Caroline Murphy from Comhlámh alongside international colleagues at IVCO 2026, following their sessio accessibility and Inclusion: reaching under-represented groups. This interactive session explored the barriers that prevent some groups from accessing volunteering opportunities, by sharing the lived experiences of volunteers and the organisations that support them.
What does it take for volunteering to fulfil its potential as a force for global solidarity, and who gets to participate?
These questions ran through the conversations on Day 3 of #IVCO2026 in Paris, where discussions explored the value of volunteering in international development, the conditions needed to support it, and the barriers that can prevent people from participating.
Across the day, there was a focus on giving volunteering its rightful place within policy and international development. Too often, volunteering is treated as an add-on to development work rather than as a meaningful and strategic contribution in its own right. Yet its value extends far beyond the activities volunteers undertake. It lies in the relationships that develop, the exchange of knowledge and experience, and the opportunities for people to learn and work together towards shared goals.
This is particularly important in international partnerships. Volunteering can provide a practical way to put global solidarity into action, moving beyond transactional relationships towards reciprocity, mutual learning and shared purpose. It can build connections between people and communities, strengthen global solidarity and create opportunities to work towards more equitable partnerships.
Recognising this value, however, is only part of the picture. The discussions also raised questions about the funding, policies and infrastructure needed to sustain volunteering, the inequalities that shape access to participation, and the protection and support volunteers need, particularly in contexts of conflict and crisis.
Throughout the day, these wider questions were also connected to questions of access, inclusion and power. Volunteering may be recognised as a potential force for global solidarity, but who gets to participate in that work, and on what terms? The conditions that enable volunteering to thrive are not only about funding, policy and organisational support; they are also about whose participation is possible, whose contributions are recognised, and who gets to shape the opportunities available. These questions came into focus in Comhlámh’s contribution to the Human Library session.
Comhlámh’s contribution: Who gets to volunteer?
As part of the Human Library session on accessibility and inclusion, Caroline Murphy of Comhlámh contributed Who Gets to Volunteer? Rethinking Access, Inclusion and Belonging. Through creative storytelling, the contribution explored a fundamental question for the volunteering sector: what does it mean to welcome everyone when the systems in which volunteering takes place do not offer everyone the same freedom to participate?
Volunteering is often understood as a way to build skills and connections, deepen engagement with global justice, and sustain that engagement beyond individual opportunities or placements. Yet access to volunteering opportunities is shaped by wider structures of power. Immigration controls, racism and systemic barriers can constrain people’s choices, make participation more difficult and influence whose contributions are valued.
For people whose ability to remain in a country depends on their immigration status and the conditions attached to it, volunteering may offer valuable experience while doing little to meet the requirements they must navigate. An opportunity can be worthwhile in itself and still be inaccessible within the realities of someone’s life.
These barriers cannot be understood simply in terms of individual motivation or willingness. Wanting to contribute does not mean having the freedom to do so. Nor does being unable to take up an opportunity indicate a lack of interest, commitment or motivation. When attention focuses on whether individuals are proactive enough to find their way into volunteering, the structural conditions shaping their choices risk being overlooked. Responsibility for inclusion is then placed on those already navigating unequal conditions, rather than on the systems and organisations that are implicated in the reproduction of inequality and exclusion.
This raises an uncomfortable question for organisations committed to social justice: how might the inequalities they seek to challenge also be reflected in their own practices? Organisations can work to challenge inequality while relying on assumptions, processes and expectations that make participation easier for some people than others. Such inequalities do not require deliberate exclusion to persist. They can be embedded in the rules that govern people’s lives, the ways opportunities are organised, and assumptions about who belongs, who is qualified and whose contribution counts.
Addressing this requires more than opening opportunities or inviting under-represented groups to participate. It means examining how power operates within volunteering itself: whose circumstances are accommodated, whose skills are recognised, who is expected to adapt to existing structures, and who has the authority to shape them. It also means recognising that racism and immigration controls are not external issues that organisations can set aside when offering inclusive opportunities. They form part of the wider conditions within which participation and belonging are negotiated.
The challenge is not to dismiss the value of volunteering, but to examine its contradictions without rushing to resolve them. Volunteering can create connection, opportunity and belonging, and it can reproduce unequal access. Organisations can be committed to social justice and still need to confront how their own practices sustain inequality. Holding both truths together is an important starting point for change.
The question, then, is not only whether there is a place for everyone, but who has the power to enter, participate and belong, and what must change for people to contribute on more equal terms.
Giving volunteering its rightful place
Discussions on Day 3, including those connected to International Volunteer Year (IVY), returned to the importance of recognising volunteering as a meaningful contribution to international development and global solidarity.
Volunteering can create opportunities for people to share knowledge, learn from one another and build relationships based on trust and mutual respect. In international partnerships, this reciprocity matters. More equitable relationships require recognition of the knowledge and experience that different partners bring, rather than viewing volunteering simply as a means of delivering activities or transferring skills.
The value lies in working together and growing together. Volunteering can help put this into practice through shared learning, stronger connections between people and communities, and opportunities to build global citizenship and solidarity in a world facing multiple crises.
However, recognising volunteering’s value symbolically is not enough. If volunteering is to be treated as a strategic part of international development, that recognition must be reflected in policy, funding and organisational support. Its contribution depends not only on what volunteers do, but also on the relationships and conditions that make their involvement meaningful.
Creating an enabling environment
A recurring theme was the need for an enabling environment in which volunteering can thrive. Goodwill and commitment are not enough on their own. Volunteering requires an ecosystem of support, including appropriate funding, supportive policies, organisational infrastructure and resources that enable people and organisations to participate meaningfully.
The role of government investment was also raised. Volunteering must be reflected in decisions about resources and policy. Without investment in the structures that support it, organisations may struggle to provide the flexibility, preparation, safeguarding and ongoing support needed for values-led and effective participation.
These conditions are also central to inclusion. The costs of volunteering are not experienced equally. An unpaid opportunity may be manageable for one person but inaccessible to someone who needs paid work. Immigration status, geographical barriers and a lack of tailored support can also prevent people from taking part, even when they are motivated to contribute.
Creating an enabling environment therefore means considering both the sustainability of volunteering and the conditions under which people participate. It requires investment in programmes and organisations, alongside a willingness to question established approaches and address the barriers that leave people out.
Participation, power and protection
Questions about access also lead to wider considerations of power and safety. Volunteering does not take place on equal terms everywhere, and a commitment to supporting volunteers must include a commitment to protecting them.
The situation in Palestine, raised in a plenary discussion, brought particular urgency to questions of volunteer safety, safeguarding and international law. The risks faced by volunteers in contexts of genocide, conflict and crisis underline that volunteering must not mean being left exposed to harm, exploitation or fear.
If volunteering is valued as an expression of global solidarity, the safety and dignity of those who volunteer must be central to that commitment. This requires attention to the protections available to volunteers, the responsibilities of organisations and the wider conditions in which volunteering takes place.
These questions are part of creating an enabling environment, not separate from it. Meaningful participation requires more than access to an opportunity. It also requires appropriate support and protection, particularly where volunteers face serious risks beyond their individual control. Safeguarding must therefore be understood as an essential part of volunteering practice, underpinned by clear standards, accountability and sustained organisational commitment.
Looking ahead: Recognising the wider contribution of volunteering
Across the conversations on Day 3, a recurring challenge emerged: how to translate recognition of volunteering’s value into the conditions that allow it to contribute meaningfully and equitably.
For Comhlámh, Caroline Murphy’s contribution to the Human Library brought one part of this challenge into focus. By asking who gets to volunteer, whose contributions are recognised and how organisations can address barriers to participation, it connected the wider ambitions of inclusion and solidarity with the practical realities of how volunteering opportunities are designed and experienced. It also reinforced that the responsibility for inclusion rests not only with individuals seeking opportunities, but with the organisations and systems that shape them.
The discussions also highlighted a wider question: how is volunteering understood as part of international development, and what is needed to sustain its contribution? Volunteering is not simply an additional activity alongside development work, nor is its value limited to what happens during a placement. It creates relationships between people and communities across borders, supports mutual learning and can deepen understanding of global inequalities.
Its effects can continue long after volunteers return home. Through conversations, community involvement, workplaces and public engagement, volunteers can share their learning, challenge assumptions and help shape understanding of international development. These experiences can contribute to sustained public support for international cooperation, development and global solidarity. In this sense, volunteering connects international relationships with how people understand and engage with global issues in Ireland.
Recognising volunteering as part of development itself means looking beyond the placement and beyond a narrow distinction between domestic and international work. It means investing in the relationships, standards, safeguards and ongoing engagement that allow values-led volunteering to contribute meaningfully. It also means recognising that the infrastructure supporting volunteering is part of what makes its wider contribution possible.
As International Volunteer Year continues, the challenge is to carry these conversations into policy and practice. Volunteering has the potential to build bridges, strengthen relationships and contribute to global solidarity. Realising that potential requires more than celebrating what volunteers do. It requires sustained support, more equitable opportunities to participate, and a commitment to the relationships and structures that allow people and communities to learn and grow together.
The question is not only how we recognise the value of volunteering, but what we are prepared to do to ensure that it can thrive.