Taipei Times: To what extent do you think the establishment of IAVE-Taiwan on Friday can enhance the linkage between Taiwan's volunteer groups and their counterparts in the international community?
Liz Burns: I hope it will be very significant because it means that there is a definite identity now for IAVE in Japan, and the identity applies not only to IAVE there, but also to IAVE as a linking mechanism for organizations and groups here in Taiwan. They will then identify themselves more clearly with the international body.
It's also a very significant move because IAVE-Taiwan is launching itself with a four-point strategy in place. And that means that there are plans. Once they've identified their missions for themselves and they've identified some plans that they are going to take forward as IAVE-Taiwan, that (the four-point strategy) will enhance what organizations in Taiwan are doing. They will have inclusive connections with each other, as well as closer contacts with organizations and networks worldwide.
TT: What have been the ties between the IAVE and the UN system, since the IAVE has been one of the groups that enjoys special status in the UN Economic and Social Development Committee (ECOSOC)?
Burns: The IAVE is one of a number of international volunteer organizations and NGOs that has been given consultative status to ECOSOC.
To maintain that status, the organization has to stay in regular contact with the UN. We do that in two ways. One is that we have in New York a volunteer who attends certain meetings of the UN, particularly those of its NGO committees.
The other way in which we are in contact with the UN is through the UN Volunteers (UNV), which is the UN's own program for recruiting volunteers worldwide. They recruit mainly younger people -- but in that context `young' has a fairly elastic definition -- to support the UN development agencies in developing countries where the UN has a presence.
The UNV is the department within the UN that was given
responsibility for taking the lead in the International Year of Volunteers, which was in 2001. ... The IAVE members around the world, including here in Taiwan, took the lead in promoting the year and organizing programs for the year.
TT: To what extent do you think that US President George W. Bush's state-of-the-union speech, during which he called on all Americans to give two years of their lives to voluntary national service, served as a response to the UN resolution on volunteering?
Burns: I am not sure if that was intended as a response. In many ways it's a very positive confirmation of the importance of volunteering. The American government has a long tradition of supporting volunteering ... and President Bush is following that long presidential tradition of supporting volunteering in America.
I think what's new in his state-of-the-union address was the link that he was making to the response to Sept. 11. It was an acknowl-edgement of the roles that volunteers have played in the immediate response to Sept. 11. But it's also linked to the whole question of national security.
TT: But Bush's address also triggered fear among critics who fear that his plan could harm civil society, the network of local institutions where most voluntary activity takes place, by making the government the main link between individuals and the society they offer to help. What's your view of the critics' fear?
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