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Research Overview
Voluntary action manifests itself in diverse ways throughout the southern Africa region. It grows out of complex motivations at various levels and can take different forms such as self-help or mutual aid, charity, service delivery, civic engagement, or activism. The extent to which voluntary action is structured and formalised varies greatly, as does the time commitment that individuals are willing and able to contribute.
VOSESA’s research is concerned with the spectrum of voluntary activity in the southern Africa region. It seeks to understand the role and contribution of voluntary action to regional development, democracy and regional integration in relation to the social, economic and political context of the region.
To date VOSESA’s research has largely focused on the following topics:
• Local and community based voluntary service• International and regional volunteering
• Youth, employability, social cohesion and volunteering
• Other research
VOSESA's Five-Country Cross-National Study on Civic Service and Volunteering in SADC.
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Service Enquiry, an online publication available free-of-charge that documents and analyses the experience of civic service and volunteerism in different parts of the world.
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VOSESA's analysis of the volunteering response to the 2008 Xenophobic Attacks in South Africa and its potential for social change. Download paper