The EU Aid Volunteers initiative provides opportunities to European citizens and long-term residents, from a wide range of backgrounds and with a diversity of skills and professional experience, to get involved in humanitarian aid projects, support the provision of needs-based humanitarian aid in third countries and engage in volunteering opportunities, through deployment and online-volunteering.

The objective of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative is to contribute to strengthening the Union's capacity to provide needs-based humanitarian aid aimed at preserving life, preventing and alleviating human suffering, maintaining human dignity and strengthening the capacity and resilience of vulnerable or disaster-affected communities in third countries. The EU Aid Volunteers initiative aims at these objectives by means of disaster preparedness, disaster risk reduction and by enhancing the link between relief, rehabilitation and development. In its latest implementations, a particular attention has been devoted to the links between climate change adaptation and disaster preparedness and reduction. The Objective of the Initiative is pursued through the added value of joint contributions of EU Aid Volunteers, expressing the Union's values and solidarity with people in need and visibly promoting a sense of European citizenship.

Projects funded under this programme seek coherence and complementarity with other instruments and areas of Union external action and with other relevant Union policies, in particular humanitarian aid policy, development cooperation policy and the Union Civil Protection Mechanism.

Aims of the action

• Progress in contributing to increasing and improving the capacity of the Union to provide humanitarian aid.

• Progress towards the improvement of the skills, knowledge and competences of volunteers in the field of humanitarian aid and the terms and conditions of their engagement.

• Progress in building the capacity of hosting organisations and foster volunteering in third countries.

• Progress in communicating the Union's humanitarian aid principles agreed in the European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid.

• Progress in enhancing coherence and consistency of volunteering across Member States in order to improve opportunities for Union citizens to participate in humanitarian aid activities and operations.

• Regulations for the action are available here

How is it managed?

EACEA is in charge of the complete life-cycle management of the strands/actions mentioned above. This consists of the implementation of the programme including the call for proposals, analysis of the grant requests, monitoring of projects, including visits on the spot, and the dissemination of the projects' and programme's results. More about EACEA.

EACEA works in partnership with the European Commission, DG ECHO.

DG ECHO guided the design and development of the programme in close consultation with EU member states and key humanitarian stakeholders. DG ECHO holds responsibility for the development of the legal framework at the base of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative and maintains key oversight for policy, financial and operational elements of the initiative.

For more information about the EU Aid Volunteer initiative or to learn more about volunteer opportunities offered under the EU Aid Volunteers initiative, please visit DG ECHO official website

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