You may remember that 2001 was the International Year of Volunteers. What you probably don’t know is that, as it’s 10 years later, there are IYV+10 activities going on. Not many, as promotional activities about IYV+10 have been few and far between – in stark contrast to the outstanding job the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme did promoting IYV more than a decade ago: online communities are largely silent on the subject of IYV+10, and when I have asked at my workshops if anyone knew it that IYV+10 was happening, I’ve been met with confused looks and shaking heads.

One of the main events regarding IYV+10 is the newly-announced Global Volunteer Conference in Budapest, to take place 15-17 September 2011 and being planned jointly by UNV and the International Federation of Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The conference theme is Volunteering for a Sustainable Future, and “will look at ways to mainstream volunteerism in peace, humanitarian and development work. Linkages between volunteering and issues such as climate change, migration, youth involvement, solidarity between generations, crisis prevention and recovery, disaster risk reduction, gender or growing urbanization will be addressed. The conference will focus on the following broad themes:

• Volunteering during humanitarian crises and emergency situations
• Volunteering for peace and development:  MDGs and beyond
• Promoting an enabling environment for volunteering
• Enhancing evidence of the impact, value, and power of volunteering and its contribution to peace and development
• Engaging national and international policy makers to enhance protection, recognition, and promotion of volunteers”

This conference was announced on July 15 – just two months before it’s going to happen! As of now, there is no information on speakers or specific workshops, let alone goals for the event or how to register. And even though this event is being hosted in Europe (in fact, in one of my favorite cities on Earth!), there’s no mention that 2011 is also the European Year of Volunteering.

There will also be regional conferences, such as the Southern Africa Conference on Volunteer Action for Development, also hosted by UNV, as well as the Volunteer and Service Enquiry Southern Africa (VOSESA), in Johannesburg on October 17-19. Alongside that meeting, members of an African Working Group, consisting of African delegates that attended the International Association for National Youth Service’s 9th Global Conference in Alexandria, Egypt in October 2010, will meet to continue their efforts promoting opportunities for Africans to engage and interact on national youth service and youth civic engagement in Africa. 

If you are attending either of these events, please let me know if you will be blogging about such – I would be happy to link to all those that will be writing about the event while there or shortly after.

Tags: volunteering, volunteers, community, engagement, volunteerism, service, help, development, MDGs, humanitarian, aid, international, global, presenters, presenting, conference, event, presentations, Africa, Europe