Islamabad hosts first ever conference on volunteering

To mark the International Volunteer Day (IVD) on 5 December, Pakistan is hosting the first ever international conference on volunteering. The theme of the three-day meeting is the 'Role of volunteers in helping to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)'. "This [conference] is an effort to recognise and streamline all the volunteer activities in our country and develop a networking with other countries to share their experiences to achieve the MDGs in time," Ghani Marwat, director for the volunteers department at Pakistan's National Commission for Human Development (NCHD), told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The NCHD is organising the meeting in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Volunteers (UNV) programme. IVD was established for economic and social development by the UN general assembly in December 1985. Volunteering has an important role in social development, Marwat said. "It is crucial if we want to achieve universal primary education goals in South Asia by 2015, for instance. That is possible only by 2100 under normal pace, but to fill that gap, the only resource that we have is to tap into volunteers in society." The international meeting will focus on the actions needed to promote and advance volunteer contributions as an essential ingredient to achieve the eight MDGs, agreed by the world leaders at the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000. The MDGs are a set of measurable goals and targets for eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women and reduce child mortality, to name a few. Marwat further maintained that volunteering is deep rooted in Pakistani society. The findings of a study by the country's federal bureau of statistics, suggest that almost 70 percent of Pakistanis are involved in such activities, he said adding, "We need to channelise that in the right direction to achieve the MDGs." The NCHD has established a National Volunteer Corps (NVC) to support health and education programmes across the country. Presently, there are over 50,000 people offering to be involved in the social development activities at the grassroots level in the 50 remote districts of the country. Since 1971, the UNV programme has mobilised some 40,000 mid-career professionals to serve the causes of peace and development. Almost 72 percent of them are nationals of developing countries, according to the UNV.