UN Volunteers

In pursuit of peace and development in Pakistan, the United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV) was launched in Pakistan in 1971, to complement the work of the UNCT with the spirit of volunteerism. Through establishing partnerships with the Government of Pakistan and other UN agencies i.e. UNDP, UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNHCR, UN Women, WFP, UNRCO, UNODC, UNV, is striving to contribute to the development of Pakistan through contributing in several sectors. UNV Pakistan strives for perpetuating productive networks for promoting volunteerism through mobilizing international and national UN Volunteers, and put leverages engaging Pakistanis to other countries as UN Volunteers.

Our UN Volunteers are actively involved in supporting development process in achieving UN mandate In Pakistan. They are mainly assigned substantive program areas i.e., human rights, political policy and planning, food protection, disaster management, policy support, refugee protections, governance, education and administrative functions.

Since inception, UNV has been conducting several activities to promote volunteerism in Pakistan through multifaceted initiatives from various aspects including institutional development for sustainability i.e. establishing volunteer movement wing in the government mechanism, promotion of volunteer among the youth, flood response, disaster management, public education, policy advocacy for formulating legislation on volunteerism etc.

Currently UNV is conducting several advocacy activities as follows:

• Joint programming: UNV Pakistan is implementing a joint project titled ‘Empowering and educating marginalized young women through volunteerism and community focused radio’ together with UN Women and UNESCO with the support of SVF (Special Voluntary Fund). UNV also recently made a joint partnership with UNIDO, UN Women, ILO, WHO and RCO for submitting a concept note to UNPRPD fund to support government of Punjab on disability activities. We are also trying to advocate with other UN agencies for more partnerships.
• Policy formulation on volunteerism: UNV Pakistan is conducting advocacy on policy formulation on volunteerism at Punjab and Baluchistan province as Pakistan doesn’t have any legal framework on volunteerism.
• Youth Policy: UNV is also engaged formulating youth policies for provincial governments.
• Youth volunteering: UNV is organizing several workshops, campaigns and other advocacy activities to enhance capacity of youth groups for engaging youth volunteering efforts. It also supports to form youth groups in different community and universities.
• Engaging grassroots organization, CSOs, NGOs and community: UNV is involving grassroots organizations on volunteering activities to integrate development efforts.
• Promotion of Online Volunteering in Pakistan: UNV has been endeavoring to promote online volunteering in Pakistan.
• Mobilizing UNVs for UN agencies: UNV Pakistan is mobilizing UN Volunteers for UN agencies to substantially support their activities for achieving UN mandate in Pakistan.
• Promotion and recognition of UNVs and Partnering UN agencies for mobilizing UNVs: UNV Pakistan is also leveraging to promote recognition of the valued services of UN Volunteers in Pakistan through different activities.
• Volunteer Management: UNV is taking up several initiatives of volunteer management in Pakistan including promotion of recognition of volunteers, skill development, building synergy and strong coordination, fun activities etc.