Meeting personnel and associated needs

Another fundamental issue for VSAs is the appropriate type and structure of volunteer support. Community volunteers could be supported by paraprofessionals, who, in turn, could be supported by highly trained professionals. In the interests of sustainability, the use of national personnel must be the ultimate goal of any development programme. The extent to which national personnel can be used in any programme depends upon the capacity of the country and urban centre concerned. In the majority of developing countries and urban situations, however, the scale needed for this of kind of work requires some international VDWs as paraprofessionals and highly-trained professionals.

Such work may require a mix of international, national and community volunteers, as determined by the dynamics and needs of the particular situations. The challenge in supplying appropriate resources consists of: (i) defining the appropriate mix of personnel to be used, whether from international, region al, national or local sources; and (ii) identifying funding, whether local or international, which can meet project needs in a flexible manner. Dependency should be avoided. Building upon local knowledge and initiatives would guide VSAs in finding the right balance and type of resource inputs. Building projects from the base upwards would also assist in effectively identifying the amount of seed money and other resources which might be required. Supplementing local knowledge, where appropriate, with VOW experience in similar projects in the region or elsewhere would enable communities to find new ways of addressing concerns in a practical manner.