Pakistan has become the first country in the developing world to set up a National Volunteer Corps (NVC) to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDG), poverty alleviation and human development. The NVC will mobilize up to 100,000 men and women from all walks of life to support social interventions at the grassroots level, Minister of State and National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) Chairman Dr. Nasim Ashraf told a seminar. The UNDP and NCHD jointly organized the seminar to promote volunteerism in society and its importance in education at grassroots level in connection with International Conference on Volunteerism to be held in December in Pakistan. Ashraf said a network of over 80,000 registered and 40,000 trained volunteers at the district level had been established to coordinate activities for an organized voluntary action. UNDP Resident Director Onder Yucer hailed the efforts of NCHD and said its National Volunteers Corps had been internationally recognized. He said the UN Secretary General, in his report to General Assembly as follow up to International Year of Volunteers 2001, made a mention of Volunteers Corps and said, "NCHD draws upon Volunteers at grass roots level in the field of education, heath and income generation activities."
