Workshop on the Follow-up of the International Year of Volunteers (IYV 2001)

International Conference Center, 15, rue Varembé, 1202 Genève, Room 15 (level -1)

Surprising issues

Ms. Burns told participants that volunteers are the key to a strong and healthy civil society, and that the regions of the world where volunteerism is weak or underground are also the regions with a weak civil society.

Mr. de Raad observed that the UN resolution in 2001 was extremely powerful when you realized that the last time the General Assembly had talked about volunteerism was to form United Nations Volunteers thirty years before! He also said that generally ten to fourteen percent of a nation's gross national product was due to volunteerism, and that once it was quantified in those terms, suddenly national governments and the private sector sat up and took notice.