The purpose of this posting is to introduce the latest version of an important slide sequence (UNV from context/purpose to organizational chart) and a summary description of the 7 Key Organizational Goals. It captures my thinking (shared with many of you before) about how we position UNV as that unique programme of the United Nations that, as part of a Web of Inclusion, supports sustainable human development through the promotion of the whole concept of volunteerism, including the mobilisation of volunteers. Not because it is nice to do, but because it is necessary to do.
It is important that we all familiarize ourselves with that thinking and keep the images in mind as an important common thread throughout the GLOW.
UNV can only claim a unique position if a case is made for the relevance and added value of its contributions towards meeting the major development challenges, i.e. the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Achieving those MDGs will certainly require the ingenuity, solidarity, and creativity of millions of ordinary people though voluntary action (only some of them UN volunteers). Efforts on the part of national governments, supported by the international community, can only complement what ultimately will depend on the full involvement of people all over the world. Six billion people have something to contribute. Recognizing this fact is the first step on the road towards harnessing this vast resource in a global effort to meet the MDG targets. Telling examples are contributions by volunteers to the successes of the Global Polio Campaign and the Campaign to ban landmines.
If there is a role for volunteerism, then there is certainly a big role for UNV. UNV is all about making the point in the first place. The actual mobilization of volunteers (whether UN volunteers or others) very much forms part of that. It is because of the broadening of its horizon that UNV started to look beyond the world of UN volunteers only. The development of the concept of UNV associates flows from this, for instance. What the characteristics of a successful UNV are (the Vision) is captured by the 7 KEY GOALS. They express what UNV wants to look like, what it wants its image to be: A`programme and an organization that is known for and recognized for its excellence in (i) bringing its unique V4D approach to bear where it matters, including through its own UN volunteers in the field; (ii) being aligned with and pursuing the goals and objectives of the International Year of Volunteers (IYV2001); (iii) networking and drawing strengths from strategic relationships/ partnerships at global, regional and country level; (iv) bringing all UN volunteers themselves together in being proud of and being and advocate for the programme, what it is and what it stands for; (v) being open to being measured, challenged and kept accountable for outcomes and results and for applying lessons learned: (vi) expanding and diversifying its base of resources to support scaling up; and (vii) efficiently and effectively managing and applying the resources that it gets from taxpayers to carry out its work.
The way in which UNV then organizes itself is special as well. Building further on the notion of a Web of Inclusion, there is a different way in which one can look at an organizational chart. In the new presentation, it is less about hierarchy, much more about all parts being connected with all other parts, all parts and all people making a contribution to what is most important and what rightfully claims the center of everything.
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