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Volunteering FOR
Climate action
Cliff Allum, Peter Devereux, Benjamin Lough & Rebecca Tiessen
Forum Research, Practice, Policy & Learning Group
Volunteering for Climate Action
IVCO PACIFIC 2020
On behalf of the authors, AVI and Forum are very proud to launch this important paper
at IVCO 2020.
We thank all those who contributed to this survey.
Dr. Cli Allum
Third Sector Research Centre, Department of Social Policy, University of Birmingham, UK
Dr. Peter Devereux
Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute, Perth, Australia
Dr. Benjamin Lough
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA
Dr. Rebecca Tiessen
University of Ottawa, Canada
International Forum for Volunteering in Development
October 2020
Volunteering for Climate Action
IVCO PACIFIC 2020
Table of Contents
2 Introduction
4 Climate Change: what are the key issues?
7 What do we know about volunteering and climate action?
10 Volunteering and Climate Change: Engaging in Advocacy and raising awareness
12 Volunteering and Climate Change: Working with communities on adaptation
and building resilience
14 Volunteering and Climate Change: Capacity building of partner organisations
and volunteers
15 Volunteering and Climate Change: Inuencing key stakeholders’ policies and systems
17 Adaptation and mitigation: What choices for IVCOs?
18 Future paths for IVCOs on climate change and climate justice
18 A Pathway yet to be taken?
19 Climate Change and contradictions in Volunteering for Development
22 What IVCOs are doing to address this contradiction and the emergence
of social movements
25 Some ways forward for IVCOs
26 COVID-19 and Climate Change
27 Concluding points for discussion
27 Summary of Key Points
27 Recommendations
27 1.1.1 Advocacy and Awareness
28 1.1.2 Adaptation and Resilience
28 1.1.3 Capacity Building
29 1.1.4 Policies and Systems
29 1.1.5 Future Research
30 References
37 Annex 1: Case Study: The Coordinating Committee for International
Voluntary Service (CCIVS)
40 Annex 2: Case Study: ActionAid brings together mitigation and adaptation
within a framework of climate justice
42 Annex 3: Case Study: IFRC: From disaster risk reduction and response
to climate change mitigation and adaptation
45 Annex 4: Case Study: France Volontaires – developing awareness,
building resilience and policy coherence
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“The poorest half of the global population are responsible for only around 10%
of global emissions yet live overwhelmingly in the countries most vulnerable to
climate change – while the richest 10% of people in the world are responsible
for around 50% of global emissions.”
— Oxfam 2015 (Gore, 2015 p1.)
vanuatu climate strike photo 2019 avi
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Introduction
International volunteer cooperation for development is a people to people development
modality that seeks to share skills and knowledge through mutual respect and trust to
build understanding and capacity in people, organisations and systems. IVCOs operate
at the interface between multiple stakeholders, such as volunteers, partner organisations
and primary actors to enable their distinct aspirations to be met and contribute to
development objectives. IVCOs locate these relationships and activities within an overall
framework of volunteering for (and in) development.
In the past twenty years this has tended to be linked to global development objectives
and since 2015 this has seen a widespread commitment to focusing on the achievement
of the universal Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, given COVID 19 and
insucient progress on Agenda 2030 and the SDGs, the UN has called for an action and
recovery decade for the SDGs and the need for acceleration to reach the SDG targets.
UNDP has dened ‘accelerators’ as “catalytic policy and/or programme areas that can
trigger positive multiplier eects across SDGs and targets,” (United Nations Development
Programme 2017 p.8). Volunteering is well placed as an accelerator for Agenda 2030 and
SDG 13 Climate Action is a strategic example of this.
At the recent UNV and IFRC convened Global Technical Meeting on Reimagining
Volunteering for the 2030 Agenda, 4 key areas were identied relating to the Acceleration
Matrix on Volunteering for the SDGs. They are multiplier eects, tackling inequalities,
systems thinking and acting within human and planetary boundaries (United Nations
Volunteers 2020). Drawing on the work of the Institute of Development Studies framework
for ‘Valuing Volunteering,’ the acceleration matrix highlights 6 distinctive contributions
where volunteering can make a dierence and uses climate action as a strategic example
of how it can be done. These 6 distinctive contributions are solidarity, ownership,
participation, innovation, inspiration, and inclusion (Burns, Picken et al. 2015, United
Nations Volunteers 2020).
Figure 1: Six distinctive contributions of volunteering for climate action
Solidarity Ownership Participation
Innovation Inspiration Inclusion
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These 6 areas overlap signicantly with the climate and volunteering literature review
undertaken for this paper. This demonstrates that volunteers, VIOs and IVCOs have
work and philosophies which resonate or overlap with many elements of the climate
movement ranging from the emphasis on reciprocity, solidarity and inclusion (Judge
2004, McBride, Sherraden et al. 2007, Butcher 2010, Devereux 2010, Manatschal and
Freitag 2014, Lough and Oppenheim 2017) to global exchange (Polak, Guer et al.
2017) and global citizenship, participation and community ownership (Measham and
Lumbasi 2013, Axon 2016, United Nations Volunteers 2017, Christie 2007, Plewes and
Stuart 2007, Comhlamh 2015, Comhlamh, Volunteering Matters et al. 2016) as well as
collective impact (Allum and Onuki 2019). Responding to climate change provides an
opportunity to leverage and scale up these existing approaches for climate action.
This paper starts with a brief overview of the causes and the urgency of climate change
and the key issues this raises globally and how this connects to volunteering. We
then outline the literature on climate change and volunteering, drawing on secondary
academic and practitioner sources that describe how volunteering intersects with
the core concerns of climate action. It does this by connecting to the four IVCO 2020
themes of advocacy and awareness; adaptation and resilience; capacity building; and
policies and systems. The contemporary views of VIOs are also explored using the
primary research ndings from a 2020 survey of volunteer involving organisations (VIOs)
undertaken as part of this study. Key issues linking volunteering for development and
climate action and justice are addressed, using case studies to illustrate the nature and
extent of VIOs’ climate action activities, including principles of good practice. Finally, we
set out a set of recommendations for future IVCO strategies and activities.
AVI colleagues gather before joining one of Australia’s nation-wide Global Climate Strikes on 20 September 2020, marching alongside approximately 100,000 protesters in
Melbourne’s CBD. Picture supplied by AVI
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Climate Change: what are the key issues?
The Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in Article 1, denes climate
change as: ‘a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity
that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural
climate variability observed over comparable time periods.’ Despite some controversial
media portrayals, the scientic evidence of human induced climate change is readily
available and undisputed (Intergovernmental Panel on Cimate Change 2018).
The threat from climate change is not only about the future – it is about the present
and requires identifying the most strategic places where volunteering can leverage
and accelerate change. Without action there is every expectation the impact of climate
change will worsen.
“Science tells us that, even if we are successful in limiting warming to 1.5 °C, we
will face signicantly increased risks to natural and human systems. Yet, the data
in this report show that 2019 was already 1.1 °C warmer than the pre-industrial
era. The consequences are already apparent. More severe and frequent oods,
droughts and tropical storms, dangerous heatwaves and rising sea levels are
already severely threatening lives and livelihoods across the planet.”
— Antonio Guterres in WMO Statement on
the State of the Global Climate in 2019 p.41
1 Sources of scientic data include the IPCC and Grantham Institute, Imperial College UK
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham
“Limiting warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels would require transformative
systemic change, integrated with sustainable development. Such change would
require the upscaling and acceleration of the implementation of far reaching,
multilevel and cross-sectoral climate mitigation and addressing barriers. Such
systemic change would need to be linked to complementary adaptation actions…
Current national pledges on mitigation and adaptation are not enough to stay below
the Paris Agreement temperature limits and achieve its adaptation goals.”
— Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2018 p.40)
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A key concern is not just the impact of climate change – but also a fundamental issue
about accountability, equity and justice which is the foundation for long term international
development. Those least responsible for climate change are also those suering most
from its impacts. As the headline quote from an Oxfam report shows, there is a clear
contrast between the countries who have been the biggest contributors to climate
change (i.e. industrialised and wealthy countries) and those who most face their eects
(i.e. poor and less-developed countries-and marginalised groups even in wealthy
countries). This reality is illustrated starkly in Figures 2 & 3 below, taken from of an Oxfam
report produced for the Paris Climate Summit (Gore, 2015).
These political and power considerations demonstrate that evidence about climate
change is no longer the sticking point. There has been a political reluctance to act on the
evidence of climate change and eect the necessary transition to reduce or eliminate
practices that cause it. This indicates the widespread challenge of what is required both
in terms of changing views and behaviours.
Figure 2: Most of the world’s richest 10% high CO2 emitters still live in rich
OECD Countries
Household CO2 per capita (tonnes)
USA
CAN
GBR
DEU
ITA
RUS
FRA
JPN
KOR
ZAF
MEX
TUR
ARG
CHI
BRA
IDN
IND
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Top 10% Bottom 50% Bottom 40% Average
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Figure 3: The scale of lifestyle consumption emission footprint by the poorest half of the
global population
Climate change literature suggests that arguably “the most urgent questions regarding
climate change are now socio-cultural ones” for example: “how do people come to hold
and act on certain beliefs regarding environmental conditions and processes?” and “how
do institutional forms and histories shape and constrain the views and options of various
sorts of actors?” (McCarthy, Chen et al. 2014 p665). This suggests the importance of
nding ways that climate change messages can be made more personally relevant to
engender citizen action-particularly in developed countries. One productive proposition
is to highlight regionally relevant activities contributing to the problem along with felt and
projected impacts, as well as local opportunities for emissions reduction (Scannell and
Giord 2013).
The basis upon which volunteering for climate action is constructed and prioritised
cannot ignore climate justice and should apply the 6 distinctive volunteer contributions
referenced above starting with solidarity. As we have seen, the impact of climate change
is experienced dierentially across the planet. The imbalance between who continues to
generate activity that causes climate change and those who will continue to be aected
most by climate change is apparent and instructive. Pursuing a course of climate action
must therefore be rmly based on a recognition of climate justice and mediated by the
relational approach of volunteering that has the potential to change hearts and minds
and behaviour (in the North and South) through elements such as ownership, inspiration,
experiential learning, participation and solidarity.
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What do we know about volunteering
and climate action?2
The information in this paper about the relationship between volunteering and climate
action draws on a review of academic literature; the accompanying survey to this paper;
reports and papers produced by IVCOs; and examples of the action taken.
The lead up to the UN climate summit in Copenhagen at the end of 2009 appears to
have been an important moment for recognising the importance of climate change
amongst those connected to volunteering for development. A rise in climate change
citizen advocacy emerged and was reected in national legislation in anticipation of the
summit (Fankhauser, Averchenkova et al. 2018). We nd similar rising concern amongst
VIOs. The IFRC placed climate change mitigation and adaptation3 on the agenda from its
2007 international Congress (International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent
Movement 2015). The International Forum on Volunteering in Development (Forum)
published two climate action papers before and after the UN summit (Brook 2007,
Mulligan 2010).
We can also identify conscious attempts at programmes related to climate change.
For example, at the time of the Copenhagen climate conference the United Nations
Volunteers (UNV) programme implemented a pilot project that partnered volunteers
with a UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Global Environment Fund (GEF)
project. This was designed to implement community-based adaptation (CBA) to
enhance the resilience of communities and/or the ecosystems on which these
communities rely for their livelihoods (United Nations Volunteers and Volunteer
and Service Enquiry South Africa 2010, Onestini 2013). The CBA project evaluation
concluded that the project successfully “created small-scale ‘project/policy
laboratories’ and generated knowledge about how to achieve adaptation at
the local level in developing countries” (Onestini 2013 p.6).
2 This section focuses particularly on the role of international volunteer cooperation organizations (IVCOs). Therefore,
the transnational focus is highlighted throughout, but often as a complementary framework for diverse volunteering
modalities including community-based volunteering and national volunteering. IVCOs are mostly headquartered in
developed countries but focus their work in less developed countries. However, over the last 20 years development
agencies and IVCOs have increasingly begun addressing the structural causes of poverty and inequality through a
global and local rights-based approach.
3 Mitigation – involves reducing the ow of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, either by reducing
sources of these gases (for example, the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat or transport) or enhancing the
“sinks” that accumulate and store these gases (such as the oceans, forests and soil). Adaptation – adapting to life
in a changing climate – involves adjusting to actual or expected future climate. (https://climate.nasa.gov/solutions/
adaptation-mitigation/)
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In comparison with the scale of the problems, there has been a dearth of academic
literature on volunteering and climate change, particularly studies that directly link them.4
Considering conservation and environmental work was one of the rst international
volunteer endeavours, it seems strange that a more extensive body of literature on
volunteering and the environment has not been developed.5
UNV CBA Project with UNDP and GEF
“The overall objective to include volunteerism practices was to mainstream and
strengthen the capacity of community volunteering in order to enhance grassroots
capacity to adapt to climate change. … The other important aspect was to use
the UN Volunteers as participatory researchers while working with community
groups….To a great degree this has occurred, either by design or because
volunteerism is an intrinsic aspect to community actions. This is shown, rst of all,
by the fact that all CBA projects included signicant in-kind contributions from the
community. A document named Volunteers’ Contributions to community-based
adaptation (CBA) to climate change:
A handbook, training guide and work plan to support, promote and measure
volunteering in UNDP-GEF CBA projects was produced by UN Volunteers”
— Onestini 2013 p.36
The relatively few but well documented long-term volunteer climate action projects and
policy initiatives contrast with a greater quantity of literature related to either national or
short-term international volunteer initiatives and pedagogies linked to the environment
or to a lesser extent climate change.
Given a strategic emphasis on enhancing climate action - particularly in developed
countries - the literature on motivation for environmental volunteering is signicant and
important. Measham and Barnett (2008) proposed six motivating factors for “ volunteers
in an environmental context: (1) contributing to community; (2) social interaction;
4 Several possible reasons for the limited scholarship and reporting on volunteering and climate action include: the
nature of climate change as a wicked problem that is not easily dened or tackled by simple denitions or actions
(Lehtonen, Salonen et al. 2018) and the relational approach of volunteering (Devereux 2010, Lough and Moore
McBride 2014, Burns and Howard 2015) that makes understanding connections and impacts of volunteering dicult to
measure. Practices that are linked to climate action are diverse and can take the form of environmental rehabilitation,
conservation, disaster risk reduction, sustainable livelihoods and food security, gender inequality etc. Furthermore,
projects that are linked to climate action may emphasize solutions that directly related but are described in more
specic terms such as coastal zone management programming that might involve local, national and international
volunteering eorts.
5 IVCOs like Service Civil International (SCI) active following the Second World War had leading objectives “to promote
the ideas of peace, international understanding and solidarity, social justice and environmental protection.” (as cited
in Chystyakova, 2015). Environmental volunteering also has a collective element not so common in human service
volunteering which often tends to be more individually focused. Pretty and Ward (2001) highlighted these early days of
volunteering through grassroots environmental organisations and the frequently collective nature of it.
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(3) personal development; (4) learning about the environment; (5) a general ethic of care
for the environment; (6) an attachment to a particular place.”(Measham and Barnett
2008 p.540). These were translated into ve key (potentially complementary)
modes of practical environmental volunteer activity: “activism, education, monitoring,
restoration and (promoting) sustainable living”. These can be directly linked to the six
distinctive contributions of volunteering for climate action highlighted on page 3.
The volunteer’s common attachment to where they volunteer is of particular interest
since it gives a new way of seeing the global phenomenon of climate change with a
personal relevance and locally framed understanding and positive gender bias (Scannell
and Giord 2013). Such apparently indirect non climate frames can be eective tools for
enhancing public support for climate policy on the grounds of supposedly ‘non climate’
benets that people see as more directly relevant (Walker, Kurz et al. 2018).
One way of considering the relationship between volunteering and climate change is in
relation to the models of volunteering for development Plewes and Stuart (2007).6 They
provided a robust and simple framework of three overlapping IVCO models. First is
the ‘development model’ where IVCOs send volunteers to do capacity development in
international development; second is the ‘learning model’ aimed at developing global
citizenship; and third is the civil society strengthening model in societies at home and
abroad. They identied volunteer contributions in the area of the volunteer themselves,
the partners and communities where they are assigned and global engagement.
Within this framework it is possible to focus on distinct but interconnected areas:
advocacy and awareness, which includes the awareness of volunteers as well as partner
organisations and communities, addressing local and global engagement; issues of
adaptation and resilience as a conscious and direct response to climate change issues at
partner and community level, oering models of volunteer activity; and capacity building,
which embraces some of the traditional models of volunteering for development as a
process. In addition, there is a consideration of a fourth area which relates to how IVCOs
and VIOs can aect governmental policies and systems
6 This inuential paper was presented at IVCO conference, Montreal 2007
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Volunteering and climate change: Engaging in Advocacy
and raising awareness
The potential role of volunteers in promoting awareness amongst the communities where
they are assigned on a range of development issues has been a longstanding feature
of volunteering for development. Promoting knowledge about HIV/AIDS and community
health is one such example. Using the learning as a volunteer to focus on advocacy and
public engagement post-assignment has also been considered an important potential
role of volunteers that other development activities do not oer.
The literature on volunteering and the environment (with a smaller subsection on
volunteering and climate change) covers areas such as the volunteering and policy/
practice interface (Sibley 2010, Walker, Kurz et al. 2018); education and volunteering for
developing agency for climate change action (McNeill and Vaughn 2012); volunteering
and pro environmental attitudes (García-Valiñas, Macintyre et al. 2012, Valentine, King
et al. 2018); and volunteering through citizen or community science for environmental
monitoring, mapping, education and advocacy (United Nations Volunteers 2017, Chase
and Levine 2018).
Volunteering for the environment and climate change can be a strategic experiential
learning opportunity for IVCO volunteers. It cultivates a ‘new pair of eyes’ through
practical volunteer experience and ‘an attachment to place’ that can connect and tackle
the policy problem of seeing environmental issues as an isolated policy problem rather
than a transdisciplinary one that connects across dierent lived realities, sectors and
geographies (Sibley 2010).
There is some evidence from research studies that are not primarily focused on
environment. As part of the Valuing Volunteering research project led by VSO in
partnership with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), one volunteer working in the
Philippines explicitly documented volunteering and natural resource issues with some
direct reference to climate change (Aked 2014, Aked 2015). The ndings highlighted that
environmental education was important but not sucient for behaviour change and that
positive volunteering experiences were signicant for continued environmental advocacy.
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Raising Awareness and Protecting a Natural Park
“Since 2001, the Tubbataha Management Oce (TMO), a government oce, has
looked after the protection of Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park… at the heart of the
Coral Triangle, considered the richest marine site on earth, and a sh bank for the
Sulu Sea. In 2009–10, TMO introduced a volunteering programme to carry out
environmental education in schools and coastal barangays. Key learning points
[from the VSO research there] include:
� Closing the gap in knowledge and understanding seemed to be contingent on
volunteers’ creative and interactive delivery, their personal characteristics (e.g.
being young and knowledgeable about the environment) and the support they
received from TMO.
� Even when volunteer educators are successful at raising awareness, there is no
guarantee this will trigger behaviour change. Understanding may be a necessary
condition but is not sucient.
� A systemic view of poverty highlights the numerous constraints within and from
outside communities that prevent shifts in behaviour.
� The links between positive volunteer experiences and future environmental
advocacy were supported by our research ndings.”
— Aked 2015 p.8
The focus on how volunteer programming can generate awareness and link to advocacy
can be seen in the approach of CCIVS, who have placed climate change as a central
feature of their volunteering workcamps alongside peace action and have promoted a
global campaign on climate justice while also focused on internal operations to address
the impact on climate change7.
CCIVS oers a model where climate change is placed at the centre of the activities of the
network and its members. For a signicant number of workcamps the issue of climate
change and future sustainability is present throughout workcamp activities, supported by
a similar focus in educational work and attempts to facilitate members to operate in an
increasingly sustainable way. Climate change is central to the volunteer experience and
the impact surveys demonstrate the value of this approach.8
7 See Annex 1 for a more detailed account of the CCIVS approach
8 See https://ccivs.org/research/impact-assessment-report/
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In addition to providing toolkits for its members, CCIVS has a strong relationship with
UNESCO and accesses those forums to present data from members’ work and set out
the case for climate justice.
“Volunteers are not only the workers whom scientists ask to carry out various activities
without requiring much understanding or input and critical engagement. They also bring
in dierent social values and are a source of local knowledge and insights”
– (Buzier et al, 2012)
Raising awareness through citizen led knowledge generation and advocacy –
volunteers and citizen science
There has been positive recognition of citizen science undertaken in conservation
projects at home and overseas even if the geographic spread is relatively
limited (Turrini, Dörler et al. 2018, Peter, Diekötter et al. 2019). Citizen science in
ecological restoration has demonstrated the value of local people’s knowledge
and contextual insights because “Volunteers are not only the workers whom
scientists ask to carry out various activities without requiring much understanding
or input and critical engagement. They also bring in dierent social values and are
a source of local knowledge and insights”. As UNV have highlighted ‘volunteers
producing reliable data can lead to greater citizen participation in decision-making
processes and accountability. It can also produce bottom-up collective action that
pressures authorities to act on climate change and become more responsive to
the needs of excluded groups and individuals’
— (UNV, 2018 p.3)
Volunteering and Climate Change: Working with
communities on adaptation and building resilience
Bonnie Learmonth’s paper on IVCO climate action in the Pacic (Learmonth 2020)
documents in detail many practical contemporary examples of volunteers strengthening
adaptation and resilience in the Pacic, so we refer readers to these for helpful insights.
One particularly signicant role of volunteers in adaptation and resilience is exemplied
and documented in the long running area of volunteer engagement in disaster risk
response and reduction (DRR). IFRC has been very active globally in this area for many
years in practical preparation and responses (International Federation of Red Cross
and Red Crescent Societies 2009). DRR has been a longstanding practical area where
grassroots people have made and do make a dierence in the face of climate change.
The Hyogo framework and the Sendai Declaration and Framework for Disaster Risk
Reduction 2015-2030 explicitly recognise the distinctive contribution of volunteering
(United Nations 2005, United Nations 2015).
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IFRC has a longstanding involvement related to disaster risk reduction and has
explicitly focused on mitigation and adaptation in respect of climate change since
20079. This now includes climate action training materials and policies for how
sta and volunteers and IFRC operate.
One early example which linked disaster response, community adaptation and the issues
on inequality and underlaying causality, responded to the devastating hurricane Mitch
in Central America. This project was developed in 2001 by the IVCO Progressio to bring
practical benets to Central American communities aected by the hurricane while
‘building back better’ with a program to improve the resilience of poor communities. This
was approached by tackling environmental vulnerability on the ground and highlighting
the structural causes and consequences of inequality through publications in the UK.
(Progressio 2006e, Devereux 2010).
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The Progressio environmental vulnerability project in Central America10
“Largely reported by the media as a ‘natural’ disaster, the underlying story of Mitch,
as underscored by CIIR’s 2001 publication Storm Warnings, was one of over-
exploitation of natural resources [for survival for some groups-and for export
led national economic growth for others]. Uncontrolled logging, slash-and-burn
agriculture, land clearance for cattle and intensive cash crop production had
exacerbated the vulnerability of Honduras and Nicaragua [and particularly its
marginalised communities] to the hurricane’s damage. Complementing partners’
growing expertise in sustainable agriculture as a key livelihood Strategy [for the
poor], ICD’s three-year initiative in Central America ran environmental education
campaigns, set up community monitoring committees and provided training in
land planning and water use. It also engaged local agencies working on natural
resource management and promoted longer-term support for sustainability
by working with teachers and school children to raise public awareness of
environmental issues. The project achieved land reforestation, crop diversication
and the greater involvement of women in training and productive activities. It
also fostered better conditions for stronger interaction between the target groups,
narrowing the typical gap between ocial planners, environmental ‘specialists’
and communities supposedly lacking awareness and knowledge of the issues at
stake. Work with partners put local people in a stronger position to provide their
own input into discussions of better practice and encourage agencies to consider
how poverty and inequality aected their situation”
(Barnes 2019 p.153).
— Barnes, J. (2019).
10 Originally called the Catholic Institute of International Relations, CIIR was rebranded as Progressio.
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Volunteering and Climate Change: Capacity building
of partner organisations and volunteers
The focus of volunteering on capacity building of partner organisations can be seen as a
concern to achieve sustainable organisations and changes in practice that are embraced
by local partners and communities. It contrasts with the volunteer as an interim deliverer
of services, meeting of skills shortages.
As we have seen, the primary focus of VIO activity presents as one of adaptation. The
tendency is to see climate change as a programming issue and one where programme
activity could change. Based on the review of literature and the 2020 survey ndings
presented above, we see an emphasis on areas such as livelihoods and resource
management and the building of community resilience in anticipation or in response
to sudden (e.g. tsunami or hurricane) or long term (e.g. drought) disasters. Such an
approach enables the use of V4D volunteer models, where international and national
volunteers can be used as agents of change, capacity builders, or providers of expertise
to specic communities or organisations. In this way, a focus in the Global South
on climate change adaptation is enabled by an adjustment of programme focus
or modalities.
In this context, IVCOs are well placed with a level of expertise in working with local
partners to build their capacity in respect to the impact of climate change. This may
not be straightforward. It is entirely possible that short-term volunteering may promote
and support capacity building. But the global expansion of short-term international
conservation volunteers has faced some criticism because of the limited geographic
and environmental focus of the predominant locations and work that focuses more on
volunteer preferences or even glamour (Lorimer 2010)11.
Capacity building can also be seen as transformative when capacity is built in volunteers
as well as primary on the ground actors and this allows embrace and action of SDG 4.7
by ensuring ‘all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable
development, including among others through education for sustainable development
and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality’. This mutual capacity
development then feeds in to strategically tackling ‘system gaps and bottlenecks’
highlighted by the UNV Acceleration toolkit and relating not just to practical action but
directly engaging with Policies and Systems to tackle causes not just symptoms of
climate change as highlighted in the next section.
11 The criticisms have been similar to the longstanding critiques of short term voluntourism that potentially makes
situations like orphanages worse rather than better for vulnerable groups - just to make volunteers feel good (Luh Sin,
Oakes et al. 2015). An ACFID Practice Note on Responsible International Volunteering for Development (ACFID, 2018)
was prepared by AVI in collaboration with ACFID member organisations to help tackle such problems.
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The important contribution of IVCOs to capacity building of volunteers links to Plewes and
Stewarts models of learning and civil society strengthening. These have been increasingly
highlighted in recent years by many publications like the Comhlamh publications
encouraging shifts in thinking from volunteers and returned volunteers to active Citizens
or the VSO publication looking at impacts beyond volunteering (Comhlamh 2015,
Comhlamh, Volunteering Matters et al. 2016, Clark and Lewis 2017).
Volunteering and Climate Change: Influencing key
stakeholders’ policies and systems
There is some suggestion that governmental support for volunteer programmes has
provided ‘space’ for IVCOs to widen their focus on climate change. This links directly to
what Jean Christie highlighted earlier that IVCOs are coming to understand that ‘profound
structural changes are needed globally, including policy change in their own countries’
(Christie, 2007). This is even shown in two recent international volunteer evaluations. The
Canadian government highlights the role of Volunteer Cooperation Agencies (VCAs) in
Canada tackling climate change at home and abroad. A 2018 evaluation of the Canadian
Volunteer Cooperation Program highlighted in its recommendations the importance of
mitigation in Canada and overseas when it suggested:
“VCAs be proactive in showcasing, both in Canada and within the target countries,
examples of volunteer initiatives directly related to raising environmental awareness
and eliminating or mitigating environmental harms, including actions related to climate
change and adaptation.” (Project Services International in consortium with Plan:Net
Limited 2019 p.110).12
A 2019 independent evaluation of the Australian Volunteers Program’s thematic
impact areas highlighted in its recommendations “the lower proportion of the program
portfolio that aligns with Climate Change, Disaster Resilience and Food Security” and
recommended the Program “should consider a variety of options to more eectively
engage across this impact area”.
12 The full report of the Canadian evaluation has not been made public. However, the Global Aairs Canada
management response said: “The department recognizes the importance of being proactive in presenting examples
of volunteer initiatives directly related to environmental awareness and the elimination or mitigation of environmental
harm” (Global Aairs Canada 2019).
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It suggested:
“Strategic partnerships should be prioritised, for example improving links between the
Australian Volunteers Program and DFAT’s climate change expertise, strategic selection
of local partner organisations and Australian organisations working on climate change
issues to ensure volunteer assignments are appropriately scoped and new relationships
with inuential partner organisations are developed and maintained”
— (Gero et al, 2019 p 38)
The DFAT management response highlighted that “the program should strengthen the
depth of engagement in the climate change/disaster resilience/food security impact area,
and document and communicate results” (Australian Department of Foreign Aairs and
Trade 2019 p.6).
The Acceleration toolkit (UNV, 2020 p.21) provides a framework for tackling strategic
interlinkages in its SDG priorities worksheet. It highlights practical ways volunteer groups
can analyse and respond to ‘system gaps and bottlenecks’ through a series of questions
that recognise the importance of what it terms ‘dierent spheres’ for strategic action at
home and abroad13 including:
� How does addressing these challenges align with identied local, national, regional, or
global development priorities?
� What obstacles or bottlenecks stand in the way of accelerating progress in this area?
(Consider various categories, such as knowledge and capacities, data and information,
infrastructure and resources, political will, public opinion, opposition from vested
interests, etc.)
� How could positive interlinkages (synergies) across other SDGs be activated and
potential negative ones (trade-os) be minimized?
� How important is this problem for people in the local context, or within your sphere?
� How could this challenge be addressed within your sphere, through programme
interventions, policies, education and awareness, technological innovations, data
generation, or other means?
If there is a growing space for IVCOs to go beyond a programmatic approach to climate
change to ‘tackling system gaps and bottlenecks’, will they have the motivation and
organisational capacity (and blessing of donors) to take it?
13 For example. supporting Fiji’s Alliance for Future Generations - a formal platform that brings together urban and
rural young people around SDG issues, with a focus on climate action in two ways. First on the ground in Fiji and
second by giving voice to their work and concerns in the global North. See their Table Error! Main Document Only..
Volunteering for SDG Acceleration Table (UNV, 2020)
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Adaptation and mitigation: What choices for IVCOs?
A key divide in the literature is between a focus on adaptation (action to minimise the
damage of climate change already in the ecosystem) and mitigation (action to prevent,
reduce and stabilize the threat of climate change).14 This conceptual and political
separation between adaptation and mitigation has potentially profound consequences for
the focus of VIO programme activity, especially IVCOs. Both approaches are needed and
combined they oer a way to address the challenges of climate change.
The signicance is that despite the three aspects of the model set out by Plewes and
Stuart, IVCOs most common priority (reinforced or led by funding requirements) is for
the ‘development model’ which leads to a focus on capacity building and adaptation
approaches in the Global South. VIOs, perhaps working within national boundaries, may
also be concerned primarily with adaptation, especially if they are based in the Global
South. Given the expertise that IVCOs have in people to people development, which is
demonstrated in examples in the IVCO survey and Langforth (2020), it is likely IVCOs will
maintain eective approaches to building local partner capacity and community resilience
to address the challenges of climate change.
A survey undertaken with VIOs as part of this study (see Allum Devereux, Lough and
Tiessen 2020 2020) supports this proposition. It was found that “an emphasis on
programmes and activities focused on adaptation, with over half of the respondents
mentioning only adaptive approaches. These vary from simple statements, such
as “Building capacity in organisations that respond to climate change” to more
comprehensive accounts of building resilience.” (Allum, Devereux, Lough and Tiessen
2020, p.2)
14 “A mix of adaptation and mitigation options to limit global warming to 1.5°C, implemented in a participatory and
integrated manner, can enable rapid, systemic transitions in urban and rural areas” Intergovernmental Panel on
Cimate Change 2018.
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Figure 4: Does Your Organisation focus its activities on any of the following areas at home or
abroad relate to climate change
Source: Allum, Devereux, Lough and Tiessen 2020, p.6
Number of Organisations Responding ‘Yes’
Raising awareness of climate change
Building capacity of partner organisations and/or...
Developing community resilience
Advocacy and lobbying on climate change
Disaster mitigation or preparedness
Environmental responses to climate change
Disaster response and recovery
The impact of climate change on poor and others...
Tackling the global causes of climate change
Climate Action through a gender lens
Volunteer travel issues e.g. engaging in practice that...
02468 10 12 14 16 18 20
September 2019 March for the Planet! On September 27, more than 7 million people around the world marched in the global climate strike. In Montreal, over 500,000 people
took to the streets to march with young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and demand that significant, effective measures be taken in response to the climate crisis, at both
individual and societal levels, and with support from the various levels of government. CECI’s staff, members, volunteers and pledging members joined this historic event, both
in Canada and in Africa
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Future expectations indicate a strengthening of current VIOs activity on climate change
but addressing areas they already covered at the moment.
“what respondents thought had changed most in the past were expected to be more
likely to change in the future; and the dimensions that had changed least in the past were
less likely to change in the future.” (ibid, p.9. Emphasis in the original)
However, this emphasis on adaptation and capacity building – which is the development
model in the Plewes and Stuart framework - arguably neither addresses the learning
or civil society strengthening models, which are essential to address the challenge of
climate justice.
Mist in the hills at Rabaul, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea in 2016. Photographer: Harjono Djoyobisono
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Future paths for IVCOs on climate change
and climate justice
A pathway yet to be taken?
Given the past and projected emphasis on areas such as adaptation and capacity
building of Global South partners, this poses the question of where mitigation ts in the
activities of IVCOs and VIOs. This is not a new question, nor is it without an answer. It
was posed to IVCOs in the FORUM discussion paper in 2010:
“Where can agencies have most impact? Impact can be measured in dierent ways. At
one level agencies could try and impact on mitigation, i.e. reducing emissions. If agencies
want to impact on the countries with the highest per capita emissions, then it would need
to focus on advocacy in the global North.” (Mulligan 2010 p.8).
Secondly, it is hard not to conclude that the literature and historic practice of volunteering
and climate change sits in the arenas where other issues are more central concerns. It
is worth noting, as referenced earlier, that Forum produced two papers around the time
of the Copenhagen climate summit both of which focused on climate change. The rst
paper highlighted the need for emissions reductions, including tackling the challenging
necessity of air travel by international volunteers (Brook 2007). The second paper cited
above highlighted climate change as a social justice issue and suggested 5 strategic
options for IVCOs (Mulligan 2010 p.10):
1. Tackling their own carbon footprints
2. Mainstreaming climate change across IVCOs’ programmes
3. Addressing climate change through secure livelihoods and natural resource
management programmes
4. Deliberately focusing on climate change as a key programme area
5. Increasing advocacy and global education about climate change
While livelihoods and natural resource management have been the most commonly
implemented actions, all of these strategic options still appear very pertinent for VIOs and
IVCOs. This is supported by the VIO survey which explored whether VIOs thought that as
a sector they were doing enough on climate change issues. The results concluded that
“nearly half of the respondents indicate a serious concern that VIOs are doing too little,
there is also a signicant, if smaller, number who consider that VIOs are getting it about
right on climate change.” (ibid, p.12). This is reected in Figure 5 taken from the report
and reproduced below, which shows the range of views of VIOs on this issue but does
highlight that most suggest more could be done.
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Figure 5: Do you think volunteer involving organisations are doing too much, too little or
about right on climate action?
Source: Allum, Devereux, Lough and Tiessen, 2020
Respondent Score
0 = too little; 10 = too much
Respondent Organisation
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Q U A G E J T I J F C MH L P S O ND B R
Australian volunteer Annie Knappstein (right) with Albert Kwatelae, Conservation Coordinator at Solomon Islands Community Conservation Partnership, collecting and testing
coral samples near Honiara, Solomon Islands in 2015. Photographer: Darren James
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Climate Change and contradictions in Volunteering
for Development
The VIO survey also showed that despite the strong values commitment held by many
VIOs, the term climate justice was rarely mentioned. This is despite IVCOs commitment
to a relational approach demonstrating values of equality and justice.
Climate action poses some very signicant challenges for IVCOs, especially where
international volunteers are concerned. The data on Global CO2 emissions by income
and region is shown below in Figure 6. It highlights the somewhat awkward juxtaposition
of Global North volunteers working on adaptation in the Global South as illustrated below.
VSO Ireland recognised:
“VSO volunteers and local partner organisations are doing what they can on the ground
but, ultimately, political action to reverse deforestation and eliminate fossil fuels is
urgently needed…. At the moment, Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions per person
are the eighth largest in the world according to the Environmental Protection Agency”
(O’Sullivan 2018).
Peace Corps focus on adaptation over mitigation is reected in the Peace Corps 2014
policy on climate change which focused on adaptation (Longstein and Pimpedly 2014).
Volunteers have recognised a similar dilemma, reected in a recent returned volunteer
post:
“There is an objection to be found in the hypocrisy of a wealthy nation, itself already
highly industrialized and the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world,
sending out Volunteers to help with climate adaptation strategies” (Joy 2020).
This contrast between the high income countries who are biggest contributors to climate
change and those low income countries who most face their eects is illustrated starkly
in two graphics as part of an Oxfam report for the Paris Climate summit (Gore 2015)
shown earlier.
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Figure 6: Global CO2 emissions by income and region
Global CO2 emissions by income and region
Breakdown of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2016 by World Bank income
group (top) and world region (bottom). This is based on average per capita emissions
(y-axis) and population size (x-axis), with the area of the box representing total annual
emissions in 2016.
� Emissions represent domestic production (not accounting for embedded emissions in
traded products), and do not include cross-boundary emissions such as international
aviation and shipping.
� Aggregation by income is based on the total emissions of countries within each of
the World Bank’s income groupings. It reects average national incomes rather than
the distribution of incomes within countries. E.g. ‘Lower income’ reects the total
emissions of all countries dened as low income, rather than the emissions of global
individuals dened as low income. If dened on the basis of individuals (without
country contexts), the global inequality would be even larger.
Source: Our World In Data based on data from the Global Carbon Project, UN Population
Division (2018) & World Bank income groups. This is a visualisation from OurWorldInData.
org, where you nd data and research on how the world is changing. Licensed under CC-
BY-SA by the authors Hannah Hitchie and Max Hoser.
BY INCOME GROUP
Population
Population
Per capita carbon emmisions
(tCO2 per person per year
Per capita carbon emmisions
(tCO2 per person per year
BY REGION
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What IVCOs are doing to address this contradiction
and the emergence of social movements
Some IVCOs are exploring and implementing ways of embracing their strengths in
terms of the strong adaptive focus of volunteering for development, whilst looking to
reduce their own organisational contribution in causing climate change by reviewing and
changing their practices. Additionally, there is also a recognition that a wider engagement
is needed to focus on mitigation: inuencing policy, campaigning and mobilisation to
address the challenges of climate change and dening the role of the organisation within
that. This talks to key elements of the signicance of volunteer programmes in respect
of active citizenship and the post-assignment activities of volunteers, but which may be
peripheral to the central activity of volunteer assignments.
� CECI is a Canadian based IVCO, who is in the process of strengthening their focus on
climate action. There is an explicit focus on gender and climate change, connection
with advocacy networks in Canada and organisational commitment to carbon
neutrality.15
� France Volontaires (FV) is a volunteer platform based in France that supports
volunteering activity across the world. They are developing synergies in their
programming models, emphasising building community awareness and resilience
in respect of the challenges posed by climate change, locating the role of FV in a
wider call for international mobilization. FV has a programme mainstreaming action
on climate change and designs multi-stakeholder projects all around the world and
increases volunteering opportunities at national and international level.16
A focus on carbon footprints and emissions leads to consideration of organisational
practices, programme modelling and global education. It tends towards an advocacy or
inuencing agenda towards those in power, especially in the Global North. Practising the
global learning and civil society strengthening IVCO models as part of an international
movement including volunteer groups in the global South, can help tackle this and
examples from the Volunteer Groups Alliance17, IAVE and national VIOs in the global
South demonstrate this.
15 See Allum, Devereux, Lough and Tiessen, p.4 for more detail on CECI’s approach
16 See Annex 4 for a more detailed account
17 The Volunteer Groups Alliance (VGA) was formed in 2012 to advance volunteering for Agenda 2030 with membership
by Forum, the International Association for Volunteer Eort (IAVE), UNV, the Coordinating Committee for International
Voluntary Service (CCIVS) and many other VIOs including the World Young Women’s Christian Association (World
YWCA), the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGS), and United Way Worldwide (UWW).
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How IVCOs engage – or do not engage – with climate change is brought sharply into
question when considering the collective nature of youth movements on climate change.
The emergence of volunteers as politically active is critical – whether as Extinction
Rebellion in the UK or the Climate strikes that began amongst the youth of Sweden and
became a global movement. From 20-27 September 2019 a record 7.6 million people
were reported on the streets with over 6,000 actions recorded in 185 countries.
The impact of the climate strike movement has important lessons for IVCOs. AVI and
CECI amongst other IVCOs actively encouraged sta and volunteers to participate in
these marches as seen from their Twitter and Facebook accounts. But how broader
social movements impact and inform what IVCOs do about climate action and climate
justice is a deeper question.
McClosky (2019) suggests the global Climate Strike Movement Friday protests have
inspired - but may also have inadvertently exposed the shortcomings of - international
non-governmental organisations (INGOs). He says the movement has “exposed the
lack of critical interrogation by INGOs of government and corporate inaction to reduce
global warming, and shed light on the growing inertia of an INGO sector that trades in
incremental change rather than systemic political and economic transformation”.
However, this raises the deeper question of tackling causes or symptoms of poverty and
underdevelopment - are IVCOs ‘ladles in the global soup kitchen’ or advocates for global
citizenship, justice and change? (Fowler 1995, Commins 1999).
McClosky suggests INGOs can learn four key elements from the young leaders of the
climate action social movement like Greta Thunberg, to facilitate transformative rather
than incremental change:
� Building large-scale popular mobilisation around the lived realities of climate change
� Speaking truth to power
� Resisting Co-optation or co-option and
� Practicing global learning.
These key elements, which arguably apply to IVCOs, speak to the power of collective
over individual action. In relation to climate change and climate justice, they sit somewhat
uneasily with the assignment of individual volunteers into adaptive programmes without
a wider long-term organisational vision and practice. Within the international volunteer
tradition, there is a good example of how climate change and climate justice have
been placed at the core of the programme model and located in a wider approach to
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mitigation. As we have seen, CCIVS shows how an organisational focus that embraces
programme approaches, volunteer experience and internal practices can combine
in a coherent approach to climate action and climate justice. But it also embraces
volunteering as a social movement in contrast to models of individualised volunteer
assignments.
Examples of linking climate change, climate action and climate justice can also be
found in VIOs. The approach of Action Aid opens up the possibility for VIOs to consider
a holistic approach to volunteer programming in respect of climate change, rather than
compartmentalising interventions as essentially adaptation interventions in partner
countries.
� ActionAid is an organisation whose central focus is not volunteering but where
volunteering is part of its range of activities.18 It is an example of how a global NGO
has dened issues of mitigation in terms of the responsibility of “wealthy nations”
while connecting this to the adaptation of developing countries to build broad-based
resilience in terms of coping and transition. This is enabled by locating their work
in climate justice and dening a six-point plan which talks to both mitigation and
adaptation.
IVCOs operate in dierent institutional frameworks: multi-lateral, governmental and
NGOs. While these frameworks are likely to support volunteer models that address
adaptive approaches to climate change, what ‘space’ do IVCOs have develop the
kind of mitigation approaches indicated in the above discussion?
The dilemma for IVCOs was highlighted in 2007 and remains an issue
at the forefront of addressing climate change at home and abroad:
“As IVCOs come to understand that profound structural changes are needed
globally, including policy change in their own countries, they bump up against
this reality. Policy advocacy and partisan politics are obviously dierent, but the
distinctions can sometimes blur in practice. Organisations must be strategically
astute as they plan their public mobilisation and advocacy work”
— Christie 2007, p.7
Other than groups like CIVICUS or Greenpeace with less strong constraints in funding
sources, there is some evidence IVCOs have generally been less explicit about the
climate movement’s second element of ‘speaking truth to power’ (Lough and Allum
18 ActionAid Hellas is a member of Forum. The information shown her derives both from their responses to the survey
and from ActionAid sources and is detailed in Annex 2.
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2013). Funding sources in particular can lead to co-option of volunteer groups or at the
least for IVCOs a focus on work overseas because of funding from Foreign Aairs or aid
budgets.19
Some ways forward for IVCOs
� A focus on carbon footprints and emissions leads to consideration of organisational
practices, programme modelling and global education. It tends towards an advocacy or
inuencing agenda towards those in power, especially in the Global North.
� Practising global learning as part of an international movement including volunteer
groups in the global South can help tackle this and examples from the Volunteer
Groups Alliance20, IAVE and national VIOs in the global South demonstrate this.
� Climate action may also oer new opportunities to develop a collective mentality
within volunteer organisations. New ways of conceptualizing climate action through
a collectivist lens include widening the focus to consider the values of extended
family, community solidarity, mutuality, and human and nonhuman interrelationships
for harmonious, peaceful, spiritual, and material coexistence. Concepts like Ahimsa
(India), Buen Vivir (South America), Ubuntu (Africa), Hauora (New Zealand), or Shiawase
and Ikigai (Japan) “enrich understandings of sustainable living as long-term collective
action for sustainable development and reducing climate change” (Hayward and Roy
2019). The integration of these alternative, collective-oriented conceptual frameworks
into volunteering programs (IDV) can change the way that IVCOs engage in climate
action building on the 6 distinctive contributions highlighted earlier.
� There is also scope at organisational level, especially for the NGO IVCOs, by engaging
in the various representational forums. For example, AVI is an active member of the
Australian Council for International Development which has a strong policy advocating
for action on climate change at home and abroad (Australian Council for International
Development). The climate movement could also be enhanced by more concerted
eorts to link international, national and local volunteer networks, centres and alumni
fostered by groups from FORUM, to UNV, IAVE, and CCIVS through strategic alliances
and networks like the Volunteer Groups Alliance.
19 The risks involved in ‘speaking truth to power’ for organisations may concern potential loss of funding sources, but
individuals such as environmental defenders may pay the price of their voluntary action with their lives or wellbeing
and this is why national and global alliances and solidarity are so crucial. Global Witness highlighted the deadly toll
to environmental defenders of 197 deaths in 2017, rising fourfold since it was rst compiled in 2002 (Global Witness
2018, Watts 2018).
20 The Volunteer Groups Alliance (VGA) was formed in 2012 to advance volunteering for Agenda 2030 with membership
by Forum, the International Association for Volunteer Eort (IAVE), UNV, the Coordinating Committee for International
Voluntary Service (CCIVS) and many other VIOs including the World Young Women’s Christian Association (World
YWCA), the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGS), and United Way Worldwide (UWW).
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COVID-19 and Climate Change
Inevitably, there is the necessary reection on the impact of Covid-19. All of the above
approaches and reviews were developed in a pre-Covid 19 era. The impact of the
pandemic has highlighted the potential of on-line volunteering and the signicance of
community volunteering. Both of these developments are clearly relevant to climate
change and climate justice. On-line volunteering has the potential to widen the
participation of volunteering outside of their immediate environment without generating
the carbon emissions associated with domestic and international travel. Community
volunteering emphasises building capacity within the locality – the ‘rst responders’ to
climate change issues.
The 2020 global pandemic is a moment to pause and reect on traditional practices and
the impacts of international volunteering models that have relied on emission-heavy
practices involving long-haul ights around the world. Taking COVID 19 and Climate
Change together implies a major rethinking of the traditional model of volunteering for
development and the role of IVCOs in this new situation. In this moment of reection
there is an opportunity to consider the role that climate change social movements play in
fostering new ways of building understanding on climate change and the diverse actors
that can contribute in dierent yet complementary ways to climate action.
COVID 19 means IVCO’s everywhere are looking to scale up what volunteers can
strategically contribute to volunteering for development without travel. E-volunteering
to support Southern partners is being scaled up and providing important continuity to
work. Strategically this can be complemented and accelerated by activities to work
on promoting and accelerating climate mitigation action in high greenhouse emitting
countries. This is a key leverage point for IVCOs that draws on the latent power of
hundreds of thousands of returned volunteers who have seen with their own eyes the
impact of climate change in the South.
Alternative models of conceptualizing collective action around climate change shed
light on the prospects for people to people solidarity, justice and exchange that mobilise
international and national volunteering for transformative and persuasive action that
tackles the causes as well as symptoms of climate change. This paper is a ‘wake-up call’
for scaled up action particularly on causes to help achieve the decisive action the IPCC
have agged is needed by 2030 to keep temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees.
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Concluding points for discussion
This concluding section summarises the key points in this paper and identies
recommendations specically related to IVCOs for their consideration in relation
to the sub-themes of the IVCO 2020 conference.
Summary of Key Points
� Climate action is more pressing than ever and IVCOs have a distinctive advantage
in this area because of their work with volunteers and returned volunteers in North
and South. The expansion of climate change-related impacts and challenges around
the world, combined with insucient mitigation and adaptation strategies, requires
innovative models, conceptual frameworks, policies and practices.
� Climate justice is not a programme area and it is not a trade o with other development
activities but the context in which they can be accelerated. For example, sustainable
livelihoods programmes can be implemented in ways that simultaneously tackle
climate change.
� The new UNV accelerator tool kit oers signicant tools in this respect to demonstrate
the distinctive contribution of volunteering to simultaneously tackle inequality and
climate change. The tool kit should be used to document and consolidate how
volunteering is a ‘catalytic policy and programme area that can trigger positive
multiplier eects across SDGs and targets’ from education and health to decent work,
gender, inequality and climate action.
Recommendations
This section addresses recommendations for discussion at IVCO 2020 based on the
dierent conference thematic areas and for future research.
1.1.1 Advocacy and Awareness
� Increased actions that build on eective practices found in the case studies and
surveys. “The basis upon which this action is constructed and prioritised cannot ignore
climate justice.” This should form a renewed focus on the power of global citizenship
as part of volunteer models including prior, during and post volunteer service.
� Revisiting principles of best practice, building on ideas of collective action and
solidarity – “how people construct an understanding of climate change, how they build
an awareness of its impact on planetary life.” This can draw upon cultural traditions
and practice in sustainable lifestyles from the Global South as well as innovations in
the Global North.
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1.1.2 Adaptation and Resilience
� Climate action must begin with promoting the voice of marginalised communities
who are coping with - and adapting to - the impacts of climate change, and the
global connections that perpetuate and exacerbate climate -induced inequalities.
This includes promoting the voice of Pacic Island communities seeking to show the
global community the impact of its inaction through UNFCCC and other international
Fora. Eorts to mitigate climate change require careful attention to the diverse ways it
impacts dierent people within and between communities.
� A commitment to intersectional approaches to climate action (including programming
that supports the courageous action and resilience of diverse marginalized groups:
like women, children, people with disabilities, refugees/displaced persons, minority
ethnic groups, and marginalized communities who face the biggest impacts of climate
change.
1.1.3 Capacity Building
� Capacity Building of partners and communities in the Global South, while having clear
importance, needs to start from a vision of climate justice and needs to go beyond
adaptive approaches.
� A recognition that capacity building needs to happen universally, so communities
and individuals globally understand their contributions and impacts on both climate
problems and solutions. This requires active work on SDG target 4.7 to ensure ‘all
learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development,
including among others through education for sustainable development and
sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace
and non-violence, global citizenship, and appreciation of cultural diversity and of
culture’s contribution to sustainable development’.
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1.1.4 Policies and Systems
� Volunteer Networks like Forum, IAVE, CCIVS and others have a key leadership role in
encouraging and supporting members in their programmatic and mobilisation activities
and inuencing key decision makers by ‘speaking truth to power.’
� Supporting and making eective use of the VGA as an alliance to actively promote
recognition of the crosscutting role of volunteering in climate change and climate
justice in global, regional and decision-making fora particularly through national SDG
reporting mechanisms (like Voluntary National Reviews to the HLPF)
� Ensuring the global standards for volunteering embrace a global strategy for climate
justice and include commitments and reporting on climate action in the global North21
1.1.5 Future Research
� Considerations related to gender inequality, the gender division of labour and
indigenous people highlight the often-times disproportionate impact of climate
change on women and marginalized groups. Growing literature also indicates the
special voluntary contributions that marginalised groups make to tackling climate
change in direct and indirect ways (Bäckstrand and Lövbrand 2006, Wemlinger and
Berlan 2016, Nyantakyi-Frimpong 2019, Sadasivam 2020). Reviewing the area of the
impact of climate change on marginalised groups predominantly the focus of volunteer
involving organisations appears to be on adaptation, although there are areas of dual
focus and on occasions just on mitigation. However, the issue of gender, volunteering
and climate change appears to be a gap in the literature and important for future
research.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Somed Shahadu (PhD candidate) and Bryn Copp (MA student) at the
university of Ottawa for their contributions to this paper as research assistants
21 Since 2018 Forum has put signicant eort into developing a Volunteering Standard. The Volunteering Standard
does not explicitly mention climate change, though it does recommend “that IVCO projects in the South will deliver
development impact, long-term sustainability and environmental protection” (International Forum for Volunteering
in Development 2019). Building on some of the IVCO commitments to a global strategy for climate justice (examples
of Canada and Australia noted above), IVCOs must broaden their Volunteering Standard to include stronger global
dimensions that also require commitments to climate action in the North as pointed out in the 2010 Forum
discussion paper
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Annex 1: Case Study: The Coordinating Committee
for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS)
CCIVS is a non-governmental, non-prot making international organization (INGO)
working for the development and coordination of voluntary service worldwide. The
scale of activity involves in excess of 30,000 volunteers each year embracing nearly 200
member organisations. CCIVS is in ocial partnership with UNESCO.
CCIVS’ main focus is the quest to achieve change in the minds of men and women by
bringing together people of dierent backgrounds. It supports and develops projects
based on the idea that working together on a concrete task is the most eective way of
creating international friendship and understanding.
IVS for Climate Justice is a worldwide campaign taking place in over 100 countries,
coordinated by CCIVS, bringing together the activities of six International Voluntary
Service networks, CCIVS, Service Civil international (SCI), The International Building
Organisation (IBO), Alliance of European Voluntary Service organisations, Network for
Voluntary Development Asia (NVDA) and the Network of African Voluntary Organisations
(NAVO). It engages volunteers with local communities to work on grassroots projects
that combine manual work and awareness raising actions. These address issues such
as climate change, carbon oset, environmental sustainability, protection of ecosystems,
water and soil management and conservation.
CCIVS sets out a vision of climate justice that relates to the inequality in who causes
climate change and how is aected by it
“As a matter of principle, climate change is a global challenge aecting the entire
world and humanity as a whole. At a closer look, however, people most responsible
for anthropogenic climate change and those most aected by its consequences dier.
Geographical location, economic status as well as means to act may determine the
vulnerability of individuals living today. Apart from that, scientists predict increasingly
severe consequences of climate change for generations yet to come. The concept of
climate justice addresses this unequal allocation of benets and burdens by relating
climate change to matters of social justice and human rights.” (CCIVS 2020)
How CCIVS members address this relates to their historic workcamp programme
model – people working alongside each other will share and build understanding and
solidarity, with the focus on climate change an essential building block for a sustainable
society in the future. 38.6% of CCIVS projects focus on Climate Justice representing the
participation of over 11000 volunteers each year.
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This is underpinned by a programme of learning, with e-learning courses on areas
such as bioconstruction and agriculture available to CCIVS members, supplementing
residentials and workshops.
The Stop Climate Change Project which started in 2016 attempted to address both
organisational practice and programme activity. The aims of this pilot project were
to: reduce carbon emission in IVS workcamps; raise awareness of youth and local
communities about the importance of a sustainable lifestyle; empower IVS associations
in adopting sustainable policies and practices.
Bioconstruction
The project seeks to provide new skills and revive traditional techniques in the eld
of environment and sustainability, while taking into account the ways in which the
network can address poverty reduction and health promotion. It uses the pre-
existing campaign IVS for Climate Justice, established in 2016 as a banner to
highlight the actions of dierent IVS networks on environmental sustainability and
to emphasize the contribution of IVS projects to the achievement of the SDGs.
Objectives
To develop IVS organisations’ youth workers and trainers’ capacity of acting as
multipliers in their regions and in their organisations
To strengthen participation in the global IVS network and connection between
organisations who may also make part of dierent networks who would not
normally work together (CCIVS acting as bridge between these networks) and with
external stakeholders
To revalorise traditional / alternative farming and construction techniques
To raise awareness about the eects of unsustainable food production and
housing and their contribution to Climate Change
Source: CCIVS in Action: https://ccivs.org/ccivs-in-action/ccivs-campaigns/
ivs-for-climate-justice-campaign/projects/dont-just-say-it-do-it-ccivs/
publications/
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The outcome has seen the development of sustainability policies and practices applying
to both workcamp activities and organisational practice. CCIVS members have focused
on areas such as reducing travel; reduced printing and paper usage; ecologically
appropriate promotions; biodegradable/recyclable training materials; and carbon
osetting. These approaches are found in the workcamp model, e.g. living without meat
or electricity.22 In 2018, CCIVS launched a campaign to encourage volunteers to join up
for carbon osetting with a practical guide on what to do.23
For more information: https://ccivs.org/
22 See https://ccivs.org/resources/ccivs-sustainability-policy/
23 See https://ccivs.org/ccivs-in-action/ccivs-campaigns/ivs-for-climate-justice-campaign/projects/ivs-carbon-oset-
for-2017-nvda-nice-and-ccivs/
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Annex 2: Case Study: ActionAid brings together
mitigation and adaptation within a framework
of climate justice
“We focus on climate justice and equity, recognising the responsibility of wealthy
countries to lead rapid climate action, and supporting developing countries to cope with
climate impacts and transition to greener pathways. Working with vulnerable people and
communities around the world, we help them to make their livelihoods, food, homes and
safety more resilient to climate change.”
Source: ActionAid website 6 June 2020
The ActionAid six-point plan:
“Support communities’ ability to adapt to climate change by strengthening national
plans and processes
Protect and nancially support people facing climate induced losses, and people
who are forced to migrate due to climate change
Pressure wealthy countries to support initiatives like the Green Climate Fund
(GCF), to enable climate action and adaptation in poorer countries
Advocate for system change and scale up successful local solutions
Challenge false solutions such as “Climate Smart Agriculture”, and promote real
solutions such as agroecology
Ensure that land-based solutions respect human rights and food security”
The linkage is developed in respect of specic events, such as how drought, cyclones
and ooding have impacted in southern Africa and are linked to the failure of the Madrid
Climate Change conference (COP 25).24 COVID 19 is also linked to climate change in its
impact on climate refugees
24 Chikondi Chabvuta, ActionAid’s regional humanitarian adviser for Southern Africa.
Source: ActionAid website 5 June 2020
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“COVID-19 has exposed how poorly migrant workers are treated, as overnight in
Bangladesh factories were shutdown leaving garment workers with no way to earn
a living. In India, tens of thousands of workers with no job security left cities to walk
hundreds of kilometres back to their villages.
“This pandemic must act as a wake-up call to governments about the need for social
protection measures to ensure that climate migrants get basic services like food,
education, shelter and security. It is also an opportunity to ensure that supporting farmers
and communities to become more resilient to climate change is built into long term
response plans.”25
There is a recognition of climate change as a feminist issue and this is not simply located
as something that has a disproportionate impact on women but connected to the
position women hold in dierent societies. This embraces the issues of power, access,
roles and gender-based violence alongside the dierential poverty impact on women.26
How this translates into the activities of ActionAid on a day to day basis is evidenced in
the response from ActionAid Hellas to the accompanying survey to the report.
“ActionAid Hellas through various educational programs has been sensitizing and
mobilizing students and youth as well as the educational community in general on
climate change. Through our programs we try to develop awareness and critical
understanding of climate change as one of the biggest challenges in the globalized
world, its root causes and its impact. Moreover, with the belief that young people have
tremendous potential to be both present and future drivers of sustainable development,
since 2017 we have been implementing in partnership with schools mobilization and
sensitization activities on SDGs and in particular around Sustainable Cities , Goal 11 and
Climate change, Goal 13.
25 Harjeet Singh ActionAid’s global lead on climate change quoted in “Covid-19 crisis shows South Asia id unprepared
to protect climate migrants’ 6 May 2020. Source: ActionAid website. Also see Climate migrants pushed to the brink
published by ActionAid.
26 ‘Climate Change is a feminist Issue’ ActionAid website 26 December 2019 see https://www.actionaid.org.uk/blog/
news/2019/12/26/climate-change-is-a-feminist-issue
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In particular ActionAid Hellas together with 18 European partners have been
implementing the project Walk the Global Walk which aims to serve as an initial
introduction to students on global awareness and active citizenship based on SDG and
take action locally to impact communities both locally and around the globe. In 2019 we
engaged more than 500 schools and 20.000 students where they united their voices and
recommendations for a more sustainable world and raised the issue of Climate change.”
This approach opens up the possibility for VIOs to consider a holistic approach to
volunteer programming in respect of climate change, rather than compartmentalising
interventions as essentially adaptation interventions in partner countries.
For further information
https://www.actionaid.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/emergencies-disasters-humanitarian-
response/climate-change
Susan Fari, staff and caretaker of tree-kangaroos of Port Moresby Nature Park, Papua New Guinea with tree-kangaroo “Miss Brown”. Three Australian volunteers were on
assignment at the park during 2016. Photographer: Harjono Djoyobisono
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Annex 3: Case Study: IFRC: From disaster risk
reduction and response to climate change mitigation
and adaptation
The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has
a long history of promoting, organising and coordinating volunteer engagement related
to disaster risk response and reduction (International Federation of Red Cross and
Red Crescent Societies 2009). IFRC expressed particular concern about vulnerabilities
because of global inequalities given a recognition that an estimated “97 per cent of all
people killed by natural disasters each year occur in developing countries”(International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 2012).
Highlighting an increasing risk of disasters from Climate Change, it has also put climate
change mitigation and adaptation27 on the agenda since its 2007 international Congress
(International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement 2015). IFRC
reported that in 2018, its network invested 207 million Swiss francs on DRR and climate
adaptation projects, which reached 52 million people in 160 countries – and 72% of
those were regarded as ‘climate-smart’- (International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies 2020).
IFRC’s Climate-smart disaster risk reduction program has four-part priority plan to 1)
promote and enhance approaches and tools 2) leverage new technologies 3) catalyse
and capitalize on IFRC’s network and volunteer base to scale up and 4) strengthen
partnerships and advocacy. (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies 2020).
In 2018 as part of its 2030 strategy IFRC highlighted Climate Change as at the top of
ve global challenges. This is reected in the box below from its Strategy 2030 Platform
for Change-Global reach Local action (International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies 2018).
27 Mitigation – involves reducing the ow of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, either by reducing
sources of these gases (for example, the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat or transport) or enhancing the
“sinks” that accumulate and store these gases (such as the oceans, forests and soil). Adaptation – adapting to life
in a changing climate – involves adjusting to actual or expected future climate. (https://climate.nasa.gov/solutions/
adaptation-mitigation/)
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Global challenge 1: Climate and environmental crises
The climate crisis and environmental degradation are signicant risks to humanity.
Changes to our climate and environment are already contributing to an increase in
the frequency, intensity and unpredictability of severe weather events, multiplying
health eects, and the decline of biodiversity.
Without action on both climate and environmental degradation, their impacts will
place increasing pressure on scarce natural resources, including food, water and
clean air. These intersecting issues are increasing exposure and vulnerability;
raising climate-related risks in cities and in regions already suering from violent
conict, with serious consequences for the livelihoods, mental health and
psychosocial well-being of the people who are aected.
— IFRC, 2018
IFRC has highlighted the interconnected nature of current global problems recognising
“the impacts of the climate crisis as a growing reality for millions of people as well
as new and unexpected health threats that are contributing to driving migration and
displacement at a time when compassion for people on the move is at an all-time
low”. They have also recognised the complex political dynamics and power struggles
with “dramatic shifts in systemic power, low levels of trust in institutions, the growth of
movements driving their own social change, and a demand from previously marginalised
people to be seen, heard and included”. (International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies 2018)
IFRC strategic goals are rooted in its Fundamental Principles and it has committed
to major global humanitarian and development frameworks including the Sustainable
Development Goals, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the Paris
Agreement for Climate Change, alongside other major compacts and alliances where
they make clear and direct contributions (International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies 2018).
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Ambitions to address the Climate Crisis
Through our network of 192 National Societies, 165,000 local branches and 14
million volunteers, we will make our work climate-smart 2 and increase our climate
change adaptation and disaster risk reduction eorts, working with communities
on the frontlines of climate change. We will consider climate risks in all we do and
anticipate extreme weather events ahead of their impact. And we will reduce our
own environmental footprint, greening our operations and pursuing nature- and
ecosystem-based solutions. We also call on the world’s citizens, governments and
companies to do their part to reduce emissions but also to resolutely address the
rising risks already facing the most vulnerable.
— IFRC, 2020
In 2020 IFRC made clear its ambitions for action on Climate change committing to
reduce their own environmental footprint, green their own operations and pursue
nature- and ecosystem-based solutions as can be seen in the box below. (International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 2020). As part of improving their
own operation IFRC also has developed and implemented a climate change e learning
platform for sta and volunteers. The program nishes with a module on ‘how sta
and volunteers can contribute to addressing both the root causes of climate change
(mitigation) and the consequences of climate change (adaptation)” (International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 2016).
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Annex 4: Case Study: France Volontaires – developing
awareness, building resilience and policy coherence
France Volontaires (FV) is a volunteer platform based in France that supports volunteering
activity across the world. Their response to the survey indicates how they are developing
synergies in their programming models, emphasising building community awareness and
resilience in respect of the challenges posed by climate change, locating the role of FV in
a wider call for international mobilization.
“Facing climate change, which aects human activities and lives, biodiversity and natural
resources, the adaptation of our territory and the planet has become a major issue that
calls for national and international mobilization.
FV facilitates the combination of climate policies with youth policies in order to amplify
the impact of the actions undertaken. The local, national and international volunteers
mobilized, alongside FV and its partners, are facilitators of dialogue. They contribute
to amplifying and disseminating innovations and local solutions in various elds for the
resilience of vulnerable communities and ecosystems.
Since 2016, FV has been designing and implementing a policy on corporate social
responsibility, including a strong environmental dimension. FV has a programme
mainstreaming action on climate change. Within this programme, FV designs multi-
stakeholder projects all around the world and increases volunteering opportunities at
national and international level.
The TERO project aims to strengthen the resilience of communities to climate change
through the involvement of young local volunteers and the accompaniment of local
organizations, committed to the preservation of oases, towards a better mobilization of
young people in their structures in Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. The capacities of
partner organizations in North Africa has been strengthened regarding the involvement
of volunteers in their activities and governance. Synergies have been created with youth
and volunteer organizations in order to identify volunteers, who were trained on disaster
risk reduction and who have then designed risk reduction plans within a campus hold in
Tunisia and raised awareness of communities.
FV is also running the Forests project, which focuses on having international and
national volunteers supporting communities depending on forests. It is about to deploy
27 European volunteers to develop citizen engagement in reducing the vulnerability of
communities living in forest areas and to strengthen their resilience.
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� First, in order to better understand the challenges that forest-dependent people
are and will be facing, some of the volunteers deployed will map existing initiatives
and their needs and to create a networking space between stakeholders in each
country. This work will highlight the current and future sources of vulnerability of
these communities.
� Then, these same volunteers will set up spaces (seminars) for local stakeholders to
express themselves on the threats they face and plan together intervention strategies
based on ecosystem dynamics and vulnerability reduction. Disseminating information,
creating social links and helping local populations to set up projects complementary
to awareness raising actions are the key actions that will be undertaken to reduce
vulnerability and strengthen the resilience capacities of these populations.
� Some volunteers will focus on activities aimed at attracting the attention of young
people, involving them more actively in projects defending the rights of communities
living in forest areas. Thanks to modern campaigns and tools developed by the
volunteers, partners will be able to meet and inform young people about these
issues with adequate and eective communication.
In our daily work, and through our oce management and CSR policy, we are regularly
reassessing our practices to make them more respectful of the environment as possible
(recycling, choice of sustainable oce supplies, etc). FV chooses its suppliers according
to very strict criteria, based on environmental and social impact and put in place a sorting
system and limits the consumption of consumables. FV has also started to measure its
carbon impact.
Cliff Allum, Peter Devereux, Benjamin Lough & Rebecca Tiessen
Forum Research, Practice, Policy & Learning Group
Volunteering FOR
Climate action
Perspectives from a survey
of volunteer involving
organiSations
Volunteering for climate action: Perspectives from a survey of volunteer involving organizations
IVCO PACIFIC 2020
On behalf of the authors, AVI and Forum are very proud to launch this important paper
at IVCO 2020.
We thank all those who contributed to the research the survey. They are listed in Annex 1.
Dr. Cli Allum
Third Sector Research Centre, Department of Social Policy, University of Birmingham, UK
Dr. Peter Devereux
Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute, Perth, Australia
Dr. Benjamin Lough
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA
Dr. Rebecca Tiessen
University of Ottawa, Canada
International Forum for Volunteering in Development
October 2020
Volunteering for climate action: Perspectives from a survey of volunteer involving organizations
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Table of Contents
1 Introduction
2 Methods
2 Data Collection
3 Survey instrument
3 Survey Responses
3 Limitations
4 Survey Findings
4 Responding to Climate Change
5 Mainstreaming Climate Action
7 Going deeper on future changes to combat climate change
10 Changes in Organisational Practice
11 Views of the sector as a whole
15 Conclusions
17 Annex 1 Case Study: Norec: Programming to address improved
environmental practice while raising public awareness
19 Annex 2 Case Study: ActionAid brings together mitigation
and adaptation within a framework of climate justice
21 Annex 3 Case Study: France Volontaires – developing awareness,
building resilience and policy coherence
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Introduction
Climate change is arguably the most pressing threat to our planet and people.
Recognizing the severity of this threat, volunteer involving organizations (VIOs) in
partnership with other stakeholders are urged to “take urgent action to combat climate
change and its impacts”.1
To better understand the current action, gaps, and opportunities for VIOs to tackle
climate change, this study reports on the results of a survey of VIOs’ activities and good
practice models. A review of these survey results will enable VIOs to engage with current
thinking about climate action in the volunteer sector, and to guide action to combat
climate change.
In this way, the survey ndings are a starting point to enable VIOs to look beyond their
important work with those communities most vulnerable to the impact of climate change.
This represents an opportunity for VIOs to think strategically about additional actions they
can take to combat the causes and the consequences of climate change.
This survey would not have been possible without the support of three volunteer
networks: the International Forum for Volunteering in Development (Forum); the
International Association for Volunteering Eort (IAVE); and the Volunteer Groups Alliance
(VGA). We thank them for their support and the members who participated, especially
those who provided case studies.
It is hoped these ndings will enable all global volunteer networks and alliances to take
more informed action and leadership that promotes eective volunteering responses
to climate change and the promotion of climate justice.
1 UN Sustainable Development Goals #13: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/climate-change/
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Methods
Data Collection
In mid-2020, researchers surveyed members of three global volunteer involving networks
to understand their views and practices in respect to climate change: the International
Forum for Volunteering in Development (Forum), the Volunteer Groups Alliance (VGA)
and the International Association for Volunteer Eort (IAVE).
The distribution of the link to the electronic survey rested with the separate network
organisations, who surveyed their own members. Some participating VIOs were
members of more than one of the networks, and where possible cross-posting was
avoided. Consequently, it is not possible to report on the precise number of organisations
who were invited to participate. However, the sampling frame was estimated at just over
100 VIOs. In total, 27 VIOs responded to the survey. Of these, 5 responses contained too
much missing data to be validly used for analysis. As a result, this analysis is based on
the responses from 22 active VIOs – an estimated response rate of 20%.
AVI colleagues gather before joining one of Australia’s nation-wide Global Climate Strikes on 20 September 2020, marching alongside approximately 100,000 protesters in
Melbourne’s CBD. Picture supplied by AVI
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Survey Instrument
The survey sought respondents’ views on past, current and future practices in respect
of organisational and programmatic approaches to the challenges of climate change.
Questions asked by the survey covered areas such as: how VIOs engage with the causes
and/or eects of climate change; their main climate action activities; organisational
policies to mainstream action on climate change; their measurement and evaluation of
climate change activities; examples of good practice; and current and future changes in
organisational foci on climate change. To obtain a broad understanding of organisational
responses, these questions included a combination of closed and open-ended questions.
This mixed format oered VIOs the opportunity to share programme activities, case
studies of their work, and organisational policies and practices.
Survey Responses
The 22 organisations responding to the survey represented 19 countries. Of the
organisations responding, 16 described themselves as not-for-prot organisations and 4
as governmental.2 In terms of membership aliation, 12 organisations identied as being
members of FORUM, 12 as members of IAVE, and 5 as members of the VGA, which
indicates signicant cross-membership between those networks.3 Two respondents
stated they were not aliated with any of these networks.4 Some 15 organisations
described themselves as facilitating volunteer co-operation while 7 described themselves
as using volunteering.
Limitations
When reporting ndings about the role of VIOs in climate action, it is important to note
the diversity of respondents in terms of organisation type, size, role, and geography. The
inclusion of a diverse set of organisations allows for a wider understanding of the scope
of activities; however, it limits the overall generalisability of ndings to specic types
of organisations.
2 One organisation identied as an educational institution and another as a volunteer involving organisation (VIO)
3 Almost certainly understated but manual corrections to the entries have been avoided.
4 It is understood these organisations were contacted through IAVE.
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Survey Findings
Responding to Climate Change
“How does your organisation engage with the causes and/or eects of climate change
in its main activities and ways of working?”
This question was put to respondents at an early stage of the survey as an open question.
The answers to this and the mainstreaming question in the next section overlapped in the
way dierent organisations approached the questions.
The responses show an emphasis on programmes and activities focused on adaptation,
with over half of the respondents mentioning adaptive approaches. These responses
varied from simple statements, such as “building capacity in organisations that respond
to climate change”5 to more comprehensive accounts of building resilience such as the
example highlighted in the box below:
The National Volunteer Council (CNV) is a non-prot network of civil society
organisations that carry out and promote volunteering in Mozambique.
“CNV addresses climate change issues on its agenda, as some of its member
organisations work on this component. On the other hand, the resurgence of
natural disasters in recent years, with particular emphasis on tropical cyclones
Idai and Kenneth that have recently ravaged Mozambique, in addition to cyclical
droughts among other calamities, has highlighted how harmful the impact of
climate change is in all development segments.
Therefore, CNV has increasingly assumed resilience to climate change as a
critical and crosscutting factor to all areas of intervention. In the context of this
vision, through partners such as Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) and Red
Cross Mozambique, CNV has involved its member organisations in training on
the inclusion of the environment and climate change component in their priorities,
highlighting 2 approaches: Natural disaster risk management and Preparedness
for resilience (P4R).
It is CNV’s objective to maintain a team of highly capable volunteers to lead
climate resilience actions in their communities.
5 AVI, Australia
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Three organisations mentioned awareness raising without explicitly mentioning other
programme activities such as mitigation activities. One organisation described their
activities as “community action against climate change.” Up to four organisations
responded with what could be understood as both adaptive and mitigating approaches
to climate change. Some organisations also mentioned internal organisational practices
to promote environmental sustainability. A good example was provided by YSS Malaysia:
“…as a beginning our organisation started applying the zero waste programme
concept by minimising the usage of plastics and papers. We started to apply the
upcycling concept by reusing our old programme banners to [produce] gift bags,
we encouraged participants to bring their own water bottles and bring their own
notebooks.”6
Mainstreaming Climate Action
10 of the 22 organisations replied that they had a policy to mainstream climate change
at home and abroad. Some interpreted this at the level of intention (i.e. that they
did not have a current policy but would intend to have one). Others stated that they
mainstreamed programme approaches, though they did not have a mainstreaming policy
as such. For example: “Climate considerations are a cross-cutting issue in most projects
funded by Norec.”7
Governmental organisation responses tended to frame their approaches within the policy
adopted by their respective governments. As the example from the Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA) illustrates:
6 Yayasan Sukarelawan Siswa (YSS) / Student Volunteers Foundation, Malaysia
7 NOREC, Norway
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“We haven’t made our volunteer programs’ own policy to mainstream action on
climate change. Instead, we show briey JICA’s policy to mainstream action on
climate change as below. JICA further assists developing countries in climate
actions in accordance with the Priority Issues as described below to ensure
human security and realize our vision of “Leading the world with trust” considering
the new international framework and global goals to address climate change as
well as Japan’s related initiatives and commitments. (1) Promoting low-carbon,
climate-resilient urban development and infrastructure investment (2) Enhancing
comprehensive climate risk management (3) Supporting climate policy and
institutional development (4) Enhancing conservation and management of forests
and other ecosystems”8
In some cases, climate change was understood as environmental programming. One
example below is a response to the mainstreaming question:
“Our strategic plan has the environment as a focus for sustainable development.
We popularize our methodologies and actions (conservation of farmers’ seeds,
ecological toilets, waste management, land conservation, agroforestry, medicinal
plants ....) in rural communities and international meetings: Initiative l’Initiative
Climat Afrique francophone (ICAF), The Global Network of Civil Society
Organisations for Disaster Reduction (GNDR).”9
Some organisations connected climate change and sustainable waste disposal indicating
an overlap of understanding engagement with climate change as synonymous with
programmatic approaches to the environment. A programme example of tackling
e-waste was provided by Norec. There is an association between addressing the causes
of climate change and eliminating waste because the greenhouse gases from food
waste are a recognised greenhouse gas contributor (Intergovernmental Panel on Cimate
Change 2019). However, climate change and environmental issues are not the same,
a confusion evident in some of the survey responses.
Respondents also provided examples where organisational responses explore changes
in internal organisational practices as well as their external programmes.
8 JICA, Japan.
9 Association JSA Togo
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The Centre for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI) is a Canadian based
IVCO, who is in the process of strengthening their focus on climate action. There
is an explicit focus on gender and climate change, connection with advocacy
networks in Canada and organisational commitment to carbon neutrality. These
were demonstrated by the active involvement of sta and returned volunteers in
the 2019 Student strike for Climate.
“CECI has a thematic orientation on climate action and women empowerment
for 5 years now and planning to increase programming in that eld. CECI is
implementing many projects in countries on climate adaptation and women’s role.
CECI’s strategic plan 2020-2025 includes a strategic orientation on climate action
and gender lens. CECI adopted its rst Sustainable development Policy in 2015
and is in the process of updating it to be more climate action and gender oriented.
A framework for programming on Climate resilience and women’s inclusion is
being nalised. The new CECI VCP 2020-2027 includes climate resilience in its
programming with volunteers
and country partners.
CECI is a member of advocacy networks on climate action in Canada. Climate
for development - C4D and CanRac. We have 4 senior sta specialised on
environment and climate change at head oce and 4 overseas.
CECI’s Target to be carbon neutral by 2025.”10
Overall, the picture emerges of a small number of IVCOs, who dene themselves in the
not-for-prot sector, as engaging with an holistic approach to climate change, that links
organisational practice in terms of their internal ways of working, mainstreams climate
change across their programmes and engages in levels of advocacy and campaigning
on the causes of climate change. Governmental agencies have the advantages but also
potential limitations of working within Governmental (or departmental) policies whose
survey responses tend to emphasise climate change as a programmatic issue.
10 CECI Canada. FV (France) and ACTIONAid (Greece) also answered in both organisational and programmatic ways. A
couple of organisations only discussed organisational practices.
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Going deeper on future changes to combat
climate change
The survey followed up by asking about eleven specic areas related to organisational
practice and climate change. The opportunity to write in additional areas of intervention
was also available. The results are shown in Figure 1 below.
In all but one of the eleven areas, most of the respondents stated their organisation was
already engaging with issues around climate change. The one exception concerned the
absence of osetting the environmental impact of volunteer travel.11
The three highest scoring areas were (1) raising awareness of climate change; (2) building
the capacity of partner organisations and/or communities to tackle the eects of climate
change; and (3) developing community resilience. Although it is plausible that raising
awareness could be a mitigation strategy (particularly if done in countries producing high
greenhouse gas volumes), as the examples from the open-ended questions suggest,
raising awareness crosses over into adaptation strategies as well.
11 While it might be thought this reected the dierence between domestic and international volunteering models, it
would appear this is not necessarily material. A minority of the international volunteer organisations gave positive
responses to this question.
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The three lowest-scoring areas where respondents had indicated a positive response
overall were (9) tackling the global causes of climate change; (10) climate action through
a gender lens; and (11) the impact of climate change on the poor or other vulnerable
communities. Comparatively low prioritization of the rst two areas seems consistent
with the responses to earlier questions where the relationship with perspectives on
gender and tackling the causes of climate change feature in only a minority of responses.
However, the issue of impact on the poor and vulnerable as a low scorer seems less
predictable.12
Figure 1: Does your organisation focus its activities on any of the following areas at home
or abroad relate to climate change?
In summary, these ndings give a picture of a predominant focus on adaptive programme
approaches to climate change. The focus on community resilience, awareness of the
consequences of climate change and preparing communities to oset the potential
impact of climatic disasters and address their aftermath come across most strongly. At
the same time, despite the lower score on tacking the causes of climate change, fteen
respondents said they engaged in advocacy or lobbying on climate change.
Turning attention to whether organisations expect changes to happen in how they
address climate change, all respondents were asked against the same areas set out in
Figure 1 whether they expected their organisation to change its focus on climate change
12 This may reect the generality of the area compared with others in the survey, but the level of “no” responses is
higher than any other area which had an overall positive response. The level of “don’t knows” is highest on whether
the organisation was” tackling the global causes of climate change”.
Number of Organisations Responding ‘Yes’
Raising awareness of climate change
Building capacity of partner organisations and/or
communities to tackle the eects of climate change
Developing community resilience
Advocacy and lobbying on climate change
Disaster mitigation or preparedness
Environmental responses to climate change
Disaster response and recovery
The impact of climate change on poor
and other vulnerable populations
Tackling the global causes of climate change
Climate Action through a gender lens
Volunteer travel issues e.g. engaging in
practice that enables carbon osets
0 2 46 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
10
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activities or related areas. An average score was calculated from the individual responses
from each organisation. This average shows that overall, the respondents expect an
increased focus in all areas of climate action.
As Figure 2 shows, there is some similarity in the level of response, ranging from an
average score of 6.8 for three areas (tackling the global causes of climate change;
climate action through a gender lens; and volunteer travel issues) to 8.4 for developing
community resilience and 8.3 for building the capacity of partner organisations and/or
communities.
In eect, the outcomes with the highest likelihood of change reected areas that were
also the highest rated by respondents as their current organisational focus; while those
areas where there were the least likelihood of change mirrored the areas of least focus
in organisations currently. In other words, the expectation is that organisations would
do more across all areas of climate change; however, the emphasis would be on
expanding their current focus.13
Figure 2: Do you expect your organisation to change its focus on climate change
activities?
13 Raising awareness, which scored at the top of the current focus, ranked third in the expected future focus with an
average score of 7.9. See Figure 2.
1 = less focus 10 = more focus
Volunteer travel issues e.g. purchasing carbon osets
Building capacity of partner organisations and/or communities
to tackle the eects of climate change
The impact of climate change on poor
or other vulnerable populations
Climate action through a gender lens
Tackling the environmental impact of climate change
Tackling the global causes of climate change
Disaster response and recovery
Disaster mitigation or preparedness
Advocacy and lobbying on climate change
Raising awareness of climate change
Developing community resilience
12345 6 7 8 9 10
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Changes in Organisational Practice
Respondents were also asked to consider whether organisational practices had changed.
Response options included a binary yes/no answer against seven dierent dimensions.
The ndings are displayed in Figure 3 as a summary of all responses against each
dimension.
Two areas of past practice had been identied as ones where change had already
taken place. These were policies on purchasing, which included recycling practice, and
reduced movement of sta to include practices such as working from home and virtual
meetings. The latter, has become more signicant in the COVID-19 era in any case.
Figure 3: Has your organisation’s work changed in any of the areas below as a result of
concerns on climate change
Among the dimensions where respondents identied no change, the most frequently
cited areas were (1) no changes to organisational structure, including sta location, and
(2) the institution of carbon osetting policies. But is interesting to note that reduced
movement of volunteers and compliance with climate change policies of others were also
not seen as a focus of past organisational change. The respondents were also asked
about future changes in organisational practice against the same seven dimensions on
a scale of 1 to 10. The average scores of their expected future practices are shown in
Figure 4.
In every case, respondents perceived that change was more, rather than less, likely.
However, the range of scores from 5.68 to 7.35 is lower than the range for their answers
about organisational changes to their focus on climate change. This suggests that there
might be a greater expectation that programme activities will more inuenced than
organisational systems and practices.
Require compliance with climate change policy from funders or partners
Changed organisational structure, e.g. where people are employed geographically
Instituted carbon osetting policies
Instituted policies on purchasing, e.g. non-recyclable plastic, non-fossil fuel energy
Changes to programme design to reduce carbon emissions
Reduced movement of volunteers, e.g. using more local or on-line volunteers
Reduced movement of sta, e.g. home working, virtual meetings and programme reviews
0 2 46 8 10 12 14 16
don’t know no yes
12
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Figure 4: How much do you anticipate your organisation will change within the next ve
years as a result of concerns on climate change?
Yet there are also similarities when comparing current organisational practices with future
expectations. The areas where change had been previously identied were also the areas
where further change was expected (i.e. purchasing policies and reduced movement of
sta). While the areas that had been identied as having changed the least were also the
areas expected to change least in the future (i.e. organisational structure and location of
sta and osetting carbon emissions).
The pattern of earlier ndings is repeated: areas that respondents thought had
changed most in the past were also expected to be areas more likely to change in
the future; and the dimensions that had changed least in the past were also less
likely to change in the future.
Views of the Sector as a Whole
Respondents were also asked their views on what volunteers could do in respect of
climate change, and also what VIOs might do. In relation to what volunteers could
do, this ranged from specic inputs, such as tree planting, to dierent programmatic
models, including awareness raising, to areas of advocacy. Broader vision for the role of
volunteers is described below:
1 = unlikely 10 = likely
Require compliance with climate change policy from funders or partners
Chnaged organisational structure, e.g. where people are employed
geographically
Instituted carbon osetting policies
Instituted policies on purchasing, e.g. non-recyclable plastic, non-fossil
fuel energy
Changes to programme design to reduce carbon emissions
Reduced movement of volunteers, e.g. using more local or on-line volunteers
Reduced movement of sta, e.g. home working, virtual meetings and programme reviews
12345 6 7 8 9 10
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There could be a bigger number of volunteers all over the world involved in
identifying good practices, having these practices circulating all around the world,
creating synergies between stakeholders and advocating
If more (of our) supported projects focused directly on climate change more
volunteers would also be involved in climate action.
In contrast, some organisations understood this response as primarily an issue of
strengthening their program activities in the locations where volunteers are currently
operating, e.g. “developing community resilience, raising awareness of climate change,
disaster mitigation and preparedness,” and “more support for land travel, support climate
change awareness in projects/volunteering/programme design, more online and national
volunteering.”
Others took a wider view of organisational practice even if still programme focused
where volunteers were assigned. One respondent mentioned mainstreaming in their reply
stating: “Mainstream climate change assessment of all partner organisations and support
mitigation, adaptation and resilience measures arising.”
Some respondents – national as well as international, small as well as large, referred
to issues such as documenting data about climate change, and adopting a lobbying,
inuencing and advocacy-based approach. One view in this area was described through
an advocacy lens as:
Advocacy in their Head oce country and in programming countries by engaging
with environment and climate change national organizations and networks.
Supporting advocacy on CC by partners. Engage in inuencing climate nancing.
Respondents were also asked for their views as to whether VIOs were doing too little, too
much or about right on climate change action. They were asked to give a numerical value
on a sliding scale from 0-100, where 0 was too little and 100 was too much. The outcome
shows the variations in the views of respondents, as shown in Figure 5.14
The average score was 31.5 (located in the bottom third of the scale). This average
indicates that respondents thought VIOs were doing too little on climate change on
average. 6 respondents gave scores in the lower decile (less than 10), which suggests
14 Note the survey ran from 0-100, but presentation in Figure 5 have been reduced by a factor of 10.
14
Volunteering for climate action: Perspectives from a survey of volunteer involving organizations
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serious concern about VIOs and climate change.15 Only 3 of the responding organisations
(14%) thought VIOs were doing too much.16 At the same time 7 of the respondents
gave mid-range scores between 40 and 52, which indicates that they believe VIOs are
responding ‘about right’ in their actions to combat climate change.
Figure 5: Do you think volunteer involving organisations are doing too much, too little or
about right on climate change action?
15 4 of the 6 respondents represented International Volunteer Cooperation Organisations
16 The additional comments from one of the two high scorers suggest some inconsistency between the comments and
the score, since they answered the question based on their response being “too little.”
Respondent Score
0 = too little; 10 = too much
Respondent Organisation
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Q U A GE J T I J F C M H L P S O N D B R
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Looking at the geopolitical location of respondents, there are some interesting dierences
in the responses. The average score for organisations in the Global North – essentially
international IVCOs – was 17, whereas the average score for organisations in the Global
South was 40, more than twice the score. The scores of the IVCOs based in the Global
North were between 0-40, whereas those in the Global South ranged from 0-100. This
leaves some intriguing questions: why were both of the organisations who thought VIOs
were doing too much on climate change based in the Global South? And why were all
seven of the organisations that scored more than 40 based in the Global South?
Respondents who rated “too little” were invited to add comments about the barriers
faced by VIOs. This brought up several repeated features such as low resources, lack
of expertise, and the traditional ways of working of VIOs. However, the comments from
respondents were quite varied and reected concerns about what might be possible for
VIOs to do. A selection of open-ended comments are shown below. These highlight some
important issues including a concern about immediate needs over what is seen as a
long-term problem and the lack of VIO funding opportunities in the climate action area.
September 2019 March for the Planet! On September 27, more than 7 million people around the world marched in the global climate strike. In Montreal, over 500,000 people
took to the streets to march with young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and demand that significant, effective measures be taken in response to the climate crisis, at both
individual and societal levels, and with support from the various levels of government. CECI’s staff, members, volunteers and pledging members joined this historic event, both
in Canada and in Africa
16
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“The focus has been so much immediate and seen needs like, education,
diseases, nutrition, conicts/peace eorts and other related like capacity building,
policy formulations. Climate Change is seemingly holding the thought of a ‘huge’
task to be addressed at a later date - what is important now is food on the table
and good health.”
“Basic policies and processes to start us o would be helpful in getting more
to do more.”
“There are still barriers to eectively participating in VIOs in the appropriate
forums for the formulation of climate policy and guiding instruments. This is due,
on the one hand, to a lack of political will, on the other hand, because there is no
genuine recognition of the impact of volunteering in the climate area, both by the
Government and by organisations working specically in the climate area; The
criteria for access to resources/funding are somewhat prohibitive for VIOs.”
“It is only a matter of vision. And in some ways accessing climate action funding
at a signicant level.“
17
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Conclusions
Responses to this survey represented a wide range of organisations across diverse
global geographies. Given the limited scale of the survey, it is not possible to claim high
representation or generalization of the thousands of VIO operating in dierent countries
and contexts; however, these responses provide an indication of the direction of VIO
perspectives on climate change.
The overall picture that emerges is one where VIOs are focused on adaptation, i.e.
reactively responding to the impact of climate change, rather than on proactively
challenging or tackling its causes. The collective emphasis is also on incremental
programmatic changes rather than on fundamental and broad sweeping structural
organisational or systemic changes. As a result, we expect future actions taken by VIOs
will most likely continue to strengthen what they currently do to address climate change,
rather than pursuing innovative and forward-looking ways of meeting gaps in their current
services and activities.
While recognising that nearly half of the respondents to this survey indicate a serious
concern that VIOs are doing too little to address climate change, there is also a
signicant, if smaller, number who consider that VIOs are getting it about right on climate
change, many of whom were based in the Global South. This spectrum of views needs
to be better understood. In some cases, it reects a sense of the limitations felt by VIOs
to engage in wicked and complex issues like climate change. However, there does seem
to be a connection between those organisations who see climate justice as a matter of
serious development concern alongside a willingness to do things dierently. This implies
organisations that think VIOs are getting it ‘about right’ are likely to focus on doing more
of the same in the future-most likely more or similar climate action not more climate
justice.
The conditions for sharing and learning between organisations are evident. It is argued
in the accompanying paper to this survey that more of the same is insucient to
address the causes of climate change and the related development challenge of climate
justice.17 There is scope to address learning between organisations that are changing
their programmatic and organisational approaches and practice; and there is also scope
for that learning to be shared more widely across VIOs as a whole. The role of volunteer
networks is signicant in that regard and have an important role to play in these areas.
17 See Allum, Devereux, Lough and Tiessen “Volunteering for Climate Action” 2020
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In consequence, some simple recommendations can be put forward:
� That participating networks share the outcome of the survey with their members,
supported by webinars where appropriate to open up wider discussions of VIOs and
climate justice
� That consideration is given to establishing mechanisms for shared learning amongst
VIOs about programmatic and organisational change related to climate change, climate
action and climate justice
vanuatu climate strike photo 2019 avi
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Annex 1: List of Participating Organisations
ActionAid Hellas, Greece
Agence Nigérienne de Volontariat pour le Développement (ANVD), Niger
Agency for Volunteer Service, Hong Kong
Association, JSO, Togo
AVI, Australia
CECI, Canada
Conselho Nacional do Voluntariado – CNV, Mozambique
Cuso International, Canada
France Volontaires, France
Halley Movement Coalition, Mauritius
Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, JICA
Norwegian Agency for Exchange Cooperation, Norway
Philippine Coalition on Volunteering, Philippines
Philippine NVSCA, Philippines
Rwanda Volunteer Network, Rwanda
Singapore International Foundation, Singapore
University of Central Punjab, Pakistan
VIONet Sierra Leone
VIO Society, Kenya
Volunteering Taiwan
Yayasan Sukarelawan Siswa (YSS) / Student Volunteers Foundation, Malaysia
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Annex 1 Case Study: Norec: Programming to address
improved environmental practice while raising public
awareness
Norec’s approach is to facilitate a partnership-based model within which volunteer
participants operate. Partnerships between organisations in the Global South have
become increasing important in the balance of Norec’s programme. One example
of using volunteering to tackle an environmental issue concerns innovative E-Waste
Management in Kenya and Madagascar.
This partnership brings together the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Centre
(WEEE-Centre), a Kenya-based social enterprise that oers the services of awareness
creation (training) and safe disposal of electrical and electronic waste (e-Waste), with
Vohitra Sarl, a company based in Madagascar which oers solutions to the treatment of
waste adapted to the local economy while preserving the environment.
The focus of this partnership was to enhance knowledge base and joint activity on
handling e-waste; scaling up their business activities; develop joint campaigning about
the health and environmental risks of electronic waste; and work together to inuence
governmental regulatory frameworks. In that sense this case study operates at a number
of dierent levels in addressing both the causes and consequences of activity that
impacts on the environment.
“Within the framework of sta exchange, both companies will learn from each other
through discussing ideas and joint research of handling e-waste for a green, safe
and healthy environment. This is particularly relevant for the creation of new ways of
collecting, recycling and safe disposal of e-waste. The companies will cooperate in
creating innovative practices for waste management related to urban mining, which
potentially provides both companies with the opportunity to scale up their businesses.
WEEE-Centre and Vohitra Sarl will also campaign together to inform the public about
the environmental and health risks posed by electronic waste. It is hoped that these
campaigns will stimulate greater awareness among the public for the need to safely
manage electronic waste; at the same time, it will potentially create more demand for the
services of both companies. Finally, WEEE-Centre and Vohitra Sarl will work together on
policy input for the adoption of relevant regulations by the national governments in their
respective countries.”
The volunteer model is of interest in providing continuity. The project involves the
exchange of pairs of participants from each organisation in each ‘round’. On return they
share their experience and progress within their own organisations which informs the
next pair of participants to be exchanged. There are three rounds in total and the project
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continues through COVID-19, with the participants remaining on assignment. In this way
the knowledge and learning is shared both within and across the partner organisations.
The outcomes of this ongoing partnership have been to develop the expertise and
capacity of both organisations but the area of enhanced public awareness is specically
identied:
“The most signicant change for Vohitra in Madagascar is the increasing role of
awareness on the importance of waste treatment, in the organization’s work. Vohitra
is now investing time to create awareness on the social media via its Facebook page
and mass media through radio show to get higher public awareness on e-waste
management…..
“Through increased public awareness campaigns by the participants, WEEE Centre
became host to various media houses willing to air the e-waste management story for
the public. As a result, the organization experienced increased activities and request for
partnerships in e-waste disposals.“
How this works at grass roots level – an example from the partnership below
describes the role and impact of the participants from WEEE-centre in relation to
the work of Vohitra.
The partnership of Vohitra with Fanavotana has Vohitra processing waste from
Fanavotana at no cost while Fanavotana hires women from needy community to
do the collection of waste thus the women earn income from this activity. Through
the partnership with Fanavotana the participants contributed in improving the
social economic well-being of the women from disadvantaged community served
through the partnership. This set of participants took awareness creation a notch
higher through taking it to the radio with the help of the host organization thus
reaching out to masses.
— Source: Norec internal programme report
This case study shows how innovative programming approaches can engage in
environmental issues at the levels of community, organization, and public awareness.
Because the prime actors are the organizational partners, the volunteer participants can
not only operate in person on assignment but also remotely, providing continuity over the
lifetime of the partnership, and within the context of a potentially multi-faceted model.
For more information on Norec’s approach https://www.norec.no/en/home/
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Annex 2 Case Study: ActionAid brings together
mitigation and adaptation within a framework
of climate justice
“We focus on climate justice and equity, recognising the responsibility of wealthy
countries to lead rapid climate action, and supporting developing countries to cope with
climate impacts and transition to greener pathways. Working with vulnerable people and
communities around the world, we help them to make their livelihoods, food, homes and
safety more resilient to climate change.”
Source: ActionAid website 6 June 2020
The ActionAid six-point plan:
“Support communities’ ability to adapt to climate change by strengthening
national plans and processes
Protect and nancially support people facing climate induced losses, and people
who are forced to migrate due to climate change
Pressure wealthy countries to support initiatives like the Green Climate Fund
(GCF), to enable climate action and adaptation in poorer countries
Advocate for system change and scale up successful local solutions
Challenge false solutions such as “Climate Smart Agriculture”, and promote real
solutions such as agroecology
Ensure that land-based solutions respect human rights and food security”18
18 ActionAid website 6 June 2020
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The linkage is developed in respect of specic events, such as how drought, cyclones
and ooding have impacted in southern Africa and are linked to the failure of the Madrid
Climate Change conference (COP 25).19 COVID 19 is also linked to climate change in its
impact on climate refugees
“COVID-19 has exposed how poorly migrant workers are treated, as overnight in
Bangladesh factories were shutdown leaving garment workers with no way to earn
a living. In India, tens of thousands of workers with no job security left cities to walk
hundreds of kilometres back to their villages.
“This pandemic must act as a wake-up call to governments about the need for social
protection measures to ensure that climate migrants get basic services like food,
education, shelter and security. It is also an opportunity to ensure that supporting farmers
and communities to become more resilient to climate change is built into long term
response plans.” 20
There is a recognition of climate change as a feminist issue and this is not simply located
as something that has a disproportionate impact on women but connected to the
position women hold in dierent societies. This embraces the issues of power, access,
roles and gender-based violence alongside the dierential poverty impact on women.21
How this translates into the activities of ActionAid on a day to day basis is evidenced in
the response from ActionAid Hellas to the accompanying survey to the report.
“ActionAid Hellas through various educational programs has been sensitizing and
mobilizing students and youth as well as the educational community in general on
climate change. Through our programs we try to develop awareness and critical
understanding of climate change as one of the biggest challenges in the globalized
world, its root causes and its impact. Moreover, with the belief that young people have
tremendous potential to be both present and future drivers of sustainable development,
since 2017 we have been implementing in partnership with schools mobilization and
sensitization activities on SDGs and in particular around Sustainable Cities , Goal 11 and
Climate change, Goal 13.
In particular ActionAid Hellas together with 18 European partners have been
implementing the project Walk the Global Walk which aims to serve as an initial
introduction to students on global awareness and active citizenship based on SDG and
19 Chikondi Chabvuta, ActionAid’s regional humanitarian adviser for Southern Africa. Source: ActionAid website 5 June
2020
20 Harjeet Singh ActionAid’s global lead on climate change quoted in “Covid-19 crisis shows South Asia id unprepared
to protect climate migrants’ 6 May 2020. Source: ActionAid website. Also see Climate migrants pushed to the brink
published by ActionAid.
21 ‘Climate Change is a feminist Issue’ ActionAid website 26 December 2019 see https://www.actionaid.org.uk/blog/
news/2019/12/26/climate-change-is-a-feminist-issue
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take action locally to impact communities both locally and around the globe. In 2019 we
engaged more than 500 schools and 20.000 students where they united their voices and
recommendations for a more sustainable world and raised the issue of Climate change.”
This approach opens up the possibility for VIOs to consider a holistic approach to
volunteer programming in respect of climate change, rather than compartmentalising
interventions as essentially adaptation interventions in partner countries.
For further information
https://www.actionaid.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/emergencies-disasters-humanitarian-
response/climate-change
Susan Fari, staff and caretaker of tree-kangaroos of Port Moresby Nature Park, Papua New Guinea with tree-kangaroo “Miss Brown”. Three Australian volunteers were on
assignment at the park during 2016. Photographer: Harjono Djoyobisono
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Annex 3 Case Study: France Volontaires – developing
awareness, building resilience and policy coherence
France Volontaires (FV) is a volunteer platform based in France that supports volunteering
activity across the world. Their response to the survey indicates how they are developing
synergies in their programming models, emphasising building community awareness and
resilience in respect of the challenges posed by climate change, locating the role of FV in
a wider call for international mobilization.
“Facing climate change, which aects human activities and lives, biodiversity and natural
resources, the adaptation of our territory and the planet has become a major issue that
calls for national and international mobilization.
FV facilitates the combination of climate policies with youth policies in order to amplify
the impact of the actions undertaken. The local, national and international volunteers
mobilized, alongside FV and its partners, are facilitators of dialogue. They contribute
to amplifying and disseminating innovations and local solutions in various elds for the
resilience of vulnerable communities and ecosystems.
Since 2016, FV has been designing and implementing a policy on corporate social
responsibility, including a strong environmental dimension. FV has a programme
mainstreaming action on climate change. Within this programme, FV designs multi-
stakeholder projects all around the world and increases volunteering opportunities at
national and international level.
Led by France Volontaires, two initiatives that are part of the European Aid Volunteers
Initiative (DG ECHO) strategy to strengthen local CSO capacity to mobilize and host local
and international volunteers are shown below
The rst aims to strengthen the resilience of communities to climate change through the
involvement of young local volunteers and the accompaniment of local organizations,
committed to the preservation of oases, towards a better mobilization of young
people in their structures in Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. The capacities of partner
organizations in North Africa has been strengthened regarding the involvement of
volunteers in their activities and governance. Synergies have been created with youth
and volunteer organizations in order to identify volunteers, who were trained on disaster
risk reduction and who have then designed risk reduction plans within a campus hold in
Tunisia and raised awareness of communities.
The second initiative focuses on having international and national volunteers supporting
communities depending on forests. It is about to deploy 27 European volunteers to
develop citizen engagement in reducing the vulnerability of communities living in forest
areas and to strengthen their resilience.
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� First, in order to better understand the challenges that forest-dependent people
are and will be facing, some of the volunteers deployed will map existing initiatives
and their needs and to create a networking space between stakeholders in each
country. This work will highlight the current and future sources of vulnerability
of these communities.
� Then, these same volunteers will set up spaces (seminars) for local stakeholders to
express themselves on the threats they face and plan together intervention strategies
based on ecosystem dynamics and vulnerability reduction. Disseminating information,
creating social links and helping local populations to set up projects complementary
to awareness raising actions are the key actions that will be undertaken to reduce
vulnerability and strengthen the resilience capacities of these populations.
� Some volunteers will focus on activities aimed at attracting the attention of young
people, involving them more actively in projects defending the rights of communities
living in forest areas. Thanks to modern campaigns and tools developed by the
volunteers, partners will be able to meet and inform young people about these issues
with adequate and eective communication.
In our daily work, and through our oce management and CSR policy, we are regularly
reassessing our practices to make them more respectful of the environment as possible
(recycling, choice of sustainable oce supplies, etc). FV chooses its suppliers according
to very strict criteria, based on environmental and social impact and put in place a sorting
system and limits the consumption of consumables. FV has also started to measure its
carbon impact.
Intergovernmental Panel on Cimate Change (2019). Summary for Policymakers. Climate
Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertication, land
degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas uxes in
terrestrial ecosystems. P. R. Shukla, J. Skea, E. Calvo Buendia et al. Bonn, IPCC.
