Promoting Volunteerism
Statement delivered by Encho Gospodinov, International Federation Delegate to the UN, to the Commission on Social Development, 39th session, New York
15 February 2001



Madam Chair,
Thank you for this opportunity to set out some thoughts on volunteering, as seen from the point of view of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Whilst the Red Cross and Red Crescent involvement with volunteering has been well established for a long time, I should also confess that at the international level, the issues around volunteering and the volunteers themselves came to be taken for granted.

The International Year of Volunteers, and the efforts of UNV in this context - as well as our own work with UNV - have greatly contributed to the revalidation of volunteering and the debate around it. We hope that the international community now is, and will remain, more alert to the importance of volunteering as a consequence of this debate. The fact that the Commission on Social Development is focussing on volunteering, today, is highly encouraging, especially for our volunteers working hard in this very hour, assisting hundreds of thousands in India, El Salvador and elsewhere where Mother Nature kills without mercy.

One of the questions we have to ask ourselves at the outset is "what is a volunteer", in the first place? Many others have provided their definitions - which vary from country to country, and the phenomenon is described in different terms in different languages. Without attempting to get through the definition discussion, let me describe some characteristics that we have observed in volunteers:

Volunteers have a strong personal motivation. This often makes a big difference for the beneficiary.
Volunteers work part-time. Most people only volunteer a few hours a week. So volunteering can be combined with any occupation. It can continue for many years. It has a unique focus on the task.

Volunteers are local. They come from and serve the local community. They know the needs and the resources. And when disaster strikes, they are already there. And they remain there afterwards - if trained, led and supported they strengthen the self-organizing ability of communities faced with crisis.
Volunteers are cost-effective. Volunteers are not paid, but organizing them costs money. Even so, work done by volunteers has been proven 2 to 8 times as cost-effective as work done by staff.

A very large proportion of volunteering takes place outside of formal organizations - among family members, neighbours, local communities - spontaneously and generously, and rooted in the traditions and values of the people involved.

Other volunteering is organized: by non-profit, voluntary organizations. In organized volunteering, there is need for professionals, too. Systematic recruitment, training, motivation, leadership of volunteers require good management - no less than in other organizations - as well as suitable organizational structures, good governance and constant upgrading of the skills. In other words, to facilitate an organized outlet for people's wish to contribute to their communities or those of others require support structures and an institutional framework for action.

I believe that there is fairly broad agreement on the nature of benefits that volunteering bring, and will not spend much time listing them. We know that there is a significant economic value in volunteering - in spite of the difficulties of measuring it. Volunteering contributes to creating social capital, which in the view of some is more important than physical or human capital in producing social stability. Clearly, the volunteers too benefit: volunteers grows in their roles. They learn new skills. They are trained as leaders. They become, in other words, even more effective volunteers and citizens and contribute to the general development of a community or a country: creating organizations, providing services, enhancing well-fare.

Many have expressed worries around the relationship between volunteering and the role of governments. We believe these worries may be overstated in some cases: Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - at the national level - are auxiliaries to the public authorities, but still volunteer based - to a significant numerical extent, and across the world. We believe, on the contrary, that whether volunteering grows and becomes an effective force for improving the lives of individuals depend to a large extent the framework for volunteering that is established by Governments.

Let me conclude with some reflections on what governments can contribute - or not - in this regard:
The main role of governments, we believe, lies in creating an enabling environment for volunteering based on an understanding that volunteer work is not the same as paid work. This involves, for example, ensuring that there is a legal right to volunteer, that there is legal protection for volunteers in carrying out their work. Even more important is to raise public awareness of the value of volunteering, and to give public recognition to volunteers who make a contribution
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Moreover, volunteering should not be regulated, but should be given a good legal framework and should be actively promoted. At the same time, it is clearly important that Government support for volunteering must be based on local conditions: as volunteering is different in every country, government support to it must also be different.

In this context, we look to governments to create an enabling environment not only for volunteering, but for voluntary organizations, and provide a suitable legal basis for creating and running voluntary organizations, suitable fiscal arrangements, reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens, and support the infrastructure for voluntary organizations.

We shall continue to promote volunteering within the Red Cross and Red Crescent. By building on, strengthening and developing the global network of volunteer-based national organizations, the International Federation wishes to contribute to the goals of social development through "mobilizing the power of humanity", as it is expressed in our mission statement, and to continue to be an effective partner for organizations, agencies and individual governments.

Thank you.