An International Comparison of Overseas Volunteer Programs: Peace Corps, VSO and JOCV: JICA-RI Holds a Public Seminar

First, Dr. Kumiko Kawachi, Strategy Officer of the Nagasaki University School of Global Humanities and Social Sciences, gave a presentation titled “The Pioneer of Government-run Volunteer Organizations: Half a Century of Path of the US Peace Corps.” She outlined the history and achievement of the program, including: its foundation in 1961 under an Executive Order by late President Kennedy; and its record of dispatch of more than 215,000 volunteers in total to 139 countries as of February 2014. Dr. Kawachi pointed out that the Peace Corps has been affected by the US’s international relations and its domestic politics, due to its affiliation to the government, although the program adopted an independent, non-political stance since its launch. She explained it with an example of halting the dispatch of the Peace Corps to Latin America during 1972 and 1982.

After the presentations, Professor Nobuhide Sawamura of Osaka University Graduate School of Human Sciences illustrated the features and differences among the three volunteer organizations, drawing on the anecdotes that he heard from the volunteers during his visit to developing countries; he touched on that the Peace Corps is prone to the changes in Presidency of the US, while VSO, as an international NGO, has dispatched volunteers with 94 different nationalities including developing countries to date.

During the Q and A session, the floor responded to a variety of issues including: safety management; funding of the programs; securing jobs for returned volunteers; and current and future partnerships between volunteer organizations.