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Follow our new series of interviews with influential Forum leaders and IVCO delegates. This week we met with Sónia Fernandes, Presidente Executiva of Pista Mágica in Portugal.
We are excited to launch the programme for IVCO 2025 and to open our call for speakers and think-piece authors.
Set against the stunning backdrop of Cambodia’s historic temples, September’s IVCO 2025 builds on the highly successful 2024 event. Participants will again join the entire Forum network, the most significant global network of organisations that work with volunteers to achieve sustainable development goals. IVCO 2025 finds our community facing new challenges, with shifting funding priorities, policy changes, and a global civil society under threat: the way volunteers and organisations operate is faced with rapid change.
14–18 September 2025 | Siem Reap, Cambodia
IVCO returns this September and Early Bird registration is now open. Co-hosted by Forum and the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia, the conference brings together global leaders, volunteer-involving organisations, policymakers, and civil society actors for a week of dialogue, collaboration and action in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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We begin this think piece with a personal reflection from Willoughby Niki on how the onset of COVID-19 abruptly rewrote and ultimately expanded his volunteering engagement as a way of life. He goes on to explore how technology can deepen human connections in international development.
As we work towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and better lives for communities around the world, trust is central to our ability to cooperate with stakeholders and further these goals. Yet trust is also becoming a challenge, as cooperation unfolds against a backdrop of geopolitical fragmentation, and seemingly transactional relationships.
19-23 October 2026 | Paris, France
Registration is now LIVE for the 2026 Global Volunteering Forum!
Join us in Paris, as we celebrate the UN’s International Volunteer Year.
We’re again bringing together leaders from across the globe to help tackle the biggest shifts in volunteering, partnerships, impact and innovation.
The conference report ‘Strengthening Civil Society in Challenging Times’ captures key themes from the 2025 International Volunteer Cooperation Organisations Conference (IVCO 2025). It reflects the collaborative efforts of the IVCO 2025 Organising Team. IVCO was organised by the Global Volunteering Forum with co-hosts the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia (CCC) and in partnership with Australian Volunteers International (AVI), France Volontaires and VSO Cambodia.
The report was written by Dr. Sathish Rao Appalanaidu and Fazirah Naser, with the support of conference facilitators who assisted with note-taking and documentation: Yakshika Vats, Kathleen Cass and Maia Baillie Smith.
