“From Awareness to Practice: Volunteering for a Sustainable Future” EVS Vietnam

Context and Objectives:

“Sustainable development is a moral precept as well as a scientific concept. It is closely linked to peace, human rights and equity as much as to ecology or global warming. And if it obviously concerns the natural sciences, economics and politics, it is also a cultural issue.” Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO from 1999-2009.

Through increasing global forms of poverty and inequality as depicted by the MDGs, the impact of global warming and climate change as well as economic and financial crises around the world, the past decades have shown that sustainable development is one of the key challenges facing us all today. The definition of sustainable development by the World Commission on Environment and Development (‘Brundtland Commission’, 1987): “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This definition clarifies that providing for today’s and tomorrow’s needs implies balanced interests and priorities and the integration of the environmental, economic and social aspects of development, as well as the cultural dimension because it involves the question of values, beliefs and behaviour and the access to universal human rights.

The proposed reciprocal EVS project, “From Awareness to Practice: Volunteering for a Sustainable Future” offers 11 young volunteers from Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America the opportunity to explore and to familiarise themselves with sustainable development and the wide range of issues related to the concept of sustainable development that are addressed in their voluntary service host organisations. Thus, not just projects focusing on environmental issues will play a role in this project, but those also addressing poverty and marginalisation, human rights, peace, equality and democracy, as well as education, work and economics. In doing so, it will enable the exploration of sustainable choices and lifestyles within a larger framework connecting local action to global reflection[1]. The link between active citizenship, community development, youth mobility and participation will be examined and will serve to make the volunteering actions effective and sustainable beyond this immediate EVS project. Intercultural learning will be the foundational basis of the project and used to deepen understanding and respect for pluralism and cultural diversity and to link it to the environment, economy and society, the very fabric of sustainable development.

Aims: 

1. To enable the mobility and participation of youth from European, African, Asian and Latin American countries in projects and activities dealing with sustainability issues such as community development, human rights, marginalization and poverty reduction, environmental issues, the underprivileged, health, homeless, etc.

2. To promote intercultural learning and dialogue and strengthen mutual understanding, respect and friendship through citizenship actions in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. 

3. To initiate through non-formal educational tools and intercultural learning approaches a self-process of reflection that counter preconceived notions, perceptions and attitudes on the part of both the volunteers and the local community. Intercultural learning will also facilitate the significance of culture as the overriding component, alongside the socio-economic and environmental components, of sustainable development. 

4. To allow youth to understand what sustainable development means and the wide range of issues encompassed within the four components (social, economic, environmental and cultural). Their volunteering will afford them a greater insight into the actions and activities of local actions towards a sustainable future. Moving from the stage of awareness to practice, the volunteers in this project will develop their communication and practical skills and competencies, leading to their own holistic - social, personal and professional - development. They will serve as multipliers of sustainable actions and lifestyles in their host, and on return, their home countries.

[1] The components of Sustainable Development according to UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development include the social, economic, environment as well as the cultural dimension. See www.esd-world-conference-2009.org/en/background-information/desd.html.