Volunteering Worldwide Issue No. 1

One of the aims of the International Year of Volunteers (IYV) in 2001 was to highlight the contribution volunteering makes to the fabric of societies. As part of this effort the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) and partner organization in the Netherlands produced a book called “Volunteering Worldwide”. The goal of the work was to make volunteers and their organizations more visible to the world of governments, business, media, education, and research. The diversity of volunteering, its cultural embedding, and the way in which volunteers make a difference was shown in the profiles of volunteering in 21 countries around the world.

The publication was designed to be a first step to increase the visibility of volunteering worldwide and start a process that would continue beyond IYV. As the tenth anniversary of IYV (IYV+10) fast approaches it is high time to continue this initiative.

This Spring 2008 edition of “Volunteering Worldwide” will be the first of a regular series of updates presenting the rich tapestry of volunteering across different cultures and societies, giving an insightful picture of the various ways people contribute to making the world a better place, and offering an inspiring picture of global volunteering.

Three regions of the world are visited in this publication, which has profiles from the Czech Republic in Europe, Hong Kong in the Asia Pacific and Venezuela in Latin America. The authors were asked to highlight the current status of volunteering in their countries or territories, looking at the problems, challenges and opportunities for volunteer involving organizations. Each of the three chapters contains background information on the political, economic, social and cultural contexts of volunteering; as well as a brief history of civil society and current trends and developments in the volunteer sector.

Depending on the availability of resources and the contextual relevance of the issues, the authors describe definitions of volunteer work and the status of volunteer organizations, mechanisms for volunteering, the social and economic value of volunteering, and government policy and legislation on volunteering. In addition there is closer examination of youth participation in volunteering, corporate volunteering, service volunteering, international volunteering, community or ‘obligatory’ volunteering, faith-based volunteering, and other issues. Statistics on voluntary work is available in some cases, but this publication is not intended to be a scientific study. It is hoped that the papers will offer new inspiration and open up further discussions.

Each chapter starts by giving an impression of the political, social and cultural climate in the form of broad geographic and demographic information, such as area, population, life expectancy at birth, gender distribution, per capita GDP, and religions and ethnic make-up. The data are based on the CIA world fact book.

Where appropriate authors have listed the main volunteer involving organizations, and overseas volunteering placement organizations; and recounted personal stories of individual volunteers.