By Simone Galimberti*
KATHMANDU, Nepal 14 October 2026 (IDN)— A lost opportunity. I can’t find better words to describe the rollout of the International Year of Volunteerism 2026, a rare opportunity to embed and experience the best humanity can offer.
Volunteerism and civic engagement, the latter a broader concept that encompasses a variety of forms of active citizenship, are about positive values like solidarity, reciprocity, self-help, and generosity that, if applied, can truly make our world a better place.
Yet there is a gap between the potential of volunteerism and its perception across the globe, a real gulf between what volunteerism could contribute to and the importance attached to it by the people, institutions and society at large.
Volunteerism suffers from a chronic ailment that remains difficult to diagnose, but in its essence, if there is a way to explain it, I would call this illness “invisibility”.
Volunteers are not scarce; quite the opposite.
According to the latest State of the World’s Volunteerism Report, published by UNV, the focal point program within the UN System to promote volunteerism, last year, on 5 December, on the occasion of the International Day of Volunteers, around the world, 34.5 per cent of working-age people, or approximately 2.1 billion individuals, engaged in volunteer work each month globally.
Volunteerism’s Problem of Invisibility
The problem is that these efforts often go unrecognised, and this matters because underappreciating volunteerism not only slows its growth and scaling.
Blocking and preventing volunteerism from further growing also limits its impact on the ground. From humanitarian relief work like the one currently being undertaken by the UN System in Nepal following the tragic flooding in Rasuwa District on 26 August 2026, where UNV is contributing to day-to-day support for vulnerable people, to food assistance and education and health across the world, volunteerism can make a real difference.
In both the Global North and Global South, no problem or need affecting humanity is beyond what volunteerism can at least partially alleviate.
While it is not a panacea, volunteerism brings people together and gives humanity a way to express its best.
Yet too few nations are really putting in an effort to boost its profile, acknowledging and recognising the contributions of local volunteers, whose vast majority act at a very grassroots level and have made volunteering an essential part of their lives.
Apparently, though, the situation does not seem to be so dire.
According to the UNV Knowledge Portal, at least 90 countries have specific laws promoting volunteerism, including some in developing and emerging nations.
Yet it is worth asking: how many of these laws are fully implemented?
While there are undoubtedly best practices, such as in Singapore, where policy-makers value volunteerism as a tool to strengthen the cohesiveness of their very diverse nation, most nations are not doing enough.
The case of Nepal is exemplary. For more than five years, a draft National Volunteerism Policy has, in the best-case scenario, gathered dust and been totally forgotten.
In 2025, as more information and insights came together about the upcoming International Year of Volunteerism, I was excited about the opportunity it presented.
After all, the last International Year of Volunteerism was observed in 2011, and 2026’s celebrations would have marked the 25th anniversary of the first international year, back in 2001.
These are unique opportunities to boost the profile and visibility of volunteerism, ensuring that its impact, often expressed in tangible ways but also manifested in ways that are more difficult to measure, could grow exponentially and, equally key, be better noticed.
Citizens around the world have been at the vanguard of volunteer activities. The people, often organised in groups and not-for-profit organisations but also individually, in a personal capacity, have been turbo-charging volunteerism to help cope with the most urgent problems, small and big at the same time.
Their efforts deserve praise and should be made increasingly recognisable.
Governments Must Create an Enabling Environment
This deliberate effort to highlight volunteers’ contributions is paramount.
It is the only way to encourage more and more citizens to give their time, energy, and skills for a good cause.
This is where governments, at national and local levels, play a key role: creating what, in jargon, is called an enabling environment for volunteerism to prosper and spread.
Imagine national and local programs that engage youths and seniors at the same time because volunteerism can bring different generations together.
These more formally structured programs can be organised and then be financially and logistically backed in such a way that they can maximise their impact.
More informal volunteering activities also play a role. They can be adequately acknowledged, especially because they can deliver big results while reducing overheads and other expenses, as the highest number of people volunteer without any compensation or reimbursement, even though those from marginalised communities face more constraints in this form.
State institutions have a clear duty and responsibility in promoting all these different forms of volunteering.
Yet amid budget constraints, governments tend to forget about volunteerism and what it can achieve with adequate support.
Unfortunately, this International Year of Volunteerism 2026 has been a huge disappointment.
Why the International Year Fell Short
When the occasion arose, the international community failed to seize it.
Should the United Nations have played a better and stronger role?
To start with, UNV, an organisation I admire greatly, has been incapable of doing enough to promote the year.
There might be reasons for it. The whole UN System has been hit by deep budget cuts that are inevitably being felt across the galaxy of agencies and programs that make it up.
UNV might not have been immune to this situation, and yet many other ways could have been found to launch, for example,
national campaigns to promote volunteerism.
In Nepal, there have been several years when the International Day of Volunteers has not been celebrated.
In the past, these days were well structured and planned months in advance.
I always enjoyed attending them even though I often felt that organising them in fancy hotels was a huge waste of resources.
UNV still stubbornly promotes full-time and paid volunteering experiences within the UN System.
Everybody knows that these are not real volunteering actions but full-time jobs that are being paid at a much reduced salary than standard, official UN jobs.
Reading the United Nations Volunteers Strategic Framework, 2026–2029, you find two major outcomes.
Outcome 1 is centred on “contributing to a people-centred United Nations that aims at ensuring that ‘the functioning of the United Nations system is supported through the engagement of empowered United Nations Volunteers'”.
While it is praiseworthy that the UNV will be more focused on broadening the diversity of its volunteers, including recruiting more women and youths from marginalised communities, including youths living with disabilities, an area where, in the last few years, there has been important progress, the same approach of full-time paid “volunteers” is set to be promoted.
The second outcome, “Promoting volunteerism: Evidence-based volunteerism is integrated by Member States and the United Nations system for implementing the 2030 Agenda”, is really key.
If you think about it, this is the core of UNV’s mandate and, in fact, its reason for existing.
Consequently, there is no reason this expected outcome should be framed as second in priority.
Implementing and fulfilling it should become UNV’s number-one issue.
Be clear.
This is not to say UNV is not doing positive things.
For example, the preparation and publication of the State of the World’s Volunteerism Report, centred on finding ways to measure different forms of volunteering actions, is “state of the art” and the result of a unique, multi-year partnership with the best minds in the sector.
The UN System and the international community still need a program fully dedicated to volunteerism.
Towards a ‘UNV 2.0’
But UNV’s leadership must introspect and reflect on its working modalities and strategic approach.
I would argue that UNV deserves even more resources and should be expanded, but, at the same time, continuing on the same trajectory- the business-as-usual model- won’t be enough for UNV to remain a relevant entity that must be defended and protected from cuts.
Value for money can be enhanced if UNV rethinks how it deploys full-time “volunteers” across the UN System.
What is now the flagship program of UNV should be rethought as what it is in reality: an interesting in-job apprenticeship.
Should UNV still run it, or should it be outsourced to other UN entities?
Maybe there is space for compromise: a reconfiguration that, with more unconditional grants from bilateral and multilateral agencies to promote volunteerism at the grassroots level, would allow UNV to re-centre its focus on its core mission.
The program should support the spread of impactful actions of generosity and solidarity, expressed in different ways, including informal and less structured modalities, all carried out with determination by citizens who care for their communities.
In this way, while the International Year of Volunteerism 2026 was a disappointment, there is still room and hope for a new way for UNV to operate, what I would call “UNV 2.0”.
This can truly become the jewel of the UN System, a system in crisis that must be resuscitated because the world needs it.
A different, rebooted UNV can help boost the UN’s credentials.
*Simone Galimberti writes about the SDGs, youth-centred policymaking, and a stronger, better United Nations. (IDN-InDepthNews)