France Volontaires’ missions

Principles of action

France Volontaires’ action is based on two principles: 

• As a platform for consultation and dialogue between international solidarity volunteering stakeholders, it is committed to ensuring the qualitative and quantitative development of volunteering, in all its diversity, thanks to its members’ expertise and the deployment of ambitious programmes and experiments, relying on the France Volontaires teams at the headquarters, in the regional branches and in the Volunteering Centres worldwide; 
• France Volontaires is the benchmark in the fields of VIES(volontariat international d’échange et de solidarité/international exchange and solidarity volunteering) and develops tools, notably digital tools, to guide and respond to candidate volunteers’ desire to make a responsible and ethical commitment, to promote initiatives and projects involving volunteers, and to ensure its recognition and the demonstration of its social utility. 

Missions

To ensure the development and quality of the different forms of international volunteering, and in accordance with their common vision, France Volontaires and its members: 

• Design, in a partnership approach, volunteering projects that meet the expectations of all stakeholders, respecting their rights, cultures, beliefs, aspirations and equal human dignity; 
• Help people who wish to engage in voluntary work and solidarity abroad to understand the meaning of this and to define their projects; 
• Promote access to responsible and quality voluntary work for all;
• Prepare volunteers and partners for cultural encounters and support them throughout their project; 
• Ensure a safe framework and conditions for volunteers and partners; 
• Support volunteers on their return by encouraging them to make the most of their experience in their professional and civic life, facilitate their professional reintegration by drawing on their experience and encourage them to make their experience part of their civic life; 
• Open up volunteering to greater reciprocity; 
• Develop partnerships and support national volunteer networks around the world. 

Scope of intervention

In order to carry out these missions, France Volontaires acts in accordance with the priorities of France’s development policy and respects local authorities and associations’ right to initiative, in Mainland France, the Overseas Territories and abroad.  

France Volontaires works internationally, primarily in countries that receive public development aid.