Guidance Note 5

IVD2015, volunteerism and the SDGs: understanding the new

agenda and the role volunteerism can play to help achieve the
SDGs
The purpose of this guidance note is to explain why IVD 2015 focuses on the SDGs and why this can be seen
as the beginning of a 15-year period in which volunteerism can play a more impactful role for peace and
development. The guidance note also provides tools to support the organization of volunteer activities in the
SDG framework from IVD 2015 onwards.

What are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

The SDGs are part of an ambitious agenda that frames peace and development globally throughout the period
2016-30. It aims to end extreme poverty, fight inequality, and address climate change. The Sustainable
Development agenda, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 25 September 2015, is universal, transformational,
people-centred and inclusive. These features are also shared by volunteerism.

Why are volunteers important to achieve the SDGs?

The implementation of the MDGs demonstrated that sustainable development cannot be achieved by
Governments only. The 2030 agenda recognizes that traditional means of implementation need to be
complemented by participatory mechanisms that facilitate peoples engagement, and explicitly names volunteer
groups as actors in their own right among the means of implementation. Volunteer groups can be brokers of and
provide spaces for engagement, connecting institutional initiatives with volunteer action at community level.
Through peoples engagement and community action, volunteerism fosters local ownership for development
solutions, builds resilience and strengthens preparedness. Volunteering also transforms both the volunteers and
the people they work with.

Why does IVD 2015 focus on the SDGs?

On IVD 2015, volunteers celebrate the recognition of their specific role in the new vision for people and planet by
spreading the word about the global goals. IVD 2015 is also about beginning a new period in which everybody is
called to take action. Your world is changing. Are you? Volunteer!

Which kind of activities can volunteer groups and volunteers undertake to help achieve the
SDGs?
A UNV toolkit explains in more details the main features of the new agenda, the role of volunteerism for the SDGs
and potential activities for volunteers. The toolkit is composed by a Q&A and a selected set of materials, including
policy and knowledge documents, communications materials and links.

The toolkit is designed to be used also beyond IVD 2015 for awareness-raising activities and to
support substantive contributions to planning and programming at national level.
For example, volunteers can
raise awareness about the 2030 agenda through local campaigns and creative approaches, including in
remote areas and with marginalized populations, to contribute to SDG domestication;
deliver technical expertise to complement essential basic services where they are lacking or where they
are insufficient, as well as in other areas;
model behaviors and attitudes, helping the agenda to be truly transformational, and enhancing
knowledge and willingness to contribute to SDGs locally;
mobilize people to develop a sense of opportunity and ownership with regards to the challenges they
are facing, to leverage collective action and engagement across all Goals during planning,
implementation and monitoring phases;
develop skills across different goal areas through transfer of knowledge and experience, while
facilitating the dissemination of local expertise;
collect data, assess SDG progress and leverage local expertise through participatory forms of
monitoring, local outreach and dissemination of tools such as the MY World 2030 survey.

You are an important part of making this day

a success, and we thank you!