Peter Devereux

The last Forum annual meeting in Kenya in 2011 celebrated and reflected on the work of the International Volunteer Cooperation Organisations (IVCOs) under the banner of the International Year of Volunteers + 10. Since then, IVCOs and volunteer involving organisations (VIOs) of all kinds have had their work recognised by the first State of the World’s Volunteerism Report (SWVR), produced by United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme and launched in the UN General Assembly on 5 December 2011, and the 2012 UN Secretary-General’s report to the General Assembly on the follow-up to the implementation of the International Year of Volunteers.

Since the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012 (UNCSD/Rio+20), there has also been increasing global attention for the final push towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, as well as debates on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the processes and proposals for a new post-2015 development framework. This paper seeks to stimulate thoughts and action to consolidate recognition of the power of volunteerism and its values of solidarity and commitment in order to enhance volunteerism’s contribution to the post-2015 development framework and the well-being of individuals and society as a whole.

This paper highlights the current development context, including the processes in place for moving forward; gives insights into key development issues being considered as part of the emerging framework; highlights some opportunities to incorporate the value added of volunteerism; and seeks to initiate a discussion on how to move forward. The emerging post-2015 framework issues and processes are documented in some detail to allow people to draw their own conclusions on where volunteerism can be integrated. The focus for discussion will be to explore potential interest from individual IVCOs and Forum1 as a whole to participate in and/or support the process of making volunteerism and voluntary civic engagement a more valued and explicit part of a new enabling framework for sustainable development.