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philosophy

The UNV experience

The strength of UNDP in all their works is their effectiveness at the grassroots. This is possible only because of the dedication and personal involvement of the United Nations volunteers that stay day in and day out on the field, amongst the villagers, in order to instil faith in the hearts of the people. They are the actual people who implement the policies that are formulated in the head office. Hence, the true credit of the success of UNDP in Orissa goes to the 25 UNV Architects / Engineers / Planners, who are toiling in the soil with the villagers in despair.

These UNVs come from diverse fields. Some are planners, while some are architects, engineers or even supervisors. The challenge for UNDP was to train these people in becoming sensitive to the needs of the villagers and to learn a common pattern that has to be adopted for development.

After the devastating Super cyclone, UNVs helped the district administrations of the affected districts in distributing relief materials in an effective and unbiased manner. They also networked with the NGOs and the government regularly in order to avoid duplication of work in different fields. During the 2001 flood, the UNVs also helped the district administrations in relief operations, rescue and evacuation, and in providing medical and health facilities.

At the start of the shelter project, UNDP selected 29 UNVs and gave them training in building technologies, which were selected for the habitat development. The new UNVs were then introduced in a rural area, where they were made familiar with the community situation by way of village meetings. Soon they started interacting with the villagers in form of activities such as surveying, selection of masons for training, selection of sites for technology demonstration Units, formation of self-help groups etc.

Soon these UNVs began to impart training to the local masons and artisans in the technologies they had learnt. They began their role as facilitators between its different partners, for getting people the benefits of the various schemes, supervising the building activities and providing technical support to all other agencies involved in the development.

After the UNVs have been able to develop a team in an area, which will be capable of carrying forward the building movement, they will withdraw their support from them and move forward to other areas where the UNDP efforts are to be spread. These enabled teams of masons will then be utilized in these new areas by the UNVs for training and construction activities.

Their reward

The UNVs are paid a Voluntary Living Allowances by UNDP until the completion of the second phase of the shelter programme. Gradually, UNDP will begin to reduce their contribution to the UNVs salary. The remaining part is to be put in by the AFED (federation of all artisan self help groups of a district) who will then employ the UNVs as consultants. Close collaboration with the government officials and other partner organizations ensures a sustained quantity of work for the UNVs. Hence, the aim is to internalise the UNVs and their experiences in the villages themselves.

However, for the UNVs the thrill lies somewhere else. It is a matter of pride for them to be called a United Nations Volunteer. For Satya, a planner and UNV currently working in the Ersama block of the Balikuda district, the satisfaction that he derives at the end of the day is the biggest reward. He now knows almost every villager by name, personal history and occupation in the villages that he has been working in. He narrates incidences when he has helped villagers put off a fire in a burning hutment or when he had to carry a sick villager to a hospital facility kilometres away or when he had a motor bike accident and hurt his forehead due to the bad conditions of the road. Such is the dedication of the UNVs, that they do not mind working in the hardships of village life away form the comforts of home for even months together.