The 11th Dialogue on Protection Challenges of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees took place at the Palais des Nations on 18-19 December 2018. Discussions this year focused on the protection and assistance of refugees, internally displaced and stateless people in urban settings, particularly cities. Toily Kurbanov, Deputy Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, participated in the dialogue, sharing UNV's experience with harnessing community support for refugees and mobilizing refugees as volunteers.

The 11th Dialogue on Protection Challenges of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees took place at the Palais des Nations on 18-19 December 2018. Discussions this year focused on the protection and assistance of refugees, internally displaced and stateless people in urban settings, particularly cities.

Toily Kurbanov, Deputy Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, participated in the dialogue, sharing UNV's experience with harnessing community support for refugees and mobilizing refugees as volunteers.

 

Through volunteering, urban citizens and displaced persons are engaged as agents of change. UNV has developed new volunteer modalities on refugee and community volunteers and is ready to work with the UN Refugee Agency and other partners to put these into practice. --Toily Kurbanov, Deputy Executive Coordinator, UNV

Volunteers are on the frontlines of the global refugee response, fostering social cohesion and protecting and assisting the forcibly displaced men, women and children in their midst. 

Earlier this year, UNV launched a pilot in North-East Nigeria to engage community members as UN Community Volunteers. This pilot is being implemented together with UNDP with funding support from the European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) in communities hit hard by the Boko Haram insurgencies.

This new UN Volunteer modality subscribes to the principle that no-one should be left behind. UN Community Volunteers respond to the needs of UN agencies to have immediate interlocutors at the local level to do community mobilization, data collection, information sharing and coordination of activities, among other things.

It empowers communities and positions them squarely at the centre of UN projects, building on their local knowledge, access to networks and unique skills in adapting to challenging contexts.

Nurturing local volunteerism is a valuable way to bring unheard opinions, and know-how to the table, and helps to weave and strengthen the social fabric of all societies. --Achim Steiner, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, International Volunteer Day 2018