Kazakhstan shared its experience in an international webinar dedicated to volunteering

Madiyar Kozhakhmet, Chairman of the Committee on Civil Society Affairs of the Ministry of Information and Public Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan, participated in a webinar organized by the UNDP Istanbul Regional Center as part of the Official Development Assistance (ODA) training series. The topic of the meeting was cooperation in the development of volunteerism.

The event was also attended by representatives of international organizations, UNV, UNDP, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

This training series was aimed at learning about volunteerism as a tool for development cooperation from a variety of perspectives, including from the perspective of development aid providers, the UN Volunteers Program, and the Volunteers themselves.

During the discussion of new trends, as well as opportunities and challenges, M. Kozhakhmet spoke about the role of volunteers in the public life of the country and the conditions created for the development of the volunteer movement in Kazakhstan. He also informed about the ongoing joint work with UNV to promote the initiative of the President of Kazakhstan K.Tokayev on the proclamation of the International Year of Volunteer Mobilization, announced at the 75th session of the UN General Assembly

Through this event, participants were able to expand their knowledge of various forms of volunteerism, development cooperation, and the respective advantages and disadvantages of achieving the Development Goals.

Since 2014, the UNDP Istanbul Regional Center has been organizing a series of events as part of a series of initiatives to develop the capacity of ODA for new donors, its partners from the Czech Republic, Romania, the Russian Federation, Slovakia, Turkey, as well as other interested countries, including Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro and Serbia. In 2020, the UNDP Istanbul Regional Centre organized a series of training courses on ODA together with the OECD Development Cooperation Directorate. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 ERP training series has been adapted to an online format.