Japan's Kwansei Gakuin University joins UNV university volunteer network under UNITeS – October 2003

KOBE, Japan/BONN, Germany, 14 October 2003--Japan's Kwansei Gakuin University (KGU) and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) have reached an agreement establishing the university as the first institution of higher learning in Asia to form a volunteer-sending partnership with the United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS).

Kobe-based KGU is joining the expanding University Volunteer Network under UNITeS, which offers information, communication - and computer-based services to build capacity in developing countries through UNITeS. Led by the UN Volunteers programme, UNITeS is an initiative launched by United Nations Secretary-General in 2000 to help bridge the digital divide through volunteers with strong information and communication technology (ICT) skills.

Under the agreement signed recently in Tokyo, KGU will send 35 students over the next three years to various ICT-related projects in developing countries, primarily in Asia. Assignments for university volunteers will be determined based on demand from the field, taking into consideration aspects such as security of the duty station and qualifications of each volunteer. In exchange for their services, volunteers will be given academic credit based on their performance and their supervisors' evaluations. The university expects to field its first volunteers at the start of the new academic year in April 2004.

"Welcoming Kwansei Gakuin University to the University Network under UNITeS as the first member university from Japan and Asia has a strategic importance for UNITeS with a view to having a balanced composition of this network," said UNV Deputy Executive Coordinator Ad de Raad. He also noted the political and financial support of the Government of Japan to the overall UNITeS initiative since its inception, in particular specific funding this year to support involvement of universities from the South in the network.

Kazuo Hiramatsu, President of Kwansei Gakuin University who signed the agreement with Mr. de Raad, said this programme "will add new opportunities and challenges to KGU's efforts" to contribute to international cooperation. "We would like to actively involve ourselves in this endeavour that reflects new demands and needs of the current era," he added. "I expect that the spirit of 'nurturing global citizens' - the spirit maintained since the foundation of the university - will manifest itself through this programme in the area of ICT."

According to Professor Shun'ichi Murata, coordinator of the KGU University Volunteers Programme, building partnership between a global organization such as UNV and the non-profit organization such as his university is an "epoch-making event which has never been achieved in Japan. The biggest challenge for us is to make it successful," the professor said, adding: "I expect this attempt will be the touchstone of similar initiatives of other Japanese universities, and will eventually facilitate the educational reforms of Japanese academic institutions."

George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia (USA) was the first institution to join the university volunteer scheme through UNITeS in 2001, followed by the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain, which came on board in early 2002 and that currently coordinates a network of 13 universities at the national level. The objective is to create a global network of universities from industrial and developing countries that also promotes South-South cooperation.
To date, university volunteers have taken up ICT-related assignments under the UNITeS initiative in countries such as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Ecuador, Honduras, India, Jordan, Kosovo, Mongolia, Senegal and Trinidad and Tobago.

The idea behind the university network is to expand on volunteer human resources and knowledge, especially through mobilizing young people, faculty members on sabbatical leave and staff members possessing strong ICT skills that can contribute in building ICT capacity in developing countries. UNV is the volunteer arm of the UN system supporting peace, relief and development initiatives in nearly 150 countries. Created by the UN General Assembly in 1970 and administered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNV works through UNDP country offices and a network of international organizations to mobilize more than 5,000 UN Volunteers annually, 70 percent of whom come from developing nations.