UN program helps development at the grassroot level

UN program helps development at the grassroot level

Eleven years ago today, the United Nations General Assembly
established Dec. 5 as International Volunteer Day. The day was
set to celebrate humankind's noblest spirit of volunteerism and
the efforts volunteers around the world have made to improve the
lives of others, from the palm-laced villages of Bali to the
concrete streets of New York City. To mark the occasion, Gedsiri
Suhartono of The Jakarta Post wrote three articles, one of which
focuses on her trip to Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, sponsored by
the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

JAKARTA (JP): The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) program, the
volunteer-sending arm of the world body, was established in 1970
to serve as an operational partner in international development
at the request of any UN member.

Administered under the auspices of the UNDP, the UNV supplies
professional people to support governments, non-governmental and
community-focused development works.

The UNV serves a wide variety of needs but primarily focuses
on humanitarian relief and rehabilitation, peace building, human
rights and electoral operations of the UN, promotion of private
and public enterprises and transfer of knowledge through
expatriate nationals.

Since 1971, 12,350 UN volunteers from some 140 nations have
worked in an equal number of countries.

There are two types of assignments available for volunteers:
two-year humanitarian relief assignments and UN International
Short-Term Advisory Resources (Unistar) postings, which are
demand-driven and flexible in terms of time.

The UNDP in Indonesia is made up of the regular UNV program
and a Domestic Development Services (DDS) program.

The UNV's work in Indonesia dates back to May 1973, when the
first two volunteers, a welding instructor and radio repair
instructor, were assigned to a UNDP/International Labor
Organization project dubbed the "Industrial Vocational Training
Scheme" in Irian Jaya.

Since then, about 56 UNV specialists and 150 UNV/DDS field
workers have worked in Indonesia. Reciprocally, 112 Indonesian
volunteers have served in various Asian countries.

In the future, Indonesians are expected to enter, if not
dominate, the number of volunteers serving in Indonesia.

"A similar scenario is being implemented in other countries,
each wanting to prioritize utilizing local resources," said
Dianne D. Arboleda, a UNV program officer.

Arboleda pointed out that in the Philippines, her home
country, there are only two international volunteers serving.

Some sneer at the prospect of having local volunteers due to
the fact that volunteerism is not valued highly in Indonesia, at
least not professionally.

"When I first came here, people thought that I was doing
volunteer work because I could not find employment in my own
country," said Thelma C. Orbase, a former volunteer who currently
works as a corporate accountant.

In the Philippines, prospective volunteers are recruited
professionally. They have to undergo several tests to prove their
ability to endure strenuous working conditions and challenges
such as psychological, communication and capability tests.

"Very few people understand that we do the sort of job that we
are doing because we wanted to for personal reasons," said Gemma
Relojo, another volunteer from the Philippines.

Indonesia has hosted the largest number of UN volunteers in
Asia, but few of them are from Indonesia.

Samiran Hadi Subroto, a Mataram-based volunteer coordinator,
said so few Indonesians are willing to become volunteers that he
became the center of attention when he arrived in Nepal to
perform his first duty in 1983.

The UNV/DDS activities are geared to strengthen volunteer-
based organizations, encouraging them to share expertise and help
relevant government agencies reach out to villages.

So far, the volunteers have created 425 small self-help groups
that initiate activities such as safe drinking water
infrastructure, sanitation facilities, vocational and appropriate
technology training, primary health care promotion, child
nutrition and maternal care programs, village cooperative
support, income generation activities, urban slum renewal and
environment programs.

Concentration on gender issues, according to Arboleda, will
soon be one of the main focuses for recruitment. Programs will
deal with the disadvantages and subordination issues that women
have had to endure.

Seven UNV specialists are currently assigned either to UNDP-
funded projects, other UN agencies or to non-governmental
organizations in Irian Jaya, Maluku, East Nusa Tenggara, West
Kalimantan, West Java, Central Java and Jakarta.

These three-year projects, which end in January 1997, are
jointly financed by the UNDP and the Indonesian government.

The focal point of the UNV/DDS Program in Indonesia is the
Ministry of Manpower, which coordinates the program together with
the Cabinet Secretariat and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The project provides the service of 17 UNV/DDS field workers
and 178 co-workers that implement village-level projects.

The project's core strategy is to strengthen "grassroots"
institutions such as the Institute for Village Community
Resilience, the Family Welfare Movement and the Karang Taruna
youth organization. The project also aims to establish
participatory development models in 30 less-developed villages in
five eastern provinces of Irian Jaya, Maluku, Southeast Sulawesi
as well as West and East Nusa Tenggara.

During this process, the project tries to increase the
community's access to government services and funding from
international NGOs, bilateral and multilateral agencies.

The Japanese embassy recently granted the Akar-akar village in
Lombok Rp 15 million (US$ 6,300) to build a clean water piping
system.

Several bilateral donor organizations, including the embassies
of Canada, Australia, Germany, New Zealand and the US-based
Trickle Up Program have also funded the UNV program.