Engaging Citizens to Make a Difference: Taking Stock of International Volunteers’ and Hosts’ Contributions to the SDGs in Myanmar

• In Event: The Role of Volunteering for Development in the Reproduction of Civil Society and Delivery of the SDGs

Abstract

Agenda 2030 and the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are universal across all countries and the crosscutting role o f volunteerism in implementing them has been acknowledged by the UN General Assembly (United Nations General Assembly 2014). Together the universal goals and acknowledged crosscutting role for volunteering provide a new rationale for international volunteers as global citizens connecting institutions and countries for mutual learning and benefit (Devereux, Paull et al. 2017). This paper will present the concrete findings of research in Myanmar on the contribution of international volunteers and their hosts to implementing Agenda 2030.

A recent paper by Wearing et al (Wearing, Young et al. 2017) reflects on the debates and practices that have emerged since Wearing’s initial theoretical exploration of volunteer tourism over 15 years ago. The paper asked how the vision of international volunteering ‘making a difference’ can be renewed not so much by ‘helping’, but through intercultural understanding and mutuality.

The Myanmar research for this paper was conducted in 2017 through a survey, focus groups/workshops and interviews with AVI, VSO, UNV and CUSO International volunteers, their hosts and other observers in Myanmar.

The paper highlights issues related to how the volunteers are viewed by themselves, their hosts and the communities they live and work in. It seeks to provide concrete evidence for reciprocal benefit where volunteers genuinely learn from local people organisations and contexts at the same time as developing their understanding of the SDGs and making joint contributions to them.

The SDGs are a global universal framework but one still struggling to get global and universal ownership, understanding and action. The experience in Myanmar shows the challenges but also the opportunities for SDG ownership and implementation by international volunteers and their hosts.

References
Devereux, P., et al. (2017). "Volunteering and the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Finding common ground between national and international volunteering agendas?" Third Sector Review 23(1).

United Nations General Assembly (2014). The road to dignity by 2030: ending poverty, transforming all lives and protecting the planet: synthesis report of the Secretary General on the post-2015 sustainable development agenda. New York, United Nations: 34.

Wearing, S., et al. (2017). "Evaluating volunteer tourism: has it made a difference?" Tourism Recreation Research 42(4): 512-521.

Author

• Peter Devereux, Curtin University