<div>Citizen volunteers play a key role in Asia-Pacific region in making their governments more accountable and responsive to their people, but governments undervalue their contributions, says a new United Nations report.</div><div> </div><div>The State of the World's Volunteerism Report 2015, released by the United Nations Volunteers, is the first global review of the role of volunteers in improving the way citizens are governed and engaged. It draws on evidence from around the world, including case studies from the Asia-Pacific region, and specifically India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and China.<br><br>The report shows how volunteers are working with governments and civil society to hold those in power to account, to influence policies and laws and to represent the voices of those who are often left out of development decisions such as women, youth and marginalized groups.</div><div> </div><div>It calls on governments to do more to include volunteer voices in decision-making if they want to achieve more inclusive- and ultimately more effective - development.</div><div> </div><div>"Selfless service is the fountainhead of all moralities, all values and all virtues", said Rajeev Gupta, secretary, ministry of youth affairs and sports (MoYAS), at the launch of the report in New Delhi on Tuesday (23 June). "Volunteerism in its purest sense is selfless service - service to the community, to the nation, and to the world at large."</div><div> </div><div>More than 1 billion people volunteer globally and many are in the forefront of efforts to improve the way they and their fellow citizens are governed and engaged. For instance, women from villages in Uttarakhand in northern India who have become powerful voices in local decision-making by volunteering in 'Whole Village Groups', engaging with local authorities on a wide range of issues such as monitoring the performance of local schools or influencing how local forests and water resources are used. In China, grassroots activists who monitor pollution to improve air quality reporting, encouraging the government to publish the smaller particulate measures and commit to lower pollution levels by 2016.</div><div> </div><div>As the world's governments prepare to agree the new sustainable development goals at the United Nations in September to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the report says there is widespread agreement that future development efforts will have to include radically different approaches in order to better engage people in their own, their communities' and their countries' development.</div><div> </div><div>Speaking at the launch of the report, UNV's deputy executive coordinator Rosemary Kalapurakal said, "The potential of volunteers to help create truly people-centred development is enormous, but, as yet, far from fully tapped. In order to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals we need to see the participation of all sections of society. Volunteers have a critical role to play in representing the voices of those who are often excluded from development decisions, including women, youth and other groups who may be marginalised".</div><div> </div><div>The report mentions the role of 20 million volunteers in immunization against polio globally. "We are very proud that India was declared polio-free in 2014 after almost twenty years of fighting with the disease, a stupendous achievement for the country made possible with the support of more than 2.4 million Indian volunteers," said Mr. Louis George Arsenault UN Resident Coordinator.</div><div> </div><div>The report finds that countries that provide a supportive "enabling environment" for volunteers tend to reap the rewards of their inclusion in decision-making. It praises developing countries governments such as Peru, Mozambique and Norway who have passed laws and set up frameworks to formalise the contribution of volunteers. However, it says too many other governments are failing to acknowledge and leverage the immense potential of volunteers to help them chart a more successful development path. It calls on all governments to "go beyond the rhetoric of participation" and take concrete steps to help the world's volunteers actively contribute to the decisions that affect people's lives.</div>
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