Tourism Concern works on Volunteering Standards

GIVS Volunteering Standards Group

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Photo ©Quest Oversees

We aim to promote best practice in international volunteering, to maximise the beneficial developmental impacts in the communities where volunteering takes place, minimise the negative impacts, and to ensure volunteers have a worthwhile experience. Become a member of the International Volunteering Standards Group (GIVS) today.

Thinking of Volunteering?

Our policy on working with Industry

Tourism Concern's GIVS Volunteering Standards Group seeks to ensure that volunteering is a force for good by collaborating with ethical and responsible international volunteering organisations who are passionate about maximising the positive developmental outcomes of volunteering, whilst also working to minimise potential negative impacts.
>> Become a member of the GIVS Volunteering Standards Group.
With volunteering overseas on development projects rapidly growing in popularity and increasing numbers of adventure tour operators offering ‘voluntourism’ packages, serious questions have arisen about how some such projects are managed and how the benefits are being shared. It is also a challenge for prospective volunteers to identify organisations that embrace best practice.

The vision of the GIVS Volunteering Standards Group

We aim to promote best practice in international volunteering, to maximise the beneficial developmental impacts in the communities where volunteering takes place, minimise the negative impacts, and to ensure volunteers have a worthwhile experience.

The aims of the GIVS Volunteering Standards Group

• We aim to achieve our vision through continual improvement in member organisations’ business practice, including using GIVS principles as guidance.
• We aim to develop and improve the GIVS standard and to establish practical ways of measuring compliance with its principles.
• We will collaborate with members to collect and publicise personal stories, which demonstrate the benefits to communities of compliance with GIVS principles.
• We seek to be inclusive in order to maximise the influence on the volunteering sector, but to be clear about members’ responsibilities and to exclude from membership organisations that fail to comply with agreed guidelines.
• We will seek to identify measurable improvements as a result of the changes implemented by member organisations, particularly in impacts within the communities in which they operate.
• Members will not behave in such a way as to compromise the reputation of Tourism Concern, or have any negative impact on Tourism Concern's core activities.

Members opportunities

• Every new member will be assessed under the GIVS standard as part of the membership fee. This will take approximately half a day and take the form of a consultation, using an assessment form which will be sent in advance. This is a shared exploration of what compliance with GIVS might mean for your organisation. It is not an audit.
• Be part of an influential group pushing forward the responsible volunteering agenda.
• Profile your organisation on our website and within our monthly e-newsletter; reaching thousands of people who are interested in ethical tourism and volunteering.
• Display the GIVS logo on your website and leaflets.
• Attend quarterly meetings addressing current thinking on critical issues, with occasional guest speakers from both inside and outside the industry.
• Receive updates on Tourism Concern news and campaigns and ways to get involved.
• Attend informal networking events to share experiences and exchange views.
• Benefit from training specifically designed for volunteering organisations.

>> Join GIVS and see how you can make your volunteering business more prosperous.
For more information about GIVS or to register your interest, email Peter Bishop at Peter@tourismconcern.org.uk

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Other resources

Dr. Kate Simpson of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne has written a handy guide to help you learn about the quality and value of the projects or placements an organisation offers before you arrive in the country. Download a copy of the guide here.
Tourism Concern is grateful for the support of Comhlámh, whose own code of conduct guided the development of Tourism Concern's international volunteering code.

Please check the full article here: http://www.tourismconcern.org.uk/givs.html

My qualitative research on the impacts of orphanage tourism on residential care centers in Cambodia

I just finished  my research for the International Centre of Responsible Tourism Management. It may be of interest to you. This is the executive summary. Are you also researching or reporting on this topic? Contact me for the full report!

Executive summary:

 

The research aim in this paper was to identify the impacts of `orphanage tourism` on residential care centers in Cambodia and provide recommendations to the centers and volunteer sending organisations. The objectives were to provide background information on the phenomenon of orphanage tourism/ childcare tourism in Cambodia and its social and economic impacts, to research the negative and positive impacts of orphanage tourism in Cambodia by interviewing the managers directors or volunteer coordinators of 9 residential care facilities and to develop recommendations and guidelines for the residential care centers and volunteer organisations to improve the volunteering practice in the future.  Through qualitative research, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 managers, directors or volunteer coordinators in orphanages in Cambodia. Literature research was also undertaken to investigate the background and context of the phenomenon of orphanage tourism in Cambodia.

The research revealed that impacts of orphanage tourism are perceived by the respondents as mainly positive and rarely negative. Impacts of residential care are also seen as more positive than the children’s abusive family situations. All centres say the positive impacts are due to strict recruitment, induction, rules and regulations concerning volunteers and tourists. The negative impacts are often caused by cooperation with volunteer sending agencies which have an overall negative reputation throughout the literature and secondary data. It was clear that the respondents and the literature largely contrast in depicting the practice of orphanage tourism. The respondents distance themselves from the overly negative description of orphanage tourism in literature and media. Thus the research provides a summary of the literature and research on orphanage tourism and new and interesting insights in the perception of impacts of orphanage tourism through the eyes of the host. Furthermore it provides recommendations for host organisations, volunteer sending organisations and governments to improve their practices and policies about orphanage tourism.