In preparation for "Geneva 2000" (the special session of the General Assembly on the Implementation of the Outcome of the World Summit for Social Development -Copenhagen 1995, the United Nations Volunteers has organized a meeting of experts on volunteerism. The participants of the meeting, "the Expert Working Group", held their first meeting at the United Nations in New York on 29 and 30 November 1999.

Representing many regions of the world, the Expert Working Group consisted of representatives from both the UN system and academia. There were six broad areas of recommendations covered by the Expert Working Group, which can be summarized as follows:

- Developing a Strategic Approach: countries are encouraged to develop an overall, integrated strategy for promoting volunteering, in partnership with other stakeholders from the voluntary and business sectors;

- Raising Public Awareness: governments can help raise public awareness about the value of volunteering and the opportunities to volunteer

- Promoting youth volunteering: governments have a role to play in creating conditions in which young people are encouraged to volunteer their time;

- Establishing an Enabling Environment: governments can support volunteering by establishing an enabling legal, fiscal and policy environment.

- Promoting Private Sector: governments can develop public/private sector partnerships, which promote the involvement of volunteers and provide incentives for private sector companies to support volunteering among their employees;

- Influencing International Organizations: governments should encourage international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank to develop their own strategies on volunteering.

Geneva 2000 will include the topic in its recommendations. And the Commission on Social Development formally agreed this week to take, as a sub-theme for its 39th session in February 2001, the role of volunteerism in the promotion of social development (the main theme will be enhancing social protection) and will be informing ECOSOC of the decision. @

For more information:

Mrs. Robert Leigh
robert.leigh@unv.org
www.iyv.org/shortcut/soc_devx.htm