Guidelines for Activities/Projects to Involve ICT Volunteers Through UNITeS

If you are interested in involving ICT Volunteers through UNITeS for an activity or project, please submit a one-two page abstract to UNITeS (contact info at the bottom of this page) that notes the following four items, in as much detail as possible:

1. How this project/activity will involve ICT volunteers to help communities, a institution or other target beneficiaries apply ICT tools in an area of human development.
   
   Examples:
   
   
   • a volunteer geographer helping onsite for six months to set up a GIS system to map biodiversity from a protected area in an environment project
     
     
   • a group of volunteers spending a year teaching classes in a community telecenter
     
     
   • a volunteer working with doctors in a rural clinic for three months to build a medical database
     
     
   • a volunteer working with teachers for four weeks to use the Internet to find curricula and resources for the classroom
     
     
   • a volunteer onsite for a year helping to configure, install and manage a wireless network for NGOs or schools in rural settings, and teaching others to maintain this system after the volunteer has gone
     
     
   • a volunteer onsite for two years engaging in activities (trainings, workshops, building web sites, etc.) that raise awareness among decision makers (e.g. at a Government Dept.) about the possibilities of ICT for human development
     
     
   • volunteers onsite for various amounts of time and involved in managing aspects of ICT for Development projects/programmes (e.g. helping to coordinate a programme that inserts ICTs in learning in secondary schools in a city or an entire country)
     
     
   • volunteers onsite for various amounts of time developing local volunteer initiatives in support of ICT for Development projects/programmes
   
   
   Assignments such as web managers or network managers for an UN Agency office would NOT be suitable for ICT volunteers for UNITeS unless there is a strong capacity building or community serving component. For instance someone working as a webmaster in an NGO who is also engaged in activities to build the capacity for others in the NGO and the community to be webmasters would be an appropriate activity for a volunteer through UNITeS.
   
   Please see our listing of UNITeS activities for additional examples of appropriate ICT volunteering activities. Also see our listing of sample TORS for more ideas.
   
   
   
2. How ICT volunteers in this project will work with local community members, and how this project will, in some way, promote the value of volunteerism and encouraging volunteering in the surrounding community.
   
   
   
3. What organization is the official sponsor of this project, what collaborating organizations will also be involved, and what resources these organizations will contribute to this activity.

   The sponsor can be an NGO, a UNDP office, another U.N. office, a school or a university, or a private company. The sponsoring organization is the one responsible for the project, and will fully define the role (via Terms of Reference) of ICT volunteers in the project. It will take the lead in working directly with the nearest UNV country Program Officer (sitting in the local UNDP Country Office) to concretize the volunteer assignments.

   The sponsoring institution will provide direction and guidance for the ICT volunteers. In those cases where the sponsoring institution is the same as the "host" institution (ie. the one where the ICT volunteer will be located at), it will also provide an enabling working environment for the volunteer, including a direct supervisor for her/him.

   The sponsoring organization should contribute to the assignments in one of more of the following ways:

   • securing funding for the ICT volunteers assignments. This is important to note, as the cost of ICT volunteers under UNITeS are normally at least partially financed from the projects to which they contribute.
     
   • donating the space and equipment that will be used in this assignment
     
   • providing accommodations for the ICT volunteers

   
   

4. Your full name, your affiliation with the organization that is sponsoring this proposed project or activity, your contact information (phone, email address and mailing address), and any affiliation you have with the United Nations (affiliation with the U.N. is NOT necessary to submit an abstract).
   
   

Your abstract can be within the body of an email, or in an attachment as a text only file or other file that could be read by our office via Microsoft Word. If sending an attachment, please send a brief explanation in the accompanying email. Submit your abstract to:
partnerships@unites.org