ANALYSIS
Is Volunteering a Luxury?
Countries the world over are working to develop volunteerism as a local practice, given that it has been
shown to increase economic activity with an emphasis on humanistic, tolerant, democratic and pluralistic
values in their societies. In Great Britain, for example,
volunteers contributed an estimated £23.9 billion
to the economy in 2012-13. This is equivalent to just
over 1.5% of GDP and would roughly double if informal volunteers are included in the calculation, various
researchers suggest.1 However,
to increase volunteerism in a
meaningful way, a critical mass
of participants in each society
needs to be engaged, including
high level government officials
who recognize volunteerism’s
direct and indirect benefits, local
authorities, the civil sector, company leaders and, last and perhaps most importantly, individual
citizens.
That’s why the United Nations
Volunteers (UNV) program has
been helping countries since
1971 to foster and develop volunteerism as a force for sustainable development. The program,
which was greatly expanded
in 2012-13, provides strategic advice on the role
and contribution of volunteerism and options for
civic engagement in development programs. UNV
resources help countries improve public inclusion
and participation in social, economic and political development, and support the growth of volunteerism within communities as a form of mutual
self-help.2
It's safe to say that the critical mass of people necessary to support and sustain volunteerism in the
1 Source: http://data.ncvo.org.uk/a/almanac14/what-is-thesectors-contribution-to-the-economy/. The UK Civil Society
Almanac 2014 is published by the National Council for Voluntary
Organisations, the largest umbrella organization for the
voluntary and community sector in England.
2 Source: www.unv.org
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United States and Britain has been reached. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, some 62.6 million
Americans volunteered at least once between September 2012 and September 2013, which amounted
to over 25% of the total population donating about
50 hours per year on average. The UK’s Community
Life Survey showed that in the 2012-13 period 44% of
adults formally volunteered at least once a year and
29% did so at least once a month.
However, how applicable are U.S. and UK models to a
country like Macedonia? The UN Volunteer Program’s
2011 State of the World’s Volunteerism Report cites a
number of volunteering misperceptions, including
that “volunteerism is the preserve of the well-off and
well-educated, those who have disposable time and
income.” In fact, the World Values Survey3 found that
people in East Asia were most likely to report doing
‘unpaid voluntary work’, followed by people in Africa,
North America and the Pacific region. The lowest levels of voluntary work were found in Western Europe,
Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).4
3 http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org
4 State of the World’s Volunteerism Report. Published by:
United Nations Volunteers (UNV) 2011.
Emerging Macedonia Spring 2014 Issue 41