Trends in International Cooperation

and Volunteering

2006 and the last five years

IVCO Conference 2006, Bonn
 Rapid changes over last 5 years
• The MDG strategy a central focus for donors –
shaping PRSPs & national development sttategies
• Post 9/11 agenda: preoccupation with (military)
security, instability, and perhaps identity & cohesion
• Aid falls reversed: new pledges on UN 0.7% target
• Poverty regularly in news and on mainstream political
agenda (MPH/GCAP, Tsunami, Sudan and G8 focus)
• Aspects of globalisation a reality: access (for some)
to information, increased mobility, global trade,
finance and employment.
• Headline 31% rise in ODA to $106 billion in
2005, the highest level ever
• DAC projects aid at $128 billion by 2010
• But - $23 billion of total was debt relief
(Nigeria & Iraq) – underlying rise 8.7%
Projected aid growth with and without debt relief

140 000

120 000

100 000
ODA net of debt relief
Headline ODA
80 000

60 000

40 000
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Delivering more & better aid?
• Doubts on where funds for pledged increases
will come from once debt relief fades in 2007
• Little real new money at country level
for IVCO priorities
• IVCOs feel pressure to find place within Paris
declaration/aid effectiveness debate
• IVCOs and the challenge of new modalities:
SWAPs, PRSPs and budget support
 TC under the microscope
• Perceived need to reinforcing developing
country ownership and accountability,
• the need to increase the effectiveness of
Technical Cooperation (TC)
• DAC says: “TC and capacity development
are by no means synonymous…… a good
deal of what DAC scores as TC has little to
do with capacity development”.
 How can IVCOs contribute to
aid effectiveness debate?
• DAC tasked with breakdown of TC into
components, including volunteering
• Concerns over quality of Paris declaration
indicators
• DAC highlights need to build capacity of
individuals and address broader institutional
context
• IVCOs well placed to reinforce case for TC to
go beyond short term gap filling to tackling
underlying structural issues.
 Budget support
• In past, IVCOs have been concerned that GBS could
limit involvement, contribution and access to funds
• Major evaluation says moves to PGBS are slow
• PGBS can significantly promote partnership
• But not a panacea – one of a family of programme
based approaches
• Room for technical assistance and capacity building
to be better integrated to PGBS – is this an area
where IVCOs can contribute?
 Global Security Agenda
• Since 2003 impact on IVCOs has grown

– Countries where volunteers are prepared to go

– Increased importance placed on volunteer safety
and security raises costs of volunteer placements
– Dominance of global security on the development
agenda
– Suspension of volunteer programmes in countries
affected by conflict
– Militarization of development cooperation
Globalised communications and IVCOs
• Positive impact:
– volunteers shop around, gain better
understanding of country and placement
– Harnessing ‘virtual volunteers’

• Negatives:
– Volunteers don’t integrate as well
– More enquiries test response systems
 Engaging with different actors

• Growth in private providers over 5 years

• Growth in private sector collaboration
• More involvement of military
• Private funders like Gates and funds
such as Global Fund for AIDS, TB &
malaria now distributing billions
• When and how should IVCOs engage?
Short term & older placements
• Growing numbers seeking short
term placements
– Gap year phenomenon
– Career break
– Skills acquisition
• Older volunteers now a key group
Growth in 55 to 64 age group
Trend in Number of People aged 55-64 - 1980-2050
16,000

14,000
Thousands of People

12,000 Australia
Canada
10,000
Germany
8,000 Hungary
Ireland
6,000
South Africa
4,000 UK

2,000

0
1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050
Over the next 20 years numbers of people
aged 55 - 64 will grow in most countries
– in India & Ireland by over 50%
 15 – 29 age group stable or in
decline over long term
Trend in the Number of People aged 15-29 - 1980-2050

20,000
18,000
16,000 Australia
Thousands of People

14,000 Canada
12,000 Germany
10,000 Hungary
Ireland
8,000
South Africa
6,000
UK
4,000
2,000
0
1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050
Percentage changes in younger age group
quite large over next 20 years
• Central role of southern partners in
defining skills needed not new.
• But demand for new types of skill:
– less TA and gap filling
– more capacity enhancement and exchange
– expectation of professionalism

Clear shift over 5 years (further) away from

north - south skills transfer to a much more
diverse picture
 Globalisation and Recruitment

• Populations more mobile and countries more

diverse – old patterns & expectations fading
• IVCOs in north working with southern NGOs
to assist recruitment
• Internet means volunteers can come from all
over the world
• South-north, north-south and south - south all
models being employed
• Mobilisation of diaspora communities
 Funding a familiar preoccupation –
despite worst of aid squeeze being over
• Move over 5 years to more programmatic
funding for some IVCOs, in line with donor
interest in longer term more assured funding
• But this funding seldom open to smaller
IVCOs
• Less sense of funding-led need to
demonstrate impact (less marginalisation)
• Rather a concern shared with majority of
development agencies to show results
• In 2005 the world missed the first MDG
(getting girls into school)
• Can IVCOs play a particular role on gender?

• Halfway from 1995 to 2015 (proportion of

people in poverty halved)
• Can IVCOs conceive of a world without
absolute poverty (goal envisaged at social
summit).
• Sachs says this could happen by 2025. But
what special contribution could IVCOs make?
 Thank you for
contributing to 2006
IVCO survey!