Launching Polish Aid Volunteering Programme

The Polish Aid Volunteering Programme in 2008 is a pilot programme. The bases of the programme draw on previous analysis of solutions applied by other donor countries and on experience of Polish NGOs which carry out some kind of volunteering programmes. Our aim is to gather as much experience and opinions as possible regarding the functioning of this programme during the pilot year, so that we can improve it in the future.

Volunteerism is present in the majority of countries that carry out a development policy and is an important element of co-operation between state structures and NGOs. It contributes to raising social awareness in the areas linked to development issues (which means that it is a tool for development education), and it improves the level of active participation of individuals in development assistance related issues.

One of the crucial challenges that Polish development policy faces nowadays is to increase social support and promote knowledge among Polish society about development related problems. The Polish Aid Volunteering Programme is a chance to intensify participation of Polish citizens in the field of development assistance. It is known that without broad support and large social participation development policy can not be efficient.

The productive co-operation that has been carried out so far in the field of development assistance between the MFA and Polish NGOs makes it possible to view the present programme as another step that will contribute to the creation of a system governing this collaboration. Although Polish NGOs nowadays send their volunteers abroad, the valuable experience that they gather is not sufficiently well made use of upon their return to Poland. There are also some problems with co-ordination of activities. The programme is based on the existing mechanisms of co-operation between the MFA on the one hand, and NGOs and institutions that directly implement development assistance projects on the other.