Meeting Christian Midence, Minister of Youth of Honduras and President of the National Volunteer Council (CONAVOL), at #IVCO2026.
Honduras offers an important example of government leadership in strengthening volunteering and fostering collaboration between government and civil society. These partnerships are essential to creating an enabling environment in which volunteering can thrive, contribute to sustainable development and be recognised as an important part of civic engagement and wider society.
What should international volunteering look like in 2030 and beyond?
That’s one of the questions emerging from our first day at IVCO 2026 in Paris, where colleagues from across the world are exploring how volunteering can contribute to sustainable development through mutual exchange, partnerships and solidarity.
A strong thread running through the day has been the importance of values, sustained investment and government support, and of recognising volunteering as much more than an individual experience or a programme of activities. At its best, international volunteering is part of the wider fabric of civil society, civic engagement and global solidarity.
A recurring theme has been the importance of exchange and mutual learning across countries, communities and organisations. Meaningful volunteering depends on relationships, on being open to learning from one another, and on recognising the different knowledge and experiences that people bring.
These conversations have also highlighted the infrastructure that makes good practice possible. Relationships between organisations, shared standards, spaces for critical reflection and learning, and networks that enable us to learn from experience do not simply happen. They require time, commitment and sustained investment.
Comhlámh’s contributions
Comhlámh was pleased to contribute to these conversations throughout the day, bringing perspectives from our work on values-led volunteering, global citizenship education and solidarity.
Fiachra Brennan contributed to discussions on ending orphanage volunteering, in a session hosted by Better Care Network and ECPAT International in partnership with the Global Volunteering Forum. The session explored the risks associated with orphanage volunteering, including potential harm to children, family separation and the perpetuation of institutional care.
Comhlámh’s Code of Good Practice was highlighted as an example of a framework that can help organisations move away from orphanage volunteering and towards ethical, child-centred and rights-based approaches. The discussion reinforced the importance of safeguarding, organisational accountability and collaboration across volunteer-sending and volunteer-receiving countries.
Fiachra also moderated a Human Library session exploring diverse pathways into volunteering. Through personal stories from volunteers and organisations, the session examined how people’s journeys evolve across community, national and international volunteering, and how organisations can create bridges between different opportunities for engagement.
These contributions reflect Comhlámh’s longstanding commitment to supporting volunteering that is values-led, reflective, reciprocal and connected to wider questions of global justice.
Later, Dervla King from Comhlámh moderated a breakout session showcasing diverse case studies of projects, programmes and strategies contributing to sustainable development. The presentations offered practical insights into the many ways volunteering can create change, while inspiring new approaches and opportunities for collaboration.
During this session, is where we also met with Minister Christian Midence of Honduras. The Minister brought into focus the importance of political leadership and the relationships needed to strengthen volunteering at a national level.
A significant milestone in Honduras has been the formal establishment of CONAVOL, following a process that had remained pending for more than 12 years. This highlights the role that sustained government commitment can play in creating structures for collaboration between public institutions, civil society and international partners.
As the volunteering sector looks towards 2030 and beyond, these relationships will be vital. Strong collaboration helps create the conditions for volunteering to be supported, valued and embedded in wider society, while ensuring that the knowledge and experience of civil society are recognised in shaping policy and practice.
Looking ahead
As we reflect on the first day, one message stands out: if we are serious about the role of international volunteering in civil society and global solidarity, we need to be serious about investing in what makes that work possible.
That means supporting the relationships, standards, learning and organisational capacity that underpin good practice, while remaining open to new ideas, different experiences and the voices of those who make volunteering what it is.
As we look towards 2030 and beyond, the challenge is not only to demonstrate volunteering’s contribution to sustainable development, but to ensure that the conditions exist for it to be values-led, inclusive, mutually beneficial and transformative.
An important conversation to be having in this International Volunteer Year.