yoruba people. It encourages us to consider a motivation for voluntary action that comes from a place of service rather than sainthood, and calls on us to ensure that the opportunity to volunteer is open to all, not just a privileged few.

International Voluntary Service Praxis: A vehicle Reinforcing Colonial Legacies?

Forum — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 19:31:02 +0000

Placing international voluntary service in the context of travel by missionaries, explorers and colonisers, this think piece by Ratherford Mwaruta of the Zimbabwe Workcamps Association asserts that international volunteering echoes the relationships and power dynamics of coloniser and colonised while failing to address the root causes of poverty and inequality. It calls for this trend to be deconstructed by breaking the power structures that persist in international voluntary service.

Blended Volunteering – A Decolonised Volunteering for Development Approach to achieve SDGs

Forum — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 19:21:03 +0000

Drawing on research on blended approaches by VSO and Northumbria University, this think piece by Rebecca Pursell-Gotz and Alok Rath of VSO argues that the value of international volunteers is greatest when programmes recognise the value of local models through blended models of volunteering. Making the case for moving the ‘volunteering epicentre’, it presents blended volunteering models as adding a new dimension in our sector’s thinking on decolonisation.

Southern Expertise in Volunteering for Development

Forum — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 15:57:10 +0000

This think piece identifies a gap between rhetoric and reality on decolonisation and localisation, and asks what IVCOs can do to centre Southern expertise and re-imagine the connection between volunteering and development to deliver transformational change.

Drawing on insights from 12 African volunteer leaders, and their own expertise, the authors identify four ‘enablers’ for this re-centring and call on IVCOs to become equitable partners in a new volunteering for development movement.