Learning from the Standards Self-Assessment Pilot- Full Report

The Global Standard for Volunteering for Development was developed in 2018–19, through a global consultation process involving several hundred stakeholders from across the Volunteering for Development sector. The standard, which was launched in October 2019, is voluntary, with the aim of improving the outcomes of volunteering for development and of ensuring organisations working with volunteers are both impactful and responsible in their practice. The standard is structured against four key areas and contains a series of actions and corresponding indicators for each of these areas:
• Designing and delivering projects
• Duty of care
• Manging volunteers
• Measuring impact

As part of the validation of the standard, a total of thirty volunteer involving organisations agreed to test the standard in practice through piloting a self-assessment and action planning process ahead of a wider roll out. A guide to self-assessment, self-assessment tool and learning action plan template were developed to help facilitate this process. The pilot took place during 2020 and this report presents the findings/ from a learning exercise commissioned by Forum and conducted with the pilot organisations from Sept 2020 to January 2021.
The objectives of the learning exercise were:
• To validate the content and structure of the standard and inform revisions for 2021.
• To validate a self-assessment process for launch to all relevant organisations in 2021.
• To ensure the standard and self-assessment process are helpful for the full diversity of volunteering for development organisations.
• To establish learning that has occurred through the self-assessment process.
• To gather case studies and experiences which will encourage awareness and adoption of the standard.