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International NGOs have been working with volunteers for as long as the development sector has existed, but the means through which volunteers contribute to development objectives have evolved over time. This webinar examined how skilled volunteers can contribute to market systems development outcomes. The presenters discussed recent innovations through a number of concrete examples. Evidence was shared on skills-based volunteering as a means to bring new talent into market systems programs and to tap into a steady pipeline of advisors, facilitators, and investors. The webinar focused on the planning, training, and monitoring required to make the best use of volunteers in market systems programming, and demonstrate how volunteers can contribute to sustainable impact at scale.

This webinar:

• Addressed commonly held misconceptions about volunteer programming
• Shared successful models and lessons learned related to engaging volunteers
• Highlighted examples of how skilled volunteers have contributed to tangible results and impacts
• Identified opportunities for funders, organizations, and professionals to harness volunteer expertise

Moderator

Jim Delaney, WUSC

Jim Delaney is Director of Programming and Partnership for the Uniterra Program, a 14 country volunteering for development program jointly managed by WUSC and CECI. World University Service of Canada (WUSC) is a Canadian non-profit organization working to create a better world for all young people. WUSC brings together a diverse network of students, volunteers, schools, governments, and businesses who share this vision. Together, we foster youth-centered solutions for education, economic opportunities, and empowerment to overcome inequality and exclusion in over 25 countries across Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Uniterra is WUSC’s flagship international volunteering program, implemented jointly with CECI. The program mobilizes more than 400 volunteers per year to support innovation and greater inclusion in market systems that affect marginalized young people and women in 14 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Speakers

Elena Haba, EWB Canada

Elena Haba started her career as a lawyer and was practicing in a national Canadian corporate law firm prior to moving to West Africa, where she shifted gears and chose to channel her corporate experience into providing business advisory services to SMEs. Elena is passionate about enabling individuals that are improving the lives of vulnerable or underrepresented populations. She is currently the Director of Investments at EWB Canada, where her aim is to support social entrepreneurs in building more sustainable and inclusive economic systems. EWB Canada invests in people and ideas to tackle the most crucial causes of poverty and inequality. Its impact investment portfolio supports emerging innovations servicing underserved populations in sub-Saharan Africa that have the potential to solve systemic solutions perpetuating poverty and inequality. EWB Canada supports these pioneering early-stage, highly-scalable, and innovative social enterprises by recruiting and placing strategic talent within these ventures, by providing them with advisory services and by investing up to $100,000 in capital in them. EWB Canada has been organizing volunteer assignments in emerging markets for over 18 years.

Jennifer Snow, Winrock International

Jennifer Snow, with Winrock International, has 17 years of experience supporting agriculture and volunteer programs. She has designed and implemented processes and systems to ensure effective implementation of international volunteer assignments and directly builds the capacity of local organizations, partners, and staff to plan, implement, analyze, and report on volunteer impacts and lessons. She currently oversees a $90M portfolio of projects in Africa and Asia, focused on bolstering agricultural market systems, scaling agricultural innovations, and improving agriculture education. She also serves as Program Director for Winrock’s USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer Program, which engages skilled volunteers to provide training and technical assistance to generate sustainable, broad-based economic growth in the agricultural sector, worldwide. Winrock International has implemented volunteer programs in 59 countries since 1991, particularly through the Farmer-to-Farmer Program. Winrock designs and implements market systems interventions tailored to economies at all stages of development. This ranges from frontier economies with a nascent private sector to countries with well-developed markets and an active private sector.