To tap Into its growing youth population, foster a sense of national unity, integration, and build a cohesive society at peace with each other, the Government of Ethiopia has launched a Ethiopian National Volunteer Community Service Programme. The Programme aims to promote a culture of  public service, to foster national integrity, to enhances respect for diversity, social cohesion and peaceful coexistence, contributing to sustainable peace and stability in the country.

Under the leadership of the Ministry of Peace and in close partnership with other stakeholders, and with the technical support from UNDP, the Programme will strive to achieve the following inter-related and complementary outputs: 

1. A National Volunteers Community Service Programme Institutional and policy framework developed and put in place; 
2. A culture of voluntarism, national harmony, social cohesion and integration promoted benefitting both service members, hosting communities and the public at large; 
3. Ethiopian youth empowered to constructively engage in national development and governance processes and to be champions of peace and contribute to nation building, to peaceful co-existence and sustainable peace.

What we have accomplished so far:

10,943 youth (3915 Females and 7028 Males) have participated in the 45 days of predeployment training that enhanced their knowledge and skills to better serve communities and increase their employability. Out of these, 9646 were deployed for a ten-month community service period in the ten targeted Regional States and 2 City Administrations. The youth are expected to serve communities based on a demand-driven approach and in a manner that fully harnesses their professional services in the areas of their qualification. During their deployment, they are also expected to initiate innovative and problem-solving projects based on their observation of challenges and problems faced by the community.

The Ethiopian National Volunteer Community Service Programme (ENVCSP) model outlining the programme cycle, components, and eligibility criteria, 7 pre-deployment training modules7 , participants registration links on the common government e-service portal8 have been developed and used to run the programme activities.

PM Abiy Ahmed while marking the graduation of the youth