International volunteering

International volunteering has grown significantly since the 1990s in response to rising popular awareness about development challenges and global agendas to address them. The Millennium Development Goals (2000–2015) popularized poverty as global challenges that are shared international responsibility and need urgent action. Building on this, the Sustainable Development Goals(2016–2030) call upon a multitude of development actors, including ordinary citizens, to tackle myriad problems throughout the world and improve equality and well-being. With millions of people engaged in international volunteering, and hundreds of millions contributing unpaid work in their own countries throughout the world, volunteering is considered as ‘a massive resource … to deliver the SDGs’ (UN Volunteers 2021).