State of the World's Volunteerism Report

The Centre for Global Development (CGD) at Northumbria University has been selected as the lead research partner to work with United Nations Volunteers (UNV) to produce the next State of the World’s Volunteerism Report (SWVR), a flagship publication designed to strengthen the understanding of volunteerism and demonstrate its universality, scope, and reach in the twenty-first century.

The forthcoming edition of the UNV’s flagship report, the SWVR 2026 will focus on volunteer measurement, and will showcase the latest thinking and evidence from across the world on the contributions of volunteers and volunteerism to peace and development. The global impact of volunteers and their significance to peace and development worldwide remains largely unquantified and qualitative measurement is often small scale and isolated from wider debates. There are three challenges in this respect — the lack of comprehensive data sets on volunteering, the obstacles faced when attempting to compare these data sets, stemming from the use of various tools and methodologies, and the absence of a cohesive measurement framework.

The focus and theme of the next SWVR report responds to the call for improved data, tools, and frameworks for measuring volunteering work, ensuring that volunteers’ roles are recognised and better integrated into policy and practice. Measuring volunteering means different things to different people and organisations around the world, depending on their specific contexts, interests and approaches to promoting peace and development. The report will explore differences in definitions, in what is measured, and in the approaches and methodologies used, including through practical case studies from diverse contexts.

To date, the UNV has produced four SWVR reports on different themes. The first SWVR edition was published in 2011 and focused on the theme ‘Universal Values for Global Well-being’, highlighting the significant social and economic contribution of volunteers to development. The 2015 SWVR on ‘Transforming Governance’ emphasised the roles of volunteering in helping governments fulfil their duties and responsibilities through accountability and monitoring mechanisms. In 2018, the SWVR on ‘Volunteerism and Community Resilience’ focused on how communities come together to develop collective resources to cope with shocks and stresses, particularly in contexts where government provision is limited. The last report, published in 2022, focused on the theme ‘Building Equal and Inclusive Societies’ and analysed how volunteers and governments work together to create more inclusive structures and mechanisms that are fit for the development challenges of the 21st century.

Northumbria’s CGD research team will work on the main research chapters focusing on volunteering measurement, drawing on its networks of global partners and researchers to ensure diverse perspectives and voices are reflected in the report. The International Labour Organisation(ILO) will work on a chapter focusing on global volunteer estimates, and the University of Pretoria will produce the Volunteer Index Framework, both of which also be published as part of the SWVR.

To find out more, please contact Prof Matt Baillie Smith and Dr Bianca Fadel (Northumbria University), or Emiliya Asadova and Tapiwa Kamuruko (UNV).