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 initiative focuses on strengthening the European Union's capacity to deliver needs-based humanitarian aid by providing professional support through the deployment of trained volunteers to people in need. Furthermore, it aims to strengthen the capacity and resilience of vulnerable communities in third countries, through the implementation of joint projects between experienced humanitarian operators and local organisations in third countries.

By the end of 2018, 570 volunteers were trained and 399 were deployed to third countries all around the world. Other activities, such as the training of the next groups of candidate volunteers, various communication and outreach activities took also place in 2018. 208 sending and hosting organisations have been certified and new projects for deployment of volunteers and technical assistance and capacity building for organisations have been selected.

In 2019, these activities will continue to give opportunities for more hosting and sending organisations to benefit from capacity building and technical assistance projects and more EU Aid Volunteers to be deployed in countries outside the EU. The certification of sending and hosting organisations will go on, on a rolling basis as well as the maintenance of the EU Aid Volunteers Platform. The communication activities remain relevant to promote the EU Aid Volunteers initiative.

The 2019 objectives of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative under the following actions are: 

• Deployment

• Capacity building of vulnerable or disaster-affected communities in third countries; 
• Resilience building and disaster risk management in vulnerable, fragile or disaster- affected countries and forgotten crises;
• Disaster prevention,  preparedness,  disaster risk reduction and recovery from natural and man-made disasters;
• Enhancing the link between relief, rehabilitation and development;
• Support to emergency response operations. (NEW)

• Technical assistance for sending organisations and Capacity building for hosting organisations

• Technical assistance: strengthening the capacity of sending organisations to participate in the EU Aid Volunteers initiative and to ensure compliance with the standards and procedures of the initiative (art. 10(6));
• Capacity building: strenghening the hosting organisations’ capacity for humanitarian aid in order to enhance local preparedness and response to humanitarian crises and to ensure effective and sustainable impact of the EU Aid Volunteers’ work on the ground (art. 15). 

To implement the training programme and training of candidate volunteers:  prepare training and assessment of candidate volunteers. The training programme is based on the competence framework and consists of a combined learning approach based on e-learning and classroom modules.

To continue certification of sending and hosting organisations;

To maintain and further develop the EU Aid Volunteers Platform for registration, networking, online volunteering and learning.

To continue the outreach activities and the promotion of the EU Aid Volunteers initiave.

How to apply?

Organisations!

Are you intending to participate in the EU Aid Volunteers initiative?

Follow these steps:

1. Become a certified sending or hosting organisation All organisations wishing to send or host volunteers under the EUAV initiative must be certified under the initiative. The certification process verifies that the high standards and procedures of volunteer management set to protect and manage volunteers during their deployment under the EUAV initiative can be fully realised and met by all participating organisations. For further details on the application process for certification, including the announcement of the call and guidelines on completing the application form plus annexes can be found under Certification Mechanism.
2. Build a consortium of European and third country organisations Transnational partnerships are at the core of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative, valued as a means of transferring knowledge, sharing best practice and increasing expertise. The EUAV initiative is open to consortia of European and third country organisations.
3. Submit a project proposal for deployment of EUAVs Certified sending and hosting organisations can apply for funding to deploy volunteers to humanitarian contexts, in support of disaster risk reduction/preparedness activities and emergency response. A call for proposals for deployment 2019 is expected to be published in the 1st quarter 2019. 
   
   Nota Bene: A project proposal has to be submitted by a consortium of organisations!
4. Not certified yet? Submit, or be part of, a project proposal for technical assistance for sending organisations and capacity building for hosting organisations. Funding is available to support organisations in their preparation for certification, in view of future participation in the EUAV initiative. Call for proposals for technical assistance for sending organisations and capacity building for hosting organisations 2019 is planned to be published in the 1^st or 2^nd quarter of 2019. Learn more here
   
   Nota Bene: A project proposal has to be submitted by a consortium of organisations!

Volunteers!

Would you like to become an EU Aid Volunteer?

Volunteering through the EU Aid Volunteers initiative offers the possibility to EU citizens and long-term residents living in Europe to volunteer in countries affected by humanitarian crises. Volunteer placements are based on assessments of humanitarian needs on the ground, so that volunteers from a wide range of backgrounds and with different levels of expertise can take part.

There will also be on-line volunteer opportunities, open to citizens of all nationalities, which will offer additional ways to participate

The first EU Aid Volunteer vacancies were published on the EU Aid Volunteers Platform

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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