PRESS BRIEFING BY COORDINATOR OF UNITED NATIONS VOLUNTEERS

PRESS BRIEFING BY COORDINATOR OF UNITED NATIONS VOLUNTEERS

To those people who viewed volunteerism as a "fluffy" subject, the Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV), Sharon Capeling-Alakija, would say that volunteers had contributed up to 15 percent of the gross domestic product of a country and served as a "sociological superglue" to hold communities and societies together.

Ms. Capeling-Alakija briefed correspondents today at Headquarters on the observance tomorrow of the closing of the International Year of Volunteers, when the General Assembly is to hold two meetings on the subject, she said it would be a historic day for the United Nations because, for the first time in its history, there would be two plenary sessions to discuss ways in which to support volunteerism.  The debate would be based on a report from the Secretary-General (document A/56/288), and a substantive resolution to be acted upon at the end of the day.

She said that many might think of International Years with a certain degree of "jadedness" because there had been so many of them, but "this has perhaps been the United Nations Year to end all Years", in terms of the significant participation worldwide.  There was a huge constituency of billions of people who were very pleased that the United Nations had actually taken up their issues and encouraged governments to pass legislation to make volunteering more easily accessible, particularly to marginalized groups.

She said 200 committees had been established for the International Year of Volunteers in 124 countries.  New York had a committee for the International Year at the city, state and national levels.  Also, there were more than 20,000 individuals and organizations worldwide registered on the International Year web site.  That was a valuable and sizeable new constituency of support for the United Nations.  Legislation had been passed, policies had been changed in many countries, and a number of Member States would use the opportunity tomorrow in the General Assembly to announce new initiatives following up the International Year to move forward beyond it.

She said that, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, that was not the end but the end of the beginning.  The International Year of Volunteers would leave a legacy.  The last time there was a comparable United Nations Year was 26 years ago with the International Year of Women.  That had led to new United Nations organizations, world conferences, and more importantly, the changing of legislation in many countries and the building of a global women's movement.  There could be a similar outcome from this particular Year.

Speaking for the 5,000 United Nations volunteers, she said she had felt privileged to have been the focal point of the Year and had tried, wherever possible, to provide support and be a hub for communication.  Participants in tomorrow's Assembly would see some of the really tangible results, including the artistic ones, such as a double album of songs written about volunteerism by

artists from Jamaica to Uzbekistan and from Japan to Congo.  Jamaican reggae artist, of the performers, Tony Rebel, and his friends would be performing; it may be the first time a "rasta" had performed there.

Asked if she had seen a change in attitude towards volunteerism since

11 September, she said that because New York was a world media hub, the world had watched what happened in New York City, including the tremendous response from individuals doing everything from donating blood to rescuing people to counselling traumatized families to serving coffee.  And, when they ran out of jobs, they went down to "ground zero" to cheer the firemen and construction workers and police as they came off duty.  The world cameras had been focused on that and, as a result, the world would not think of volunteering in quite the same way again.

She added that people mobilized wherever there was an emergency.  In Gujarat, India, for example, where an earthquake earlier this year killed nearly 25,000 people, people from around the country had not sat around waiting for the volunteers to arrive with their blankets and Development Ministers, and so forth, to the rescue.  They were there, just as they had been at "ground zero", reaching out and helping each other.  Often, when those tragedies happened in the South, the North's "take" on it revolved around what it was doing to come to the rescue, rather than on the kinds of everyday heroes that were part of every society, culture, and religious group.

To a question about whether that impact could and should be sustained, and whether the United Nations was going to do anything to promote that, she said that it could and would and should be sustained.  Perhaps the one shaft of light that had pierced the dust and debris of 11 September had been that tremendous outpouring of volunteerism.  The attacks had happened during the International Year, and people around the world had been mobilized around that.  There was legislation moving through the United Nations system.  The Council of Europe had passed legislation, as had the Inter-Parliamentary Union.  The General Assembly resolution was very, substantive, listing steps that both governments and the United Nations could take.

She said people were beginning to know about United Nations volunteers.  What was often hidden, however, was how essential they were to the United Nations, itself, in delivering its programmes.  The immunizations last year, by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), of 550 million children had been done with 10 million locally based volunteers.  According to WHO, that would have cost $10 billion, far beyond the reach of either organization.  So, those 550 million children might not have been immunized last year if those organizations had not had access to local volunteers around the world to support the polio campaign.

Replying to a question about recruitment procedure of United Nations Volunteers and a second one concerning fees to eminent persons, she said that her programme had had another record year in 2001, with more than 5,000 volunteers from 163 countries.  That was truly an expression of global solidarity.  The vast majority of volunteers in the world volunteered in their

own cities and countries and communities, and not internationally.  So, the Year had embraced the United Nations Volunteers and the Peace Corps, and other volunteer-sending organizations.  But those were far outnumbered by the people who actually volunteered in their own countries.

There had been four eminent persons selected for the International Year, she continued.  The Secretary-General had invited them all as volunteers, and then had not received remuneration.  In the case of, the Crown Prince of Spain, the Spanish Government had absorbed the costs associated with his work as an eminent person for the International Year.  The former President of Ghana, Jerry Rawlings, who was spearheading a campaign called "Volunteers against AIDS in Africa", had travelled to some seven countries in Africa to engage volunteers in stemming the flow of AIDS there.  His costs had been covered by a small fund mobilized by the United Nations Volunteers through the donations of a couple of countries.

She highlighted several methods of recruitment.  In the developing world there were programme officers in the offices of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 134 countries.  They not only supported international and national volunteers working in each of their countries, but also served as focal points for recruitment from that country.  The UNDP's network was exceedingly important to achieving a truly global body of United Nations Volunteers.

In the industrialized world, she said, the Volunteers worked through a network of partners, such as the Peace Corps in the United States and the World University Service in Canada, which had long histories of recruiting volunteers bilaterally for their own programmes.  In the last few years, United Nations Volunteers had recruited heavily over the Internet.  Indeed, it was a very "high wired" organization, with respect to Internet usage.

What was the difference between engaged members of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and United Nations Volunteers, and was there competition between them? another correspondent asked.

Ms. Capeling-Alakija said that volunteers were very important to NGOs and civil society organizations.  There was a great complementarity between the United Nations Volunteers and NGOs.  In a recent evaluation of the work of the volunteers, particularly in peace and reconciliation and human rights, the NGOs had reported on the comparative advantage of the Volunteers because those had the authority of the United Nations behind them, as well as the access and neutrality that went with that.  At the same time, the evaluation had recognized the flexibility of NGOs.

In Gujarat, India, because the United Nations Volunteers was part of the United Nations, its volunteers, who were living and working in communities with people recovering from the earthquake, could walk through the gate and have direct access to the United Nations infrastructure, which was planning and coordinating the overall emergency effort.  At the same time, they could bring to the process the voices of the NGOs and convey information back to them. 

Often, United Nations Volunteers played a very important "back and forth" role, particularly in emergency situations.  So there was often a strong relationship between them.

Answering a question on concern that the so-called "gratis personnel" of the United Nations were being recycled into the volunteer organization, she said those were not the same people at all.  The United Nations Volunteers had tremendous support from all Member States.  Indeed, the resolution to be acted on tomorrow had been co-sponsored by nearly 100 Member States.  All countries had access to the United Nations Volunteers organization, which had broken out of the paradigm of one set of countries being the recipients and the other set being the donors.  In her programme, all countries were donors, and that had accounted for its substantial support.

                                    * *** *