Terms of Reference
To conduct research on: Promotion, Practices and Challenges of adopting the Global Volunteering Standard by VSO in Nepal
ACTIVE-Active Citizens Through Inclusive Volunteering and Empowerment
VSO in Nepal
1. Background
VSO is the world’s leading independent, international development organization that works through blend of community, national and international volunteers. VSO is working in Nepal since 1964 to improve the lives of impoverished people, particularly focusing on marginalized groups, vulnerable women and girls. We believe that people are the key to overcoming poverty, and that is why we work through Volunteering for Development Approach that people are empowered, public services are inclusive and accessible and decisions makers are held to account.
VSO is implementing ACTIVE (Active Citizens through Inclusive Volunteering and Empowerment) project which is funded by FCDO. The project aims to contribute in developing more inclusive, open, resilient, and gender equitable societies by making positive contribution in resilient livelihoods (promotion of agro-ecology and Right to Food Advocacy and its localization), health (equitable and accessible health systems strengthening), inclusive education (and youth (engagement and leadership). This multi year project works with both CSO and Government level platforms and mechanisms.
2. Background of the Study
The Global Volunteering Standard ("the Standard") is a voluntary standard of practice to support organizations that work through and with volunteers to ensure both impactful and responsible practice in volunteer engagement. The Standard focuses on an organization’s operational work – chiefly, its development and delivery of impactful projects and its accountability to local communities, partners (sending or hosting) and volunteers.
The Standard is divided into four interconnected themes, which were prioritized and agreed during its early development: Designing and Delivering Projects; Duty of Care; Managing Volunteers; and Measuring Impact. Within each theme, the Standard helps guide organizations through a process from making an institutional commitment to excellence all the way down to operational actions and indicators that can be defined to assess progress toward that commitment.
VSO recognizes the importance of adapting it to better meet the needs of specific communities. This will require both externally facing advocacy and capacity training to support the needs of
national and local stakeholders, therefore the study will help VSO, Government agencies and stakeholders (who work with and favor volunteering) to understand the promotion, practices, and challenges of the Standard.
In the year 2020, VSO conducted a study to understand the uptake, value, and relevance of the Standard. The study has identified some gaps and recommendations. Therefore, this study must widen its scope and must be built on the context of previous study to showcase the progress we have made so far.
3. Objectives
Research objective are:
3.1 To determine how effectively the Standard has been promoted amongst government agencies, I/NGOs and stakeholders/partners
It is important to know how effectively the standard has been promoted to best use aspects it reinforces for responsible and impactful volunteering. Therefore, the study will help to understand the promotional aspect of the global standard among government and other agencies.
3.2 Understand the value and relevance of the Global Volunteering Standard
It is essential to analyze the country context to understand relevance of the Global Volunteering Standard and contribute to strengthening volunteer recruitment and mobilization. Therefore, important to perform an analysis of existing gaps in the Standard and country specific adaptations required to adopt the Standard in Nepal. This will entail review of language and presentation, mapping of stakeholders and institutions that work with marginalized groups.
3.3 Analyze the challenges and improvement areas to strengthen the VSO volunteering for development practice
It is planned that there will be further analysis of the Standard in relation to volunteer mobilization, including during crisis. Analysis of accessibility and content clarity will provide further information on increasing accessibility of the document to diverse stakeholders and volunteering organisations. Adoption of the Standard will also be reviewed in line with the VSO volunteering for development practice which requires that primary actors voices are heard in all projects; that the core approaches of resilience, social accountability and social inclusion and gender guide project implementation; and that relational and blended volunteering forms part of the vehicle through which on the ground implementation is done.
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