Don’t miss the 27th World Volunteer Conference in Busan!
Start your new year off by making plans to attend the biggest volunteering event of 2024! The 27th IAVE World Volunteer Conference will be held 22-25 October 2024 in Busan, South Korea, hosted by the Busan Metropolitan City Volunteer Center.
The big theme for this big event is ‘People Power: Creating a Sustainable Future through Volunteering’. The conference will focus on critical issues affecting people and planet, and how volunteering can be a catalyst to deliver a sustainable future.
We will highlight the impact volunteering is making on key Sustainable Development Goals such as climate action, ending poverty, ensuring healthy lives and wellbeing, reducing inequalities, promoting peacefulness and inclusive societies, and ensuring quality education and lifelong learning opportunities. Check out information about the event on the conference website: www.wvc2024busan.kr.
Looking Back, Looking Forward
We live in a world where the reality for many people is stark in its negativity. Scenes of war, poverty, natural disasters often dominate the news headlines.
We know that the very fundamentals of our planet’s ecosystem are vulnerable, and while we argue about climate change and what we should do, we cannot deny its reality.
We also know the care, compassion, hope and resilience of people who not only seek to help themselves when adversity strikes, but also reach out to help others.
The IAVE Universal Declaration on Volunteering calls for ‘bringing to life the noblest aspirations of humankind – the pursuit of peace, freedom, opportunity, safety, and justice for all people’. In the past decades the importance of volunteering to help save people and planet has never dimmed.
A few weeks ago, the United Nations designated 2026 as a new International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development.
“The International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development in 2026 is a call for UN Member States to make volunteerism an integral cog in their development pathways to drive forward the Global Goals — and a recognition that only through collective action and solidarity can we summon the strength to address the challenges that affect us all,” said UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner.
The theme of the 27th World Volunteer Conference echoes the theme for the 2026 International Year.
Join Us!
People power through volunteering is a symbol of hope through action for a better world. Please join with us and our hosts, the Busan Metropolitan City Volunteer Center, in not only celebrating the power of volunteers but also calling for every community and every country to create an environment where volunteering can flourish.