People have volunteered informally for generations, but we are now seeing a strong surge in volunteering that takes place within organisations and structured frameworks, most notably across Africa. IAVE’s Global Network of Volunteering Leadership includes 29 African countries, by far our largest regional presence, and that alone is evidence of the hunger and growth there. These leaders are eager to build the frameworks, laws and policies that set a national stage for volunteering, and the continent is leading the way.

Kenya is a good example. Its National Volunteerism Policy, adopted in 2015, was one of the first national frameworks of its kind in the region, and the country has since been working to give it legal footing through a National Volunteerism Bill. That effort shows how committed Kenya is to building a strong framework for volunteering, and to keeping the civil society around it healthy and strong.

There’s also a rise of equity in volunteering. Sending people from one part of the world to another as ‘experts’ to carry out volunteering no longer makes much sense. At IAVE, we have always taken a different path of investing in local volunteers as equal partners and building on the infrastructure that exists, because locally owned solutions are the ones that deliver real impact. The rest of the volunteering sector is now moving in the same direction.

Finally, we can’t ignore the role technology is playing. There’s been a rise in digital volunteering and some of the first instances of AI being used in volunteer work. We’ve noticed more volunteering being done remotely, at a computer rather than in person. We don’t see this desk-based volunteering replacing in-person work. We believe the future is blended, with both contributing in different ways at different times. But technology is an enabler, and without investment in digital access it can widen the divide rather than close it, particularly for women and other excluded groups.

Volunteering is one of those things people assume simply happens, but it doesn’t. It takes effort, resources and, above all, open spaces where people can come together, understand the problems in their community and act on them.

When governments close civic space, those are exactly the conditions that disappear. People find it harder to convene safely, and the civil society organisations that keep those spaces open and call volunteers into action face greater risks.

Volunteering raises awareness, and an informed citizenry is precisely what some authoritarian governments want to prevent. One of my favourite examples comes from a volunteering leader in Uganda. He said that when people build a well, it is not long before they look up and ask why they are building it at all, and why their government is not responsible for providing clean and consistent access to water. That is what volunteering does. It opens people’s eyes to the inequities and deficiencies around them, and some governments find that threatening.

People are happy to volunteer, but they increasingly want their volunteering to solve problems. They do not want to keep painting the same classroom or cleaning the same stream. They want to know that their efforts lead to lasting change.

Our research points to a deeper shift behind this. For years, formal volunteering was seen as a civic duty, something you did like paying taxes or voting. What we are seeing now is a hunger to move from volunteering as civic duty to volunteering as civic dissent, a way to express what you want to see changed in the world. We see this across all ages, but young people, in particular, are among the strongest voices pushing for systemic change.

We recently launched our Call to Action for the Future of Volunteering, shaped by the voices of around 14,000 people across 164 countries, and it comes down to three things: recognition, support and safeguarding.

We need to recognise volunteering as an agent of change that builds the civic muscle every day. Much of what we all do would not be possible without an engaged citizenry acting as volunteers, and this is where networks like CIVICUS have a particular role in making the invisible visible.

We also need to support it through sustained investment, because volunteering is not free. Somewhere along the line someone is training the volunteer manager, or providing the activity, the lunch and the transport.

And we need to safeguard it, making sure people who volunteer are protected and have what they need to keep going. Only then can volunteering deliver on its promise.