Volunteering Infrastructure and Trends Desktop Review report and infographic

Recent data on volunteering isn't always readily available, which is just one of the reasons why it's worthwhile for international volunteering programs to contribute to this area of research.

The Innovation Hub recently embarked on a desktop review, commissioning Day Four Projects to gather data on volunteering infrastructure and trends across the countries where we work. The purpose of this research was to help answer some of the questions we're considering as part of our Global Volunteering Accelerator innovation workstream: What is the state of volunteering in program countries, and where might program support be most valued and valuable?

Overall, this desktop review found that:

• the state of the data was variable, with available data on volunteering infrastructure in almost every country but inconsistent and incomparable data on volunteering trends.
• there were no definitive links between volunteering infrastructure, Human Development Index (HDI) ranking, or region, with no patterns observed between the prevalence of volunteering laws and policies, volunteering bodies, or volunteering schemes.
• there were no definitive links between volunteering trends, HDI ranking, or region, however, the general lack of comparable data on volunteering trends means this cannot be considered a firm conclusion.

We're pleased to be able to share the results of this research, which includes an infographic summarising the key findings; a formal report providing an overview of the approach and methodology and more detail on the data; an Excel workbook allowing program staff and sector colleagues to dig deeper into the country-by-country findings. These documents are available for download below.

The desktop review was limited to available and discoverable data published in English, and the limitations of the scope of this research are discussed in more detail in the report. It is therefore possible that additional data exists. We're eager to support any efforts to improve the quality and availability of our volunteering data. If you'd like to learn more about this work or have additional data or resources to share, please contact innovation@australianvolunteers.com.