What is changing in Australian aid's new volunteer program?

CANBERRA — Volunteers have played an important role in Australia’s aid program since 1951, beginning with a program supporting Indonesia. Since then, more than 14,000 Australians volunteers have been through the program, providing a range of expertise and assistance to developing countries. On Feb. 12, Sen. Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, Australia’s minister for international development and the Pacific, launched a new era of the Australian Volunteers for International Development program at Parliament House in Canberra. Supported by managing contractor Australian Volunteers International, the new volunteer program will maintain its development focus linked to the strategic objectives of the Australian Aid program, but will increase the diversity of volunteers with a new inclusion strategy. The aim is to attract a cohort of volunteers who are more representative of Australian society, and the program will have specific strategies and opportunities to target youth, people with disability, and indigenous and female Australians. Increasing diversity aims to increase aid awareness Speaking with Devex at the second annual Aid Supplier Conference in Canberra on Feb. 15, Fierravanti-Wells explained that the new program is a critical component of her campaign to increase Australia’s awareness of the aid program. “This has been one of the things that I have very much pushed,” she said. “For me, from the moment that I took on this job, I really wanted to shift the narrative on ODA [official development assistance] and not just focus on the ‘what’ — in other words, what we are doing — but more importantly on why we are doing it and also what is the direct benefit to Australia. It’s important that Australians have confidence in our overseas development assistance program, and the only way that they will have confidence in that is to understand that this is of benefit to Australia.” To achieve better understanding, she said, it is important that all aid partners — including NGOs, the private sector, and volunteers — help deliver Australia’s aid message. “Ultimately, it’s [the Australian aid program] where we have different players and each of those players has a role to play in ensuring that the confidence of the Australian public remain,” Fierravanti-Wells continued. “There is a direct lack of very divided opinion in terms of the providers and players in this space, as opposed to the Australian public. And I think that leads a lot of scope for a meeting in the middle and for greater participation by those players — those organizations, our partners, and the Australian government — to ensure a greater understanding and therefore a greater willingness to support the aid program.” Initiatives to increase volunteer diversity Starting this year, the volunteer program will implement a range of new initiatives targeting diversity, including a group of champions comprised of Australians from all walks-of-life and various sectors. This group will meet with and advise the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on ways to encourage and target new sections of the population to participate in the volunteer program. The group will help with advocacy within established networks and may suggest and support pilot projects and initiatives to encourage groups, such as diaspora groups, to become Australian volunteers. The new volunteer program will also be looking at how the program is marketed to recruit volunteers and will try new approaches to reach Australians who have little or no knowledge of the volunteer program, or even the aid program. A new Innovation Challenge Fund will be established to provide a space to explore new ideas in international volunteering. This fund is currently in consultation and design phase, and launch dates and its delivery mechanism are still to be determined. “We want to encourage a more diverse group of Australians to volunteer,” Fierravanti-Wells said at the launch of the new program. “From a personal basis, coming as I do from a culturally diverse background, to see more of the second and third generations of Australians from different heritages giving back themselves and going back potentially to the country of their parents and their grandparents and volunteering where they can.” Extending upon diversity initiatives Australia’s volunteer program has already established a range initiatives to enable greater diversity. Since 2013, a disability inclusion strategy within the program has supported a three-pronged strategic approach to better incorporate disability: supporting disability-related host organizations, providing introductory training on disability inclusion for volunteers and staff, and ensuring Australians with disabilities are able to access volunteering opportunities. For the 2016-17 financial year, four volunteers self-identified as having a disability, while 18 percent of volunteers supported people with disabilities as part of their assignment. With gender diversity, there is already strong representation from women in the volunteer program: In 2016-17, 65 percent of volunteers were female. At the project level, 94 of the 1,212 assignments had a primary focus on gender equality. But the AVID program will continue to develop its gender inclusion strategy to build on and guide gender initiatives. Additionally, the AVID Indigenous Participation Framework, launched in July 2014, will continue to guide and support programs specifically targeting indigenous inclusion — including targeted communications, improved access through recruitment and selection methods, and additional programs supporting the needs of indigenous volunteers. The Classic Wallabies Indigenous Exchange is one of the programs AVID has supported to improve Indigenous participation. Encouraging diversity is a continuously evolving initiative Over the next five years, more than 5,000 Australians are expected to take up volunteer assignments supporting the aid program. But increasing diversity will requiring an evolving set of targets and initiatives over this period. As the managing contractor, AVI will be working with DFAT to develop and finalize a diversity and inclusion strategy establishing its approach to promote diversity and inclusiveness through the delivery of the program. Over the course of the new five-year management contract, these strategies are expected to target volunteer recruitment, assignment areas, diversity within partner organizations, in-country support programs, and pre-departure training, policies, and resources that enable more diverse individuals to be volunteers. Through improved data capture and analysis, annual planning processes will see these strategies change to better target the groups that are missing from Australia’s aid program.