Resident Coordinator's Remarks at International Volunteers Day 2022 Commemoration

[as prepared for delivery]

Distinguished partners, volunteers, and friends,

I am pleased to join you today to commemorate International Volunteer Day.

A culture of robust volunteerism is essential for social and economic development just as it is vital for the preservation of cultural traditions and the environment.

The UN’s Secretary-General has reminded us that “volunteers show the best of humanity as true champions of peace, sustainable development, and human rights.”

Thailand exemplifies this spirit as one in seven citizens volunteer in some form. This is truly inspiring.

This generous can-do spirit can be leveraged to support climate action and protect biodiversity in line with the Government’s BCG economic model, whose success will require a whole-of-society approach.

In fact, we won’t be able to achieve these goals without the invaluable contributions of volunteers, many of whom are important members of their communities, including marginalized ones.

By being stakeholders as well as agents of change, volunteers possess unique insights, skills, and networks. All of these can be harnessed to create locally owned and sustained solutions.

Young people are especially engaged on environmental and social issues, and we can benefit greatly from their drive and enthusiasm. I have experienced this at an SDG advisory Youth Panel I have set up at the UN.

One of the youth panelists is Khun Premsak, a law student who leads the Little Birds Youth Network Foundation, which supports children and youth living with HIV.

Another is Khun Grace, a high schooler who advocates for climate action and is working with the UNCT to set up a platform of Thai-speaking youth to engage systematically with policymakers.

We will soon begin work with the Governor of Bangkok, a prominent advocate for community empowerment, to set up teams of digital youth volunteers to help the elderly expand their IT skills and access to services.

Such cross-generational volunteerism boosts communal solidarity and resilience. We saw this during the pandemic when Thailand became a success story of managing the outbreak thanks largely to the country’s one million health volunteers.

Beyond its immense social value, volunteerism has economic benefits.

In partnership with the Ministry of Public Health, the UN assessed the economic return on investment of the one million village health volunteers. We found that their contributions account for 0.3% of GDP.

This translates into $1 per volunteer, or $1 million in total, every day.

As a next step, UNV, ILO and UNFPA will be quantifying the social return on investment of volunteerism, which will similarly be considerable.

As you know, at the UN we too rely on volunteers.

This year alone UN volunteers, most of them women, have been working in refugee camps, promoting gender equality, boosting community cohesion, and advocating for the inclusion of marginalized groups.

One example is the I Am UNICEF Volunteer Program, which has a network of 20,000 highly committed volunteers countrywide lending support to child rights, awareness raising and other vital projects in line with the SDGs.

This shows that when volunteers are empowered and equipped to get involved in solving problems, they can create lasting and far-reaching impacts.

We are also partnering with the private sector to facilitate volunteer initiatives.

For instance, UNFPA, in partnership with the Ministry of Public Health and a multinational company, is training 200 traditional birth attendants from ethnic minority communities in 57 border villages.

These volunteers are helping improve safe birthing for vulnerable mothers and their children while also recording vital statistics for provincial surveillance systems.

I visited Mae Hong Son recently and spoke with some of the traditional birth attendants, most of them ethnic minorities. They told me the services are critical to them and their villages.

I have seen firsthand that volunteers in Thailand come from all walks of life.

Last weekend I met bike police patrol volunteers in Bangkok, one of whom was a doctor. They escorted us on a tour of a historic neighborhood in support of ending violence against women.

Similarly at the APEC Summit last month, highly motivated budding entrepreneurs from across the country were volunteering with the Thailand Chamber of Commerce.

I was told by a young woman who was the UN’s Liaison Officer that the volunteers took great pride in their duties, which they regarded as a great learning experience.

Personally, I have been a volunteer since my student days, working with poor and disadvantaged people. Through this I learned that we can all make a difference, big or small. Those years of volunteering remain an important reference point in my life.

Many of you have had similarly transformative experiences.

With your untiring dedication we can continue working towards achieving the SDGs and leveraging the contributions of volunteers to speed up progress on climate action, biodiversity protection and a green economic transformation.

It is a privilege to work with you all and I look forward to continuing our collaboration.

Thank you.