In November I had the privilege of attending the 16th IAVE Asia Pacific Regional Volunteer Conference 2019 in Bangkok in Thailand. This is an event offered by the International Association for Volunteer Efforts (IAVE) every alternate year to their world conference. The overarching theme of the conference was – “unlocking the power of volunteering”.

I was part of a panel of three plenary speakers with the sub-theme of “stronger together”. Our session explored the benefits of multi-sector and cross-cultural collaboration and the potential barriers and challenges to overcome in diverse forms of partnerships. We explored the benefits of multi-sector and cross-cultural collaboration and the potential barriers and challenges to overcome in diverse forms of partnerships.

I shared our experiences leading a programme of work, in collaboration with volunteer centres that aimed to deliver better outcomes for recent migrants when they engaged in volunteering. The centre piece of this work is A National Strategy to Support Volunteering for Recent Migrants. This strategy outlines the guiding principles and strategic initiatives for achieving the vision for recent migrant volunteering.

This was a great opportunity to share on an international stage some of the great work happening here in New Zealand. It was also a great opportunity to learn, grow and connect with an international community of volunteers and volunteering.

Five takeaways from IAVE Asia Pacific Regional Conference 2019

I would like to share five key takeaways with you:

  1. IAVE will be launching a new leadership network in February 2020. This will give a greater range of volunteering leadership organisations the ability to connect in with each other. VNZ will be able to access this network and share learnings and connections from this with its members.
  2. I learnt about the release of The Global Standard for Volunteering for Development. This is a standard of practice that volunteer-involving organisations can choose to adopt in order to align themselves with a global standard of excellence. Although the standard was developed with a focus of volunteering within developing communties, it could be used more widely as an organisational self assessment tool.
  3. That there are lots of opportunities to contribute to and participate in the 26th IAVE World Volunteer Conference being held in Abu Dhabi in 2020, including opportunities to write positioning papers for the seven key themes. (I will share more on this with our members when I receive it).
  4. That IAVE turns 50 in 2020. To celebrate this significant milestone, they aim to highlight and celebrate the work that volunteers do around the world. You can share your volunteer stories and involvement with IAVE, and the cumulative impact it has had on your life! Click here to learn more and submit your story. 
  5. That the United Nations (UN) will be holding a global technical meeting on volunteering will take place in 2020 as a special event connected to the 2020 High-level Political Forum in New York. The meeting is framed as “Reimagining volunteering for the 2030 Agenda.” 

There was a lot more learning and sharing, but I wanted to make this a brief overview. Feel free to get in touch and ask me more about my trip.

Michelle Kitney
Chief Executive
Volunteering New Zealand