VOLUNTEERING PR ACTICES IN THE T WENT Y-FIRST CENTURY 1

Volunteering
Practices in the
Twenty-First
Century
This paper was commissioned by the Secretariat
of the Plan of Action to Integrate Volunteering
into the 2030 Agenda for the Global Technical
Meeting on Volunteering in 2020.

The views expressed in this publication are

those of the author(s) and do not necessarily
represent those of the United Nations including
UNV, or the UN Member States or any
organizations partnering with the Secretariat
of the Plan of Action.

All reasonable precautions have been taken by

the Secretariat of the Plan of Action to verify
the information contained in this publication.
However, the published material is being
distributed without warranty of any kind, either
expressed or implied. The responsibility for the
interpretation and use of the material lies with
the reader. In no event shall the Secretariat of
the Plan of Action be liable for damages arising
from its use.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication

may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted, in any form or by any means
without prior permissions.

Author: Chris Millora, PhD Researcher, UNESCO Chair in Adult Literacy and Learning
for Social Transformation at the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom

Layout design concept: Ana Petak

Infographics: Frederica Lourenço

Editing, layout and translation: Strategic Agenda, London, United Kingdom

Published in June 2020.

CONTENTS

1. Introduction and background 4

2. Evidence of the changing landscape of volunteering

in the twenty-first century? 6
2.1. Volunteering shaped by broader social issues and patterns 7
2.2. Increasing individualism 8
2.3. A northern-bias in understanding volunteering? 8
2.4. Volunteering and its “distinct” contributions to sustainable development 9

3. Expanding the 1999 typology 11

4. A model for capturing volunteering practices in

the twenty-first century 14

5. What happens next? 18

NOTES 20

REFERENCES 21
4 ntroduction
I and background

1. Introduction
and background
 VOLUNTEERING PR ACTICES IN THE T WENT Y-FIRST CENTURY 5

In 1999, the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme published the background paper “Volun-
teering and Social Development” in advance of an expert meeting in New York that year. Both the paper
and the meeting informed the design, preparation and outputs of the International Year of Volunteers
in 2001 and the associated United Nations General Assembly resolution (A/RES/56/38) and report
(A/56/288). Two decades after the International Year of Volunteering, the United Nations General
Assembly has requested UNV and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Soci-
eties (IFRC) to organize a Global Technical Meeting on “Reimagining Volunteering for the 2030 Agenda”
in July 2020 as a milestone in the Plan of Action to Integrate Volunteering into the 2030 Agenda. This
short paper revisits the 1999 background paper after two decades, reviewing and updating the analysis
to inform the Global Technical Meeting.

The 1999 paper proposed a typology of volunteering informed by a conceptual framework based
on rewards, free-will, beneficiaries, organizational settings and commitments. The typology grouped
different volunteering practices in four categories, broadly defined as follows:

• Mutual aid/self-help (“By us, for us”): When people join informally with others to address a perceived
need. People volunteering in this category either work together to address common needs,
reciprocate support or solve a personal need in order to offer help and support to others in the same
situation.
• Philanthropy and service to others: This is the most commonly perceived form of volunteering and
is usually conducted through organizations and associations, where people work to deliver specific
services to others in need.
• Civic participation: Involves people voluntarily engaging in political or decision-making processes at
any level, for example through committees, social audits or providing other forms of feedback.
• Advocacy and campaigning: Collective action aimed at securing or preventing change in broad or
specific areas, including pressure groups.

Since the publication of the typology over two decades ago, there has been growing interest in the
potential of volunteering for social and economic development, including research conducted by new
actors, from new perspectives and through new lenses, in increasingly diverse settings. The rapid and
widespread changes in the social, political, economic, technological landscapes throughout the world
have also created causes for volunteers, new tools they can use and new channels for volunteering.
However, while changes have undoubtedly occurred both in the theory and analysis of volunteering and
in its practical application, it is not clear whether this has had an impact on the fundamental roles played
by volunteers. This paper aims to re-examine the 1999 typology and update the framework, if needed,
as part of the “reimagining” of volunteering by the Plan of Action for the 2030 Agenda.

This paper is divided into three parts. The first explores attempts to capture and describe how
volunteering has changed over the years. This section examines the dominant conceptualizations of
volunteering as a social practice and explores how research has taken into account the contribution of
volunteering to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda. The second section
briefly revisits the 1999 typology and discusses how it can be revised and updated in light of the changes
described. Finally, the third section presents a framework for understanding volunteering practices in
the twenty-first century and raises some critical questions for further discussion.
6 Tchanging
he landscape
of
volunteering
the
twenty
in century
first
-

2. Evidence of the
changing landscape
of volunteering in
the twenty-first
century?
 VOLUNTEERING PR ACTICES IN THE T WENT Y-FIRST CENTURY 7

Do people volunteer differently in the twenty-first century and, if so, how?

What factors have driven these changes? These questions are important for taking
stock of volunteering today and how it could evolve in the future. This section
explores how some of these changes are captured and described in a variety of ways.

2.1. Volunteering shaped by broader social

issues and patterns
There is evidence to suggest that volunteering practices are changing in response to wider social
patterns and challenges, such as the climate emergency, technological advances, migration, the changing
nature of work, humanitarian crises and inequalities. The global climate emergency, for instance, has
inspired diverse forms of volunteer action. The State of the World’s Volunteerism Report 20181 under-
scored the role of volunteers in response, relief and rehabilitation efforts following increasingly common
natural disasters. Spontaneous volunteer responses and emergent groups—comprising individuals who
are themselves “victims” of crises—are often the first responders following natural disasters.2 During
the earthquake that struck Nepal in 2015, for example, local survivors immediately came together to
care for and support each other, while community members and neighbours were noted as the first and
most important rescuers.3 These informal volunteering responses have also been taken up in policies and
programmes by formal actors, with mixed results. For instance, in one account of volunteering responses
from Australia, broader political and social factors led to higher regulation of volunteering responses to
disasters, which were strained by increasing state expectations.4

Additionally, the rapid spread of new technologies and online connectivity has also diversified vol-
unteer engagement and facilitated certain individuals with access to volunteering opportunities. For
example, around 12,000 individuals from 187 countries volunteer online every year through the UNV
online volunteering platform.5 Online volunteering encompasses a wide range of activities, including
graphic design, updating a Wikipedia page, administering the website of a club or writing reports.6 Many
volunteer-involving organizations incorporate online spaces in their engagement strategy, since they can
improve access to individuals who may have encountered difficulties to volunteering in the past, such
as persons with disabilities.7

There has also been global recognition of the contribution of informal volunteering or person-to-per-
son helping activities in many communities, with 70 percent of the world’s volunteering carried out
directly and informally between individuals, outside of “formal” organizations and groups.8 Recognizing
that volunteering goes beyond a “service-delivery mechanism” and is in fact a regular part of many peo-
ple’s everyday lives and livelihoods means acknowledging that volunteering practices can shape and are
shaped by social issues at the community and individual levels. For instance, researchers have looked
at the link between gender and volunteering, concluding that 57 percent of global volunteering activity
is performed by women.9 Similarly, another cross-country study found that the majority of women
volunteer in social and health services while volunteering among men tended to be focused on cultural
activities and sports.10 It has also been observed that VIOs tend to rely on female volunteers, including
because they problematically assume that “women have infinite time to participate in volunteer-based
community groups”.11 In contrast, ethnographic studies of women health workers in India12 and Peru13
found that women struggle to balance volunteer work with other, equally demanding roles at home and
in their community. In the Peruvian context, the skills and expertise of women health volunteers are lo-
8 The changing landscape of volunteering in the twenty-first century

cally recognized as “innate” and “natural” among woman, warranting no special reward or remuneration.
This lack of recognition (e.g. in financial terms) makes women feel undervalued and, to a certain extent,
places them at an even greater disadvantage.

2.2. Increasing individualism

Another dominant observation of how volunteer work has changed is the increasing individualism in
decision-making as to where, how and why individuals volunteer.14 Personal benefits for the volunteer
(e.g. improved employment, well-being and mental health) are valued alongside more altruistic motiva-
tions and a sense of obligation. This trend is also characterized by a greater interest in short-term and
episodic volunteering. In these volunteer engagements, volunteers offer their time flexibly, depending on
their lifestyle and availability.15 In general terms, episodic volunteering refers to short-term, emergent,
sporadic volunteer engagement, which may even be a one-off event.16

Volunteers also tend to engage with specific causes and outcomes they personally identify with or
those that are “fashionable” and “trendy”, instead of showing long-term loyalty to specific organizations.
These trends are described as “new” forms of volunteering that are often pitted against “traditional”
ones characterized as “lifelong and demanding commitment”.17 Much of the research in this particular
area has been conducted in countries in the global North, where there are often formal volunteering
spaces, meaning it is important to explore whether such trends can also be observed in other contexts.
Nonetheless, both “forms” of volunteering can coexist within a particular time and context, instead of
one replacing the other.18

2.3. A northern-bias in understanding

volunteering?
The IFRC Global Review of Volunteering report19 found that the dominant understanding of volun-
teering—which is often presented as “universal”—has been framed by the experiences of the global North.
Even volunteering studies conducted in contexts in the global South often use theoretical approaches
grounded in the North as a starting point or focus on the experience of international volunteer from
the North. This skewed focus means “particular forms of volunteering are privileged over others”.20
For instance, the tendency to frame the South as the “host” of volunteer programmes from the North,
leads to the wealth of volunteering practices within these contexts being eclipsed, especially with in the
context of “poor” and “marginalized” communities.21

To make progress with volunteering for development, we must first understand the realities of
volunteering within contexts in the global South, instead of using frameworks highly influenced by ex-
periences elsewhere.22 In terms of research on volunteering, this means diversifying the methods used
to understand volunteering practices, such as by conducting participatory and ethnographic research.
In terms of practice, this means that development actors (volunteers, development workers, staff and
partner communities) must examine power relationships in volunteer activities in greater depth.
 VOLUNTEERING PR ACTICES IN THE T WENT Y-FIRST CENTURY 9

There have already been changes in practices that take these local experiences into account. In 2015,
researchers mapped out how volunteering aims and practices have responded to the “changing tides” of
development approaches over time.23 They noted, for example, that certain international volunteering
organizations that post volunteers have moved beyond service-delivery approaches to a practice where
international volunteers, who are often from the global North, engage in volunteer work in contexts in the
global South to provide services and skills to fill “gaps”. The emergence of South-to-South volunteering
schemes have also influenced the reappraisal of the roles of volunteers as agents of change at the local
and global levels.24 Organizations are increasingly using approaches focused on partnership-building
with local volunteers and involving “marginalized” groups in decision-making on interventions that di-
rectly affect them. This can be seen as a response to critiques of traditional North–South approaches
to international volunteering, which can, Devereux notes, at its worst “be imperialist, paternalistic char-
ity”.25 Against the backdrop of these increasingly diverse ways of “doing” volunteering, we must remain
vigilant when it comes to how power relationships embedded in the wider development ecosystem play
out in practice. It is crucial to critically examine how certain volunteering modalities—particularly those
employed by certain actors and institutions—can co-opt the agenda and practices of others.

One of the main features of this paper is that it draws from pieces of work that use an endogenous
approach to understanding volunteering in the global South grounded in understanding the “cultural and
contextual realities of the Global South in all its diversity”.26 In addition to cross-country comparisons
and statistics, this paper also includes ethnographic, highly contextual work that makes visible nuanced
issues that intersect with volunteering, such as gender27 and inequality.28

2.4. Volunteering and its “distinct”

contributions to sustainable development
Under the Plan of Action to Integrate Volunteering into the 2030 Agenda, it is being positioned as
a key driver towards achieving the SDGs. UNV notes that volunteering is “often a powerful means to
engage people to ensure that global sustainable development is owned and implemented by everyone
and leaving no one behind”.29 Volunteering is framed as a way to support participation and inclusion
when it comes to the SDGs. As such, it is well-positioned to contribute to campaigns such as the Dec-
ade of Action, which aims to speed up and scale up efforts to achieve the SDGs through individual and
collective action, both locally and globally.

However, what is the unique contribution of volunteering to development, for example in the case of
the SDGs? In 2015, Voluntary Service Overseas and the Institute of Development Studies conducted
a two-year participatory action research project in Kenya, Mozambique, Nepal and the Philippines to
answer this question.30 The project aimed not only to find out what volunteers do but also to assess
their unique contributions to supporting and enabling positive change. The research identified five ways
volunteering does this:

1. Inclusion – extending the reach of public services to the poorest and most marginalized
2. Ownership – strengthening local ownership of development processes
3. Innovation – creating new forms of collaboration that lead to social innovation
4. Participation – creating a pathway to participation and active citizenship
5. Inspiration – modelling different norms.
10 The changing landscape of volunteering in the twenty-first century

A common theme across these five aspects is the relational aspect of volunteering: “the relational
way in which volunteers work makes them better able to interact with those groups which are less
easy to reach – the poorest and most marginalized”.31 The research explained that the effectiveness
of development programmes is not determined by the lack of services but by how they are delivered,
highlighting the importance of the relationships facilitated by volunteers. The State of the World’s Vol-
unteerism Report argues that it is the capacity of volunteering to stimulate self-organization and create
and develop human connections that allows it to contribute towards community resilience. Considering
social relations is key to answering our question about the kind of change that volunteering facilitates32
while a focus on relationships also brings issues of power to the fore (an aspect not explicitly addressed
in the original 1999 typology).
 VOLUNTEERING PR ACTICES IN THE T WENT Y-FIRST CENTURY 11

3. Expanding
the 1999 typology
12 Expanding the 1999 typology

In light of the trends and patterns described in the previous section, this section
considers how we can expand the previous typology. Taking the 1999 typology
as a starting point, we examine critical questions and issues that can help develop
our thinking about volunteering practices in the twenty-first century. Based on the
original four types, this paper proposes the following extensions for the updated
2020 typology.

Types of Volunteering Characteristics (1999) Extension (2020)

Mutual aid or self-help • When people gather • Because mutual aid and self-help
informally to meet a perceived activities are deeply embedded in
need, either working together community practices, there are many
to address common needs individuals who do not (or choose not
or reciprocating support to to) call themselves volunteers. They
each other or those in the are an important part of the picture.
same situation.

Philanthropy or service • Primary recipient of • Greater recognition of the

to others volunteering is not the member diversity of organizations in which
of the group but an external volunteering through service takes
third party. place, such as corporations and
• Often takes place within universities.33
voluntary or community • A closer look at the varying roles
organizations. of volunteers within organizations,
beyond delivering services.
Volunteers could also be leaders,
decision makers, planners and
evaluators.

Participation • Roles played by volunteers • Could be expanded by looking

in participatory governance into participation by volunteers
processes. in development programmes in
• Participation as an civil society spaces (e.g. in non-
essential component of good governmental organizations (NGOs)).
governance.
 VOLUNTEERING PR ACTICES IN THE T WENT Y-FIRST CENTURY 13

Types of Volunteering Characteristics (1999) Extension (2020)

Participation (cont.) • It is important to include issues of

agency and voice in the discussion.
Understanding the extent of
participation is critical, since it could
only mean “attendance”, without the
ability to directly shape outcomes.
In line with this, there is a need to
critically examine the possibility
of states and governments co-
opting volunteering agendas and
practices, which would otherwise
be embedded in community-based
practices.
• Consider the possibility of
volunteering to disrupt/question/
challenge government and
development processes and not
only support them.

Advocacy or • Collective action to lobby • Could look closely at the political

campaigning for change aspect of volunteering practices and
how they could go beyond awareness-
raising to actually challenge power
structures at a systems level.

In addition to the four types introduced in 1999, this paper also proposes adding a fifth type of volun-
teering practice, following the proposal by the Institute for Volunteer Research to include volunteering
as “expressive behaviours” or “volunteering as leisure”.34 This type would cover volunteering motivated
by a personal interest, in activities such as concerts, arts and sports events and tourism. This type of vol-
unteering includes the wealth of volunteer activities primarily conducted by individuals to obtain human,
social and cultural capital that could be valuable, for example, for young people entering the job market.
It is important to highlight that thinking of volunteering as leisure does not mean a frivolous activity per-
formed by hobbyists and nor is it synonymous with “voluntourism” (a combination of leisure travel and
charity work that is not compatible with principles of effective and sustainable development). Stebbins
has proposed the term “serious leisure” to indicate that this form of volunteering could be performed
systematically and be “sufficiently substantial, interesting and fulfilling for the participant to find a (leisure)
career there acquiring and expressing a combination of its special skills, knowledge and experience”.35

As we shall see further on, to avoid misconceptions it is also worth noting here that all five pro-
posed types are not mutually exclusive and can be overlapping. A volunteering activity with aspects of
“leisure”, for example, can be combined with aspects of the other four types in different combinations
and intensities.
14 model
Afor
capturing
volunteering
practices
the twenty
in century
first
-

4. A model
for capturing
volunteering
practices in
the twenty-first
century
 VOLUNTEERING PR ACTICES IN THE T WENT Y-FIRST CENTURY 15

In light of the extensions proposed above, this section presents an updated

and reconceptualized model for understanding volunteering practices in the
twenty-first century, reflecting its complexity, configurations and intensities.
The 2020 model comprises five rings, each representing a dimension
of a volunteer action.

Figure 1. The five components of volunteering practices: Structure, site, intensity, aspiration, category

1. The first ring represents the

structure of the volunteering
activity. Volunteering can be done
formally through organizations,
community groups or any platform
that allocates support. It can also be
done informally, as part of everyday
activities to help other people.
2. The second ring refers to the
sites of volunteer practice. This can
be online, on-site or a combination
of both. Virtual and online
volunteering use technology both
as a channel and a tool for volunteer
activities. In many spaces, online
volunteering is done in conjunction
with on-site, face-to-face
volunteering. The various spheres of
on-site volunteering could further
be broken down into community-
based volunteering, national
volunteering and/or international
volunteering.
3. The third ring represents the
intensity of volunteer engagement. It can be episodic, involving short-term, emergent, sporadic
engagement of volunteers and may even be a one-off event. Volunteering can also be more regular
and long-term, with fixed patterns.
4. The fourth ring represents the aspirational element of volunteer practice, i.e. the final goals of
volunteering. Community-building refers to contributions towards wider societal outcomes, such
as those outlined in the SDGs. This takes into account volunteering that is primarily conducted for
the benefit of others. Self-building is the component that takes into account benefits to individual
volunteers, such as the accumulation of social and cultural capital (e.g. knowledge, skills, experience,
networks, and well-being) as part of volunteering practice.
5. The final ring represents the categories of volunteering. Four are from the previous typology and
an additional type “leisure” has been added. The five categories are shown below.
16 A model for capturing volunteering practices in the twenty-first century

Figure 2. Within this model, each ring is considered not as binary but as a spectrum. This means that
volunteering activities, for instance, could have both offline and online components or a certain mix of both.
A particular volunteering practice can occupy any position across the two ends of the following scale

1. 2. 3. 4.
STRUCTURE SITE INTENSITY ASPIRATION

FORMAL ONLINE EPISODIC COMMUNITY-BUILDING

Volunteering done INFORMAL Use of technology ONSITE Sporadic, emergent REGULAR Altruistic SELF-BUILDING
in an organized Volunteering done both as a channel and Face-to-face and short-term Recurrent motivations and Benefits of
structure as part of everyday a tool for volunteer volunteering volunteering volunteering sense of obligation volunteering for
or on a platform that activities. People activities on-site at the engagement following a regular towards the volunteer also
provides support helping people community, which may be a pattern, often long- helping ‘others’ considered
national and/or one‑off event term engagement
international levels

Figure 3. The five categories of volunteering in 2020

MUTUAL AID SERVICE CAMPAIGNING PARTICIPATION LEISURE

Mutual aid is the Service volunteering is where Campaigning usually involves Participation is where Volunteering as leisure:
wealth of informal, volunteers respond to the the collective action of a volunteers give time volunteer activities that
person‑to‑person helping perceived needs of another group or an individual to and effort to engage express personal interests or
activities embedded in person or community. amplify ‘marginalized’ voices with governance and passions such as in the arts,
community and cultural and to change the status quo. decision‑making mechanisms culture and sports. They still
practices. People gather at different levels. contribute to wider well-
and volunteer together as a being and cohesion.
response to a shared need
or issue.

While the four types are not mutually exclusive in the previous typology, the framework must be
updated to take account of the extent of the overlaps between them. In this respect, the new framework
moves away from thinking about mutual aid, service, participation, advocacy and the new leisure type as
discrete boxes into which volunteering practices can neatly be filed. Instead, they are framed as different
dimensions and categories of expressions of volunteering, which can coexist in different magnitudes and
intensities, depending on the practice.
 VOLUNTEERING PR ACTICES IN THE T WENT Y-FIRST CENTURY 17

Volunteer activities include various combinations and intensities of these elements, as shown in
the following examples:

The Khuluma programme was In the UK, a woman in her 70s

launched in South Africa in 2013 to volunteers for a local school to
provide an online support group for accompany pupils during field
young people living with HIV. The visits. She has done this during her
young people are grouped together free time for the past five years.
with 10–15 other members and It increases her confidence but
share with each other any concerns also helps teachers in managing
about their health condition via workload. This volunteering activity
text messages for a period of three is on-site, conducted on a regular
months at a time. Volunteering and long-term basis, contributes
activities take place online and to both building the self and the
episodically with the goal of building community and is underpinned by
the self and each other based on principles of both service and leisure.
mutual aid.

The elements within each ring can also coexist in different intensities over time, depending on
the context, illustrated by the following example, which shows the wealth of volunteering activities
during a context of disaster response and rehabilitation:

In 2013, “super typhoon” Haiyan, which was at the time one of the most powerful typhoons
of all time, affected more than 14 million people in the Philippines, with a death toll of 6,000.
Some of the immediate responses included online and on-site fundraising and awareness-
raising (campaigning and participation) by volunteers on an episodic basis. On Twitter, many
users helped spread the word about missing people and which sites needed most help. There
were also on-site responses by volunteers in various NGOs and individuals who were affected
by the typhoon. They distributed relief goods and health services (practices that lean more
towards service-delivery and mutual aid). Over time, the focus shifted from response to
rehabilitation, where some volunteering practices were part of larger development projects:
involvement became more regular and longer-term, with a combination of on-site rebuilding
and livelihood projects and online fundraising, including donations from income-generating
activities organised by overseas Filipino workers. Arts-based campaigns, such as a theatre
groups (leisure and community building), setting up community-based theatre reflecting on
stories of people affected by Haiyan also emerged.
18 Whathappensnext?

5. What happens
next?
 VOLUNTEERING PR ACTICES IN THE T WENT Y-FIRST CENTURY 19

The model proposed in this paper recognizes volunteering as a complex activity that
cuts across a range of practices, benefits and motivations. Volunteering is relevant
throughout people’s lives and people may take part in multiple aspects at different
times. Volunteering is both a means and an end to achieving, challenging, disrupting
and even shaping development outcomes.

This document will be used as an input into the discussions at the Global Technical Meeting in
July 2020 and as a foundation for the four workstreams that feed into the meeting. Rather than being
the “final say” on the complexity of volunteering practices, it seeks to stimulate discussion among prac-
titioners, policy-makers, academics and the many volunteers who practice these activities first-hand.
Some critical questions to be considered include:

• Which configuration(s) of these elements could make the greatest contribution to achieving
development goals such as the SDGs?
• How do configurations of these elements change over time? For instance, within a development
project lifecycle or the time-frame between devising and implementing volunteering policies?
• In terms of the intensity of volunteer engagement, how can organizations better support both
longer-term and shorter-term engagement?
• How can organizations strike a balance in the provision of volunteer opportunities with a
development component (i.e. community-building), while also taking into account the welfare and
development of volunteers (i.e. self-building)?
• What types of volunteering practices do certain policies promote?
• Who should be included in interpreting this typology in organizations, national contexts or groups?
• How will this model change in the future? Will certain rings include more elements or will some
cease to exist? What are the potential opportunities and threats presented by these changes?
20 Notes

NOTES

1  UNV 2018.
2  Twigg and Mosel 2017.
3  Devkota, Doberstein and Nepal 2016.
4  McLennan, Whittaker and Handmer 2016.
5  www.onlinevolunteering.org.
6  Amichai-Hamburger 2008.
7  Amichai-Hamburger 2008.
8  UNV 2018.
9  UNV 2018.
10  Anheier and Salamon 1999.
11  Lind in Banerjea 2011.
12  Banerjea 2011.
13  Jenkins 2009.
14  Hustinx and Lammertyn 2003, Rochester,
Paine and Howlett 2010.
15  Holmes 2014.
16  Macduff 2005.
17  Hustinx and Lammertyn 2003.
18  Hustinx 2001.
19  Hazeldine and Baillie Smith 2015.
20  Hazeldine and Baillie Smith 2015, p. 29.
21  Laurie and Baillie Smith 2018.
22  Burns and Howard 2015.
23  Lopez Franco and Shahrokh 2015.
24  Lopez Franco and Shahrokh 2015, Baillie
Smith, Laurie and Griffiths 2017.
25  Devereux 2008, p. 358.
26  Butcher and Einolf 2017, p 4.
27  Banerjea 2011, Jenkins 2009.
28  Lewis 2015, Patel, Perold, Mohamed and
Carapinha 2007.
29  UNV 2020.
30  VSO and IDS 2014.
31  Burns and Howard 2015, p. 12.
32  Aked 2015.
33  Allen, Galiano and Hayes 2011.
34  Rochester, Paine and Howlett 2010.
35  Stebbins 2013, p. 2.
 VOLUNTEERING PR ACTICES IN THE T WENT Y-FIRST CENTURY 21

REFERENCES

Aked, Jody (2015). What’s Different about How Devereux, Peter (2008). International
Volunteers Work? Relationship Building for Volunteering for Development and Sustainability:
Wellbeing and Change. IDS Bulletin 46(5): 29–42. Outdated Paternalism or a Radical Response
to Globalisation? Development in Practice, 18(3):
Allen Kenn, Mónica Galiano and Sarah Hayes 357–370.
(2011). Global companies volunteering globally:
The final report of the Global Corporate Devkota, Bishnu Prasad, Brent Doberstein
Volunteering Research Project. Dulles, VA: and Sanjay K. Nepal (2016). Social Capital and
International Association for Volunteer Effort. Natural Disaster: Local Responses to 2015
Earthquake in Kathmandu. International Journal of
Amichai-Hamburger, Yair. (2008). Potential Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 34(3): 439–466.
and promise of online volunteering. Computers
in Human Behavior. 24(2): 544–562. Hazeldine, Shaun and Matt Baillie Smith (2015).
IFRC Global Review on Volunteering Report.
Anheier, Helmut K. and Lester M. Salamon Geneva: IFRC.
(1999). Volunteering in Cross-National
Perspective: Initial Comparisons. Law and Holmes, Kirsten (2014). ‘It Fitted in with
Contemporary Problems. 62(4): 43–65. Our Lifestyle’: An Investigation into Episodic
Volunteering in the Tourism Sector. Annals of
Baillie Smith, Matt, Nina Laurie and Mark Leisure Research. 17(4): 443–459.
Griffiths (2017). South–South volunteering
and development. Geographic Journal, 184(2): Hustinx, Lesley (2001). Individualisation and
158–168. new styles of youth volunteering: an empirical
exploration. Voluntary Action. 3(2): 58-78.
Banerjea, Niharika (2011). Voluntary
Participation and Poor Women’s Work: A Hustinx, Lesley and Frans Lammertyn (2003).
Critical Examination of a Community Health Collective and Reflexive Styles of Volunteering:
Improvement Initiative in a Kolkata Slum. A Sociological Modernization Perspective.
Contemporary South Asia. 19(4): 427–40. Voluntas. 14(2): 167–188.

Burns, Danny and Jo Howard (2015). Jenkins, Katy (2009). ‘We Have a Lot of Goodwill,
Introduction: What Is the Unique Contribution but We Still Need to Eat...’: Valuing Women’s Long
of Volunteering to International Development? Term Voluntarism in Community Development in
IDS Bulletin. 46(5): 1–4. Lima. Voluntas. 20(1): 15–34.

Butcher, Jacqueline and Christopher J. Einolf Laurie, Nina and Matt Baillie Smith (2018).
(2017). Volunteering: A Complex Social Unsettling Geographies of Volunteering and
Phenonemon. In Perspectives on Volunteering: Development. Transactions of the Institute of
Voices from the South, J. Butcher and C. J. Einolf British Geographers 43(1): 95–109.
(eds.) 3–28. Switzerland: Springer International.
22 References

Lewis, Simon (2015). Learning from United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme
Communities: The Local Dynamics of Formal (2020). Global Technical Meeting 2020 on
and Informal Volunteering in Korogocho, Kenya. Volunteering for the 2030 Agenda. UNV,
IDS Bulletin. 46(5):69–82. 5 October. Available at https://www.unv.org/
news/global-meeting-volunteering-2020.
Lopez Franco, Erika and Thea Shahrokh
(2015). The Changing Tides of Volunteering Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) and Institute
in Development: Discourse, Knowledge and of Development Studies (IDS) (2014). The role of
Practice. IDS Bulletin. 46. volunteering in sustainable development. London
and Brighton: VSO and IDS.
Macduff, Nancy (2005). Societal Changes and
the Rise of the Episodic Volunteer. In Emerging
Areas of Volunteering (vol. 1) 51–65.

McLennan, Blythe, Joshua Whittaker and John

Handmer (2016). The Changing Landscape of
Disaster Volunteering: Opportunities, Responses
and Gaps in Australia. Natural Hazards. 84(3):
2031–2048.

Patel, Leila, Helene Perold, Salah Elzein Mohamed

and Rene Carapinha (2007). Five‑Country Study
on Service and Volunteering in Southern Africa.
Washington University in St. Louis. Center for
Social Development (CSD) Research Report
No. 07-19.

Rochester, Colin, Angela Ellis Paine and Steven

Howlett (2010). Volunteering and Society in the
21st Century. Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan.

Stebbins, Robert (2013). Unpaid Work of Love:

Defining the Work-Leisure Axis of Volunteering.
Leisure Studies 32(3): 339–345.

Twigg, John and Irina Mosel (2017). Emergent

Groups and Spontaneous Volunteers in Urban
Disaster Response. Environment and Urbanization.
29(2): 443–458.

United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme

(2018). 2018 State of the World’s Volunteerism
Report. The Thread That Binds: Volunteerism and
Community Resilience. Bonn: UNV.
PLAN OF ACTION TO INTEGRATE
VOLUNTEERING INTO THE 2030 AGENDA

The Plan of Action to Integrate Volunteering into the 2030 Agenda

is a framework under the auspices of the United Nations through
which Governments, United Nations entities, volunteer-involving
organizations, private sector, civil society including academia
and other stakeholders come together to integrate volunteerism
into the planning and implementation of the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) by:
a) strengthening people’s ownership of the development agenda;
b) integrating volunteerism into national and global implementation
strategies; and
c) measuring volunteerism.

www.unv.org/planofaction

#volunteerSDGs

unv.poa@unv.org