Welcome Remarks

Dr. Manu Chandaria

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am delighted to welcome the delegates to the Africa Conference on Volunteer Action for Peace and Development that is taking place here in Nairobi at the United Nations Headquarters on July 2nd to 4th 2012.  I extend a warm welcome to the Regional and International participants, welcome to Kenya.

The theme of the Conference is Volunteer Action for Peace and it could not be more relevant to the East Africa Regional at this time. Read More>>

Dr.Manu Chandaria OBE EBS

_________________________________________________________________________________________

ELIZABETH MUTUNGA – CONFERENCE SPEAKER

Elizabeth Mutunga is currently serving as the Conflict Early Warning Expert and also acting as the Mediation Support Officer for COMESA.  She has been involved in, and supported the development of various aspects of the Programmme on Peace and Security since joining the organization in 2004, including in the involvement of civil society, private sector and parliamentarians; the trading for peace programme, the COMESA’s war economy programme and the COMESA Programme on Democracy and Governance.  She is a holder of a Master of Science Degree and a Master of Business Administrative Degree both from Canada and a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Nairobi in Kenya.  Among some of her publications include a chapter in Shedrack Gaya Best (ed) Introduction to Peace and Conflict Study on Gender and Peace Processes in Africa and co-author to a Resource Pack on Conflict Sensitive Approaches to Development. Read more>>

__________________________________________________________________________________________

PROF. MUNYAE M. MULINGE – CONFERENCE SPEAKER

Prof. Munyae M. Mulinge received his Ph.D. from theUniversityofIowa,USA, in 1994. He has taught Sociology in various Colleges and Universities in theUnited States,Botswana, andKenya. Currently he is a Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justices Studies and the Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the United States International University (USIU) in Nairobi, Kenya. During his tenure with the USIU he has been involved extensively in the organization and running of the Community Service Program, a mandatory program that all students must go through to graduate. Prof. Mulinge’s research interests include job satisfaction and organizational attachment, Higher Education, Social Problems (including ethnicity and HIV/AIDS), and indigenous knowledge systems (IKS). Currently he is conducting research on ‘The Quality of Postgraduate Training in African Universities’ and on “Leadership in Higher Education’. Read More>>

___________________________________________________________________________________________

HELEN PEROLD – CONFERENCE SPEAKER

Helene Perold is a South African editor and researcher who became involved in service-learning in 1997 when she worked as a writer on the Community Service in Higher Education research project, funded by the Ford Foundation. In 1998 she served as a member of the technical team appointed to draft a Green Paper on National Youth Service. In 2000, she participated as presenter and conference rapporteur in the Ford Foundation’s Worldwide Workshop on Youth Development as a Strategy for Social, Economic and Democratic Development, inCosta Rica.

In 2003, Helene founded Volunteer and Service Enquiry Southern Africa (VOSESA), a non-governmental organisation that supports volunteer action in the region through research, publishing and convening. She continues to serve as the executive director of the organisation and also as the managing editor of Service Enquiry, the first edition of which focuses on civic service and volunteering around the world and was published at www.service-enquiry.org.za in 2003/4 in both English and Spanish. The second edition focuses on civic service and volunteering in Latin America and is available on the same website. 

She was the leader of the South African component of a five-country study, funded by GSI, that aims to examine the nature and scope of service and volunteering in Botswana, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In this capacity Helene was appointed as a CSD Research Fellow for the duration of the study. Since then she has lead studies on the impact of voluntary service on youth post-school and employment prospects inSouth Africa, and youth violence and civic engagement in the SADC region. Helene has guided the production of papers for UNV and other players on youth volunteering for development, and youth volunteering, social cohesion and employability and has been involved in developing a methodology for UNV to measure the contribution of volunteers in projects focusing on community-based adaptation to climate change.Read More>>