United Nations Volunteers Volunteerism for Development in the context of CBA Adeline Aubry CBA Volunteerism & Community Adaptation Specialist United Nations Development Programme June 2009

Dialogue Suggestions Support Added-value Success

UNV support to CBA Is funded by the Japanese Trust Fund (1,000,000 USD) and the UNV Special Voluntary Fund (552,909 USD). Is providing highly motivated and skilled human resource in the 7 countries of partnership. Is fully integrated into the UNDP-GEF CBA project (mainstreaming vs. parallel). Is strengthening existing project in terms of :  communities’ mobilization, voluntary contribution and ownership  partners’ capacity building Outcome 1, output1.2/1.3 and Outcome 2, output 2.2

UNV-supported activities to strengthen CBA implementation Enhance communities’ mobilization, voluntary contribution and ownership. Support participation and inclusion of the most vulnerable people in CBA project. Facilitate capacity building of NGOs, CBOs, VIOs partners. Promote, give visibility and measure voluntary contribution to adaptation.

1. Enhance communities’ mobilization, voluntary contribution & ownership Volunteerism has the potential to move disadvantaged populations away from being passive victims of climate impacts towards becoming engaged actors in adapting their lives and livelihoods.

UNV volunteers can be an added-value by: Taking time to go in the field to build a cultural understanding/respect with the communities. Listening to community instead of “informing and deciding for people”. Explaining with patience, accessible and culturally adapted words the reasons of our partnership and simplify the technical information. Building bridge between all stakeholders: clarify respective expectations; ensure quality and relevance of information/trainings, etc. Motivate, mobilize, encourage and inspire. Communities will mobilize themselves  when there is trust and confidence  when they understand and see benefits emerging from the process Enhance communities’ mobilization, voluntary contribution & ownership

UNV can support you to assess the main factors that can facilitate or prevent people from engaging themselves in voluntary activities for the good of their community. Enhance communities’ mobilization, voluntary contribution & ownership

2. Support participation & inclusion of vulnerable people What is externally perceived as a community might in fact be an entity with many sub-groups with varied opinions and facing various issues. A community might be inclusive and protective of its members; but it might also be socially controlling, making it difficult for sub-groups to express their opinions and claim their rights. Without broad participation, only a few will decide for all, and those few might control information and resources; this can lead to abuse of power.

support participation & inclusion of vulnerable people To promote inclusive participation, following tasks can be accomplished by UNV volunteers with my support: Preparatory work to understand the composition of the community and identify marginalized groups. Identify community leaders and convince them to lead the inclusive action. Implement awareness raising sessions on human rights and inclusive approach: outline the benefits of inclusiveness for the whole community. Ensure that the whole community is represented in all project activities.. Meaningful participation will often require special efforts to ensure that those traditionally marginalized groups are given support and specific opportunities to contribute: trainings have to be tailored in accordance to needs linked to the marginalization. Document and disseminate success stories.

3. Facilitate capacity building of our partner NGOs, CBOs, VIOs Barriers to adaptative capacities of communities can be of technical or institutional nature (e.g. community organization). UNV suggests to facilitate the capacity building of CBA partners in:  community mobilization and volunteer management  organizational development UNV’s expertise is complementary to UNDP’s expertise in adaptation and climate change. CBA projects are short in time for implementation, therefore capacity building is challenging, but also even more crucial for sustainability.

UNV’s suggestion for a capacity building strategy: 1.Training Needs Analysis (TNA) of partners. 2.Training plan & generic Training-of-Trainers 3.National-level training events, local-level workshops, short awareness-raising sessions, provision of material support, exchanging information and good trainers. 4.Continuous on-the-job training and needs-based tailored refresher trainings. Facilitate capacity building of our partner

4. Promote, give visibility and measure voluntary contribution to adaptation Understand added-value and contribution of volunteerism in terms of adaptation to climate change: Capture lessons learned and best practices on voluntary aspects in CBA (e.g. how to engage communities in adaptation practices). Development of a methodology to measure communities’ voluntary contributions to adaptation.

What do we want to measure? To what extent are community volunteers playing a role in supporting adaptation to climate change To what extent this voluntary engagement of community members has an impact on their adaptation practices and their level of success

Windows of opportunity to assess the contribution of volunteerism to CBA During preparation of the concept note During proposal preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, including VRA Within the project cycle During preparation of national results framework During implementation, monitoring and evaluation of CBA at national level Within the country programme cycle

thank you Adeline Aubry CBA Volunteerism & Community Adaptation Specialist United Nations Development Programme June 2009