Beyond the Household: Giving and Volunteering in Six Areas in the Philippines Ramon L. Fernan III

Volunteerism is a worldwide phenomenon that has played an increasing role in society. It has had a long history with the scale of voluntary work varying from country to country implying that volunteerism could be culture-bound. It contributes towards the improvement of the quality of life of several sectors of society, and is a renewable resource for addressing issues and concerns in the broader context of human development. The UN General Assembly has passed several resolutions on volunteer service, notably A/RES/40/212 adopted on 17 December 1985 inviting governments "to observe annually, on 5 December, an International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development, and urges them to take measures to heighten awareness of the important contribution of volunteer service, thereby stimulating more people in all walks of life to offer their services as volunteers, both at home and abroad." Toward this end, it encouraged governments to support efforts to measure the contribution of volunteer work and through the UN Statistics Division came up with a "Handbook on Non Profit Institutions in the System of National Accounts". In the Philippines, there is a wide network of non-profit institutions doing voluntary work. While volunteerism has had a long history in the country, organized volunteer work in the Philippines was enhanced with the government's creation of the Philippine National Volunteer Service Committee in 1964 which became the Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency (PNVSCA), a government agency mandated to advocate, promote and coordinate volunteer programs and recognize the contributions of volunteers to nation-building. The United Nations Volunteers (UNV), the United Nations organization that supports sustainable human development globally through the promotion of volunteerism started in the Philippines in 1981. Both the PNVSCA and the UNV actively engage in the promotion of volunteerism in the Philippines. In addition, there are several nonprofit institutions that do similar work. Despite the presence of institutional mechanisms to promote volunteer work in the country, and notwithstanding the efforts of the UP National College of Public Administration and Governance, currently there is dearth of information on volunteerism. Thus, there is no available reliable measure of the economic contribution of volunteer service in the Philippines. Recognizing the importance of quantifying the economic value of volunteer service, this paper presents some efforts towards the formulation of a conceptual and statistical framework for the measurement of contribution of volunteer work. It also presents some statistics on volunteerism generated through these efforts. Lastly, it describes the issues and challenges encountered and proposes a way forward. Keywords: volunteerism, volunteer work, economy, non-profit institutions, contribution/economic value, conceptual and statistical framework, system of national accounts