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UNV Executive Coordinator Richard Dictus
Opening Remarks at
The UNV-Beijing International Volunteer Service Exchange Conference
Co-organized by UNV and the Beijing Volunteer Service Federation
12 – 13 October 2015, Beijing
Mr. of the Ministry of Commerce (insert name/position once confirmed),
Mr. Zhao Jinfang, Secretary General of China Volunteer Federation,
Mrs. Shengping Teng, Secretary General of Beijing Municipal Office of Spiritual Civilization,
Mr. Alain Noudehou, UN Resident Coordinator in China,
Leaders of Volunteer Involving Organizations of the People’s Republic of China, Distinguished
speakers and participants from partner countries, UN Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,
[Welcome]
As the Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, it is my great
privilege and pleasure to welcome you all to this first-ever International Volunteer Service Exchange
Conference that UNV has c0-organized with our friends at the Beijing Volunteer Service Federation.
Over the past two years, we have been shaping the ideas to jointly provide a platform for stakeholders
to foster mutual learning and sharing on volunteering for peace and development, which has brought
us all to this important gathering. I am honored to be a part of this groundbreaking meeting, and I am
thrilled to be back amongst allies from the global volunteering community in the splendid city of
Beijing!
In particular, allow me to commend the visionary leadership of the Beijing Volunteer Service
Federation to co-organize this important conference with us, under the able guidance of the Beijing
Youth League, Beijing Municipal Government and the China Volunteer Service Federation,
especially its Founding Chairman, Mr Liu Qi.
[Background and Objective]
It is very timely that we convene in Beijing just after the UN General Assembly has adopted the new
Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. As we are concluding the era of the Millennium
Development Goals, this is a moment to reflect and draw a number of lessons.
Over the past 15 years, we have increasingly witnessed the importance of people-centered
development and the need to engage local communities in peace and development efforts if they are
to be sustainable. The new Agenda 2030 recognizes “People dimension” very strongly. Volunteering
is certainly a way to address the unfinished business of the Millennium Development Goals.
Volunteerism is a powerful means to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals.
We have in front of us a unique opportunity to create a global platform for peer learning, for sharing
best practices, and for identifying challenges and opportunities for international volunteerism though
new and innovative partnerships. All the substantive examples, good practices and innovative
approaches you are bringing from Africa, Latin America, Arab States, Europe and CIS as well as
Asia, will generate new ideas to broaden the international volunteer movement in the post 2015
world.
[China as a Co-host]
Those of you who have visited China before surely appreciate that in many ways, it is no surprise that
Beijing is an ideal host for a gathering such as this. Exactly one year ago, I was fortunate to be in
Beijing to participate in China’s first Secretary-Generals Training of State-Led Volunteer Involving
Organizations, impeccably organized by the China Volunteer Service Federation. Since 1981, UNV
has been building fruitful partnerships with the Government of the People’s Republic of China. And
as this great nation continues its dynamic development trajectory, UNV has been actively working
with Chinese partners to promote social and economic development, through volunteering.
Volunteering has played an incredible role throughout our three decades of collaboration.
During the last year’s eye-opening experience, my colleagues and I learned more about China’s
unique culture of voluntary social solidarity, ranging from its Confucian philosophical roots to the
actions of more recent heroes such as the People’s Liberation Army hero Lei Feng. For those of you
who are unfamiliar with Lei Feng – I for one had surely not heard of him while growing up in the
Netherlands – he was a poor orphan from Hunan Province who lost most of his family members
during the Second World War, when he was just a boy. In his teens, he joined the Communist Youth
Corps and later the Transportation Unit of the People’s Liberation Army. Lei Feng is known as a
selfless, modest and dedicated person who went out of his way to help the poor and elderly during
grueling post-war conditions, with no expectation of being congratulated or paid back. Among his
sayings that I find especially inspiring for volunteers all over the word are the following:
If you are a drop of water, have you moistened the earth?
If you are a ray of sunshine, have you lit up the darkness?
If you are a single grain, have you nurtured the human being?
If you are the smallest screw, will you always stay where you are?
Since you are alive, you have tried your best to make the world a better place for your descendants?
May I ask you what you bring to the world?
For life, we should not only demand.
Do these thoughts remind us of reflections we have heard from devoted citizen volunteers in our own
countries? Lei Feng died when he was only 22 years old, after being struck by a falling telephone
pole. Yet his legacy lives on in today’s China, and its presence in the public service volunteering spirit
of Chinese youth is truly inspiring for all of us.
We also met several noteworthy representatives from Beijing’s community of over 2 million
registered volunteers, who are active in every sector of the society, particularly in protecting the
environment, assisting the elderly poor and educating the uninsured children of millions of rural
migrants who have come to Beijing for work.
[Thanking and recognizing China’s volunteering efforts]
Before I go on, I would like to pay special tribute to the exemplary leadership of the Central and
Provincial governments of China in building a solid local volunteering infrastructure to promote civic
participation in society. All of you are playing an active role in integrating volunteering to create a
harmonious, socially and ecologically balanced nation.
UNV had the privilege to work closely with both the Beijing Volunteer Federation and with Mr. Liu
during the Beijing Summer Olympic Games in 2008, when Mr. Liu was the Chairperson of the
Olympic Games Organizing Committee. Together, we mobilized and trained over 1.5 million
volunteers to make the Beijing Olympic Games such a huge success. It showcased the power of
volunteering to the entire world! UNV is very pleased to continue to work with our Chinese partners
to widely share this successful experience now with the Brazilian government to support their own
Olympics Committee. This is one of the best practices in promoting inter-regional South-South
collaboration, which UNV strongly supports. Indeed, this conference aims to deepen our
cross-border alliance and solidarity.
I fully respect Chinese President Xi’s leadership in supporting volunteer organizations to strengthen
citizen participation in social management. China has a strong track record of mobilizing large
numbers of volunteers - young and old, men and women, urban and rural - to support less developed
provinces and communities so that everyone in China can enjoy a full, healthy quality of life. Many
of you in this room who are from China are actively engaged in China’s flagship national public
service programme, the “Go West Development Plan”, which sends volunteers to serve in
under-resourced communities throughout China. Some of you may also be working with the Central
Youth League and the Ministry of Commerce to support Chinese volunteers serving on development
projects in Africa and Southeast Asia. Clearly, mutual help through volunteering is a way of life here
in China.
Sometimes I am asked if the culture of volunteering in China is very different from countries in
Europe or other regions. I have reflected on this question. During my childhood in the Netherlands, I
did not grow up knowing about Lei Feng, but I admire Lei Feng’s selfless dedication to the wellbeing
of all Chinese people. Lei Feng’s life exemplifies the compassion and practical service ethos that are
the heart of how UNV envisions volunteering for peace and development.
Let us remember that Lei Feng’s commitment is also grounded in a Confucian tradition of caring for
one’s family and community and of maintaining social stability through ethical relationships – a
tradition that is thousands of years old and one of the oldest in the world. When we look at China’s
rich intellectual and philosophical history – both ancient and modern, we can clearly see that it is this
kind of longstanding wisdom that forms the ethical foundation for a people’s desire to contribute for
social good. In a rapidly developing world, where we must balance limited natural resources with
people’s aspirations towards a better quality of life, this kind of wisdom is exactly what we need.
China is a nation whose diverse and longstanding cultures of community-based volunteering have
contributed enormously to its success in lifting millions out of poverty in a record time and achieving
nearly all of the UN Millennium Development Goals. Over and over again, China has demonstrated
that effective volunteering for peace and development has a lasting impact on the nation building.
[Rise of Middle-Income-Country-Led Volunteering and South-South Volunteer Movement]
China’s success encourages all of us to broaden and deepen our understanding of the multiplicity of
volunteer-led citizen engagement. In the recent past, we have welcomed a growing presence of
middle-income countries and emerging economies in a number of volunteering efforts. This has led
to a more equitable, solidarity-based knowledge and capacity transfer among the nations of the
so-called Global South, beyond the traditional North-South volunteer movements. More countries
are recognizing that volunteerism is a cost-efficient way for any government to address development
challenges. In fact, a recent study, which was conducted in Tasmania, Australia, concluded that for
every 1 US dollar used to mobilize volunteers, there is a return value equivalent to 5 US dollars. The
return comes in the form of human, social and physical capital.
Every year, UNV sends over 6,500 UN volunteers throughout the world to serve the poorest and most
vulnerable peoples through humanitarian, peacekeeping and development assignments. In addition,
over 11,000 of UN Online Volunteers, empowered by IT technology, contribute their time and
creativity to support various development initiatives in other parts of the world. UNV is proud that
over 80% of UN volunteers come from the Global South, many from the middle-income and
emerging countries such as Argentina, China, India, Brazil and South Africa, to serve in other
developing countries.
I congratulate all of you for being so active and influential in the global development space. It is high
time that middle-income-country advocates of volunteerism also take an even stronger role in leading
towards the sustainable development together with the United Nations. UNV stands ready to
accompany this journey.
[Plan of Action /Integrating Volunteering in the next decade and beyond]
Taking this opportunity, I would like to inform you that UNV has been mandated by the United
Nations General Assembly to present a Plan of Action to integrate volunteering in peace and
development in the next decade and beyond. UNV has been coordinating this global effort to
possibly launch a Decade of Volunteering after a Global Volunteer Conference in 2020. The Plan of
Action will be presented to the UN Member States, and the new Resolution to integrate volunteering
in the next decade and beyond will hopefully be adopted by the UN General Assembly in December
this year. Since this will only succeed with strong ownership of each one of you, I encourage you to
actively engage in the implementation of the Plan.
[Closing/leading to the Plenary I]
I have observed firsthand how volunteering is deeply woven into people’s daily lives not only in
China, but in every society represented in this room, and beyond. Volunteering is an ultimate
expression of human compassion and civic engagement. It is part of the intrinsic duty of every
member of society to care for his or her fellow citizens and for our planet. Volunteering fosters a sense
of responsibility and belonging to work for the common good in a world that is ever more
inter-dependent and inter-connected. Without strengthening our commitment to volunteering, the
hard-won Sustainable Development Goals of the Post-2015 era cannot be achieved.
This is the moment to reflect on diverse forms of volunteering that each one of us has been promoting,
discuss its evolution, and mutually share good practices and lessons learned to inform our way
forward. During the coming two days, let us deepen our understanding of various aspects of
voluntary citizen engagement and its historical trajectories in the face of a rapidly evolving global
sustainable development landscape. In order to achieve sustainable human development,
volunteering can be a driving force. Through diverse forms of volunteer initiatives, we can spread
knowledge and participatory practices to foster community ownership and long-term results, and
leaving no one behind. And UNV stands ready to collaborate with you.
We have come a long way since 1963 when 13 largely Northern countries met in Washington DC to
discuss bilateral overseas volunteering efforts, and 1968 when the then Shah of Iran suggested that
the United Nations consider creating “a legion of volunteers in the service of [all] mankind”, which
eventually led to the creation of the United Nations Volunteers programme 45 years ago. I will spare
you further history for now, as it will be discussed in the plenary session on the evolution of global
volunteering.
I trust that this Conference will be relevant to all of us. Let us be re-inspired to continue our onward
journeys ahead!
Thank you.