4th G-CVC gathering: welcome words from IAVE president

Congratulations on GCVC meeting here in beautiful city, Rio de Janeiro! I am happy that many of the GCVC members came here today and I believe this meeting will be successful with your enthusiastic participation.

Nowadays, the philosophy of CSR is getting deeper and the trend is getting wider to “Inclusive Market, Business with The Poor”. GCVC is expected to cope with the global trends and take the lead in corporate volunteering, deviate from the same old CSR and volunteering activities.

Since GCVC members are MNCs and they have branch offices in many other different regions in the world. Using this basic characteristic of global corporate, we can share valuable information on certain areas, how to build up effective partnership with local government and civil society organizations, about activities, and evaluation tools based on the local culture and features.

According to the report of the UN Secretary General on IYV Follow-up, Corporate support for volunteering in developing countries is growing. It implies opportunities for GCVC members in developing countries in regard of corporate volunteering and inclusive market.  I look forward GCVC members initiate and develop this golden chance.

It would have been great if I could participate in the meeting and meet GCVC members but I regret that I was not able to be in the meeting.

I wish this GCVC meeting to be very productive as a channel for intensive discussion, especially for information sharing.  I also wish all of you enjoy the meeting and the Rio as well.

As many of you may know, the 12^th IAVE Asia-Pacific Volunteer Conference will be held in Taiwan in 2009. In 2011, the 21^st IAVE World Volunteer Conference will be held in Singapore and in November 2011, the 13^th IAVE Volunteer Conference will be held in Changwon, Korea. Therefore, I gently ask GCVC members to encourage local staffs to take part in the conferences.  This is another way of improving and developing networks between GCVC members.

Lastly, I express my sincere appreciation for Sarah Hayes, Monica, Claudia McNamee, Heloisa and RIOVOLUNTÁRIO’ and for all who contributed their efforts to this meeting.

Thank you
IAVE World President, Kang-Hyun Lee, Ph.D.
2008-09-12