International Volunteering for the SDGs

_{Photo: Volunteering in Georgia: working with internally displaced persons. ADRA Slovakia archive, 2018}

Ambrela, a platform for development organisations, has published a policy paper that investigates how Slovak and other international volunteer projects are contributing to the SDGs. It tackles the challenges of mapping, reporting, monitoring and evaluating volunteer work. The paper analyses the motivation for volunteering and reflects on the interactions between volunteers and hosts. It proposes how to improve volunteer management and advises sending organisations to focus on their own development cooperation priorities, linking them to the SDGs. The International Forum for Volunteering in Development (Forum) has developed a platform to help measure the impact of volunteering for development, including self-assessment tools.

Research on the topic is growing, but focuses on the volunteers themselves, rather than the role of sending organisations. International volunteers help slow down radicalisation around migration. Sending organisations can themselves facilitate critical debate and worldview formation of volunteers through post-arrival/return awareness-raising activities and education for global citizenship.

Written by Dr. Bozena Markovic Baluchova, the report was published through DEAR Programme and SlovakAid funding, in the framework of the project “SDGs and Migration – Multipliers and Journalists Addressing Decision Makers and Citizens in the EU”.

Link to the report