Benefits of being a UNV volunteer
The benefits of volunteering go beyond income. Foremost is the personal and professional satisfaction that an assignment brings to the UNV volunteer. It can be challenging and rewarding and require you to use your skills in a new context. You can transfer useful knowledge while gaining a greater understanding of the issues affecting other people.
 
In return for your service, you will receive the following benefits:
 
· Settling-in-Grant calculated on the duration of assignment which is paid at the beginning of the assignment;
· Volunteer Living Allowance (VLA) intended to cover basic living expenses, which is paid each month;
· Travel on appointment and at the end of assignment, if different than home location;
· Life, health and permanent disability insurance;
annual leave; and
· Resettlement allowance calculated based on the duration of assignment which is paid upon satisfactory completion of the assignment.

Becoming an international UNV volunteer
Two thirds of UNV volunteers serving around the world in developing or transitional countries are themselves from such countries. BiH citizens with the required specialist skills may also serve abroad as international UNV volunteers.

UNV volunteers carry out various roles. They are recruited for specialized inputs to development programmes, and increasingly, in the areas of peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance and UN-supported electoral processes.

The UNV programme maintains a roster of candidates with relevant experience in these sectors. It covers more than 100 professional categories including, for example, programme/project development, administration, communications, community development, demobilization and reintegration, disaster prevention, humanitarian and civil affairs, engineering, environment, HIV/AIDS, medicine, human rights, logistics, and election support.
 
To learn more about becoming a UNV volunteer, and to apply, please contact:

Website: www.unv.org/how-to-volunteer

Your application occurs online and is received by the Cyprus Offshore Processing Centre. The Centre appraises applications and maintains a roster of eligible candidates. Once you have sent your application form to Cyprus, you should receive a response within four to eight weeks from the date the application is received there. If you are included on the candidate roster, your details will be posted for up to two years, unless you inform UNV that you are no longer available. Inclusion on the roster does not guarantee a UNV assignment. If you are not offered a post within the two-year period and you still wish to be re-rostered, you should send an updated Personal History Statement and new supporting documents.

We recommend that you contact the UNV Country Office in Sarajevo so that we can help you determine whether you are suitably qualified to become an international UNV volunteer.

Basic requirements
Since 1971, more than 30,000 UNV volunteers have worked in over 160 countries. UNV volunteers are professionals that play key roles in delivering development efforts. To become a UNV volunteer one should fulfill the following minimum requirements:

· A university degree or higher technical diplomas;
· Several years of relevant working experience;
· At least age 25 (no maximum age limit);
· Good working knowledge in at least one of the three working UN languages: English, French and Spanish;
· Strong commitment to values and principles of volunteerism;
· Ability to work in a multi-cultural environment;
· Ability to adjust in difficult living conditions;
· Strong interpersonal and organizational skills;
· Prior volunteering and/or working experience in a developing country is an asset.

National UNV volunteer
As a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina you have the chance to serve in your own country in order to support national capacity-building initiatives, facilitate local networking and the exchange of information. Eligible candidates have:

· At least a graduate qualification, often a Masters
· At least 2-3 years of professional work experience
· Working knowledge of English
· Citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The recruitment of national UNV volunteers is managed at the country level. Interested and qualified candidates should contact the UNV Country Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina to find out about available opportunities. Please note that national UNV volunteer applications do not go via UNV Headquarters in Bonn, Germany.

Online Volunteering
The UNV Online Volunteering service connects volunteers with organizations working for sustainable human development. Volunteers contribute their skills online to help organizations address development challenges.

Organizations collaborate with online volunteers over the Internet to strengthen the impact of their development work. Volunteering online is an opportunity to support the cause of sustainable human development, while working from a computer anywhere in the world.

Website: www.onlinevolunteering.org 

Volunteers do not need to travel and have a great degree of flexibility in volunteering the hours that fit their schedule. Online volunteers gain knowledge about the issues faced by the developing world, exercise their skills, or experience taking on roles different from those of their professional or academic lives. Given the accessibility of internet connection in developed world, online volunteering also enables physically challenged individuals to contribute to sustainable development.

Last but not least, online volunteering allows Bosnian and Herzegovinian expatriates and Diaspora to reconnect with their native country in a way that triggers further development and self-sustainability of the region.

UNV Corporate/Private Sector Programme
Under this scheme, private companies have the unique opportunity to use UNV volunteers’ talents, experience, and enthusiasm in order to gain useful know-how, new methodologies, contacts and global business perspective. Highly skilled/specialized UNV volunteers will typically provide short-term consultancy service in the fields of production efficiency, market expansion, ICT for development, energy and environment, enterprise development, and others. Private companies wishing to benefit from this programme can contact the UNV office in Sarajevo at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Small business owners are particularly encouraged to apply.

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