Volunteerism has long been identified as a personal, morale-enhancing act of giving back to society or the environment.
Often, financial institutions and businesses have ignored the positive economic impact of volunteerism not only on the nation’s economy but the businesses as well.
According to chief economist of Bank of England (BoE), Andrew G Haldane, volunteering often fits under the broad umbrella of the economics of well-being. Yet, this sector has become a growth area of late.
“Whether seen from an economic or social perspective, volunteering is big business, with annual turnover well into three-figure billions. But it is a well-hidden jewel, whose social worth is rarely the subject of a public valuation.
Haldane added, “If the value of volunteering remains largely out of sight, it is likely also to remain out of mind.
“The potential economic and societal benefits from volunteering then risk remaining un-tapped. Yet with a nudge, that volunteer army could swell further.”
Recognising the value of volunteerism, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak advocates the act of volunteerism for the good and growth of the country.
In his Budget 2015 speech, he said the Government is looking to intensify youth volunteerism through programmes such as 1M4U and MyCorp programme.
The MyCorp programme involves welfare and socio-economic volunteer activities for youth at the international level with an allocation of RM10 million;
To further boost the volunteerism segment in the country, Najib had also said that it is looking to boost the involvement of non-government organisations (NGOs) to reach out further to the communities.
“The Government recognises the important role played by non-government organisations (NGOs). Therefore, I am pleased to declare 2015 as the year of empowerment of NGOs and volunteerism or MyNGO 2015.
“For this, the Government will provide a one-off grant of RM50 million to creditable NGOs, including uniformed bodies that are involved in community development programmes, unity, social welfare, consumerism, health and security,” he said in his Budget 2015 speech.
At the launch of iM4U Reach Out Youth and Volunteerism Convention at the Taylor’s Lakeside Campus recently, Najib had called on Malaysian youths to give back to the community by involving themselves in more volunteer activities.
“The key thing is you do not expect anything in return. The only thing that you will get is the sense of self-accomplishment and self-satisfaction that you have contributed something,” he said.
Najib also called upon the private sector to support volunteerism initiatives throughout the country.
“We welcome all the corporate players out there to join hands with us in spreading the spirit of volunteerism across the country.
“I remember that there was a time when the private sector would reward an organisation that gives back to the community effectively through its corporate responsibility programmes,” he was quoted by a national media as saying.
“Thus, I would like to take this chance to call upon the private sector to not only join us, but also to support volunteerism initiatives throughout the country ,” he said.
Economists have further highlighted that while quantifying selfless acts such as volunteerism might undermine the basis of the activity, they believe that the economic value of volunteering can demonstrate the societal and economic importance of volunteerism.
Experts and economists said that there is economic value from the social capital generated which is the intangible and subsequent benefits from volunteering. Volunteering through community work also enhances socio-economic outcomes.
With that, BizHive Weekly explores one such volunteer programme which is set to transform the digital economy of Malaysia.
MIV: Empowering Malaysians to become digital citizens
Volunteering can also benefit the nation’s economic growth in terms of enhancing its human capital.
While it may be difficult to decipher the economic value volunteerism through human capital development, its benefits can generally seen as multi-folds as it could benefit various parties involved in the volunteer programme, including those that organise the programme.
Volunteers can impart skills and knowledge to the communities in dire need of skills or knowledge development. At the same time, they can equally receive improvements to their skills and knowledge through their experience of teaching and learning from the community.
In a 2011 report on the value of volunteerism, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) had also highlighted that volunteers can provide invaluable support to extend the reach of the paid workforce as well as improve the quality of service through community knowledge and understanding of local culture and customs.
These benefits can be seen in Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission’s (MCMC) Malaysia ICT Volunteer (MIV) programme which was recently launched in February 2016, in Kuching.
According to MCMC, the mission of the programme is to increase the level of digital literacy across the nation through volunteers that can share their knowledge and skills of ICT by educating communities in identified localities, or those that are unwilling or unfamiliar, on the positive usage of ICT.
It also aims to encourage local communities to be able to fully utilise information, communication and technology (ICT) to improve their quality of living and in turn, drive the overall economic growth of the nation to reach the goal of a high-income nation, in line with Vision 2020.
In addition, the MIV effort will include inculcating the culture of being safe and responsible online, capability to utilise technology and ICTs to improve daily activities, social- or business-wise, and contribute to the overall information society.
“This programme is going to help us in so many ways. For one, MCMC cannot be everywhere at once. But we have a big ambition of making Malaysia a developed nation by 2020.
“To do so, if we want to become a developed country, we have to build our knowledge base and competency.
“It’s also about knowledge, economy, and ICT contribution to the overall gross domestic product (GDP),” said Eneng Faridah Iskandar, MCMC’s senior director from the Advocacy and Outreach Division during a recent exclusive press interview.
She added, “We need human capital to become competent. The age group between 15 to 35 are generally ICT-literate but those above this age, which is a sizeable percentage of our community, are perhaps not so ICT-literate.
“It’s also about digital inclusion. We want to include all Malaysians into the digital bandwagon so that we can all move forward, as a country.
“MCMC also has to ensure that all Malaysians are connected and that they are making fruitful contributions to the country through ICT.”
During the launch of the first phase of the MIV initiative in Sarawak, Eneng said, “The MIV initiative will also develop human and institutional capacity building in research and development for the communications and multimedia sector, too.”
Learning from teaching
According to Eneng, the idea of MIV came about when MCMC hosted a boot camp for several Korean students that were dispatched to do volunteer works in various countries across Asia Pacific.
She noted that the Koreans student volunteers came to Sabah last year and several had stayed in a rural fishing village (Tenom) in Sabah under the International ICT Volunteer (IIV) programme for 2015.
From MCMC experienced in witnessing the way these Koreans volunteered to teach and enhance the community through their ICT skills and knowledge, MCMC believes that they could emulate the initiative through Malaysians volunteers instead.
“The experience that we have gained during our involvement in the (IIV) programme have supported us in developing the MIV Programme,” Eneng said.
She also pointed out that while Korean student volunteers were in Sabah to teach the local community on the usage of ICT in their daily lives, they have also learned the community’s culture and language.
In a way, this has also created a healthy exposure of our local cultures and language to the international platform.
With that, Eneng said, one of the focus of MIV was also to be able to export Malaysian knowledge and skills to the world.
While currently, the phase is still in planning, she noted that MCMC’s hope was to see that volunteers under MIV, with the IIV programme, could contribute their ICT volunteer work on the world’s stage.
“We also want to send our people abroad for this volunteer programme. We would like to bring our people abroad to teach ICT as well as our culture.
“We would like to reach that level where we are ICT-competent enough to teach people in other countries,” Eneng said.
She added, “We want them to develop something new and participate in the digital economy of Malaysia. And with due time, we hope to see Malaysians being able to reach out to become part of Asean Smart community and eventually, in the global economy.”
The domestic push
Currently, one of MCMC’s focus is to develop ICT knowledge across the nation, be it in the rural or urban areas.
Eneng had noted, MCMC had decided to launch its first phase of MIV in Sarawak due to its unique mixture and population spread between urban and rural areas.
“We start this programme in Sarawak because we think that Sarawak is representative of the country. We needed a good mix of urban and rural communities and we get that here, in Sarawak,” she said.
Furthermore, according to MCMC, in the second quarter of 2015, the broadband penetration per household in Sarawak is 78.3 per cent, an increase from 66.5 per cent recorded in the previous quarter.
She added that the MIV initiatve’s motto of ‘Learn, Enjoy, Serve, Respect’ was also to empower each volunteer to realise that they can help make the necessary change for semi-rural and rural communities to raise their awareness and knowledge of ICT and help improve their quality of life.
She also believes that most Malaysians have a passion for volunteering. According to Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) World Giving Index 2015, Malaysia has been ranked top 10 on the World Giving Index.
Datuk Seri Dr Halim Shafie (left), chairman of MCMC and Datu Haji Len Talif Salleh (right), Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office (Promotion of Technical Education) and Assistant Minister pf Environment (Ministry of Resource Planning and Environment) are seen during the launch of the MIV Initiative in Lundu, Sarawak.
“We believe that there are people out there who are willing to volunteer for the community. We are comforted by the idea that based on a poll about volunteerism, Malaysia has gone up quite a few ranks in terms of participation in volunteer programmes.
“We are also comforted by the idea that there are a lot of people who are volunteering in the countless of volunteer programmes out there.
“I observe that a lot of people see this as a ‘Gen-y character’. Gen-Y, I think, are different because they have a bigger sense of charity,” Eneng said.
The first phase of the national MIV initiative will be rolled out across Sarawak at 10 selected Pusat Internet 1Malaysia (Pi1M), which are Pi1M Kampung Pinang, Pi1M Serasot, Pi1M Kampung Nanga Tada, Pi1M Pandan Lundu, Pi1M Kampung Penan Muslim, Pi1M Dalat Mukah, Pi1M Simunjan, Pi1M Niah Suai, Pi1M Beladin, and Pi1M Song.
The Pi1M has been selected as focal points to this volunteer programmes as the facility is already fully equipped with PCs and necessary ICT tools.
Eneng also pointed out that Pi1M will be the hub for the programme as it would make it more convenient for the agency and the volunteers to communicate with each other and report on progress in the area or communities.
She also noted that for the pilot project of MIV, MCMC will be making direct contact with the community through Pi1M managers as well as telco service providers. subtitle: Encouraging e-commerce in rural areas
For the pilot project of MIV, MCMC said that it will focus on Business ICT development, through Facebook.
Volunteers will be encouraged to teach or assist the community or participants of the project on how to promote their businesses online through Facebook.
At the same time, the volunteers themselves are also encouraged to assist the communities by promoting their businesses online.
“With internet being anywhere and everywhere, now, these volunteers can go to the businesses itself and teach them how to market their products online whether it’s on Facebook or some other medium,” Eneng said.
She added, “They could also promote their own community’s culture with ICT. For example, there could be dieing traits in their villages or communities, that could be marketed online. I see Sarawak as a state that’s rich with these kind of traits.
“These traits could be a thing of interest for anyone around the country or the world.”
MCMC also noted that prior to the start of this project, the agency will be providing upskill trainings via workshops for volunteers.
“We want volunteers to have an output and bring high impact to the community or programme that they serve,” noted Eneng.
She also encouraged the younger generation to participate in the programme given exposure to ICT and their digital literacy.
“We also encourage graduates to participate in this programme. I believe the young generations will be able to be a positive push for this programme.
“I also believe that the young generation will be able to bridge the gap between generations through this programme as they will be able to educate the older generations on ICT,” she added.
“In essence, we want to create a platform for people who want to contribute back to the community in terms of ICT.
“It is also for us to identify the talents out there,” Eneng commented.
The programme also encourages mobility for the convenience of volunteers and the communities around Pi1M.
“We also found that not everyone in the community have the time or transport to commute to these Pi1M.
“We found that while they have interest on ICT or marketing their products online, they don’t have the time to commute to these facilities. Or they might be hesitant to go to these facilities.
“And that’s where these volunteers can step in by reaching them. We hope that volunteers can narrow this gap and/or get rid of this ‘fear’ or ‘hesitance’ in going online,” Eneng said.
Overall, she hopes that MIV would be able to encourage more Malaysians to use the internet positively and in a more productive way, which can create opportunities for them.
MCMC also hopes the MIV programme would broaden and open the communities’ mindset and enable them to reach their fullest potential by experiencing something out of their norm.
It said, the MIV programme is tailored to build an eco-system or platform that continuously interacts and empowers Malaysians to promote sustainable digital literacy development and offers continuous nurturing to support the Smart Digital Nation initiative.
An all-inclusive volunteer programme
The MIV, according to MCMC, will have four focus areas for volunteering and these specific volunteer groups are expected to undergo projects in different phases throughout the year.
These focus groups include, MIV with the community, MIV with Institutions of Higher Education (IHE), MIV with IIV, and MIV with the schools.
The focus of MIV with the community is ‘local community products/services promotion’, which is the first phase of the whole MIV programme.
MIV with community will act as a strategic partner to the Pi1Ms, and the initiatives have been aligned with the strategic enhancement model for Pi1M’s content development.
MCMC said, key activities under MIV with the community includes teaching, learning and sharing with the community in the areas of ICT to enhance local products and services.
Under the MIV with IHE, MCMC said the programme will be a collaborative effort between MIV and IHE students.
“We are also considering a few other one-off projects for the IHE students to participate. In the future, we are planning to improve this programme to include a few other one-off projects which are in=line with the local Pi1M’s programmes that are needed by the communities,” MCMC said.
For MIV with IIV programme, it said, volunteers will have the opportunity to learn from Korean volunteers.
“The experience gained by their participation will be used to incorporate into the MIV programme to further enhance the MIV programme,” MCMC noted.
As for MIV with the schools, the programme will be in collaboration with teachers of both primary and secondary schools.
In line with the Malaysian National Education Blueprint, the programme aims to transform and raise the Malaysian education system through the usage of ICT to increase the quality of learning across Malaysia.
Benefits of MIV
Beyond the volunteers, the MIV programme is also expected to benefit a wide spectrum of people and entities across the nation.
For the volunteers, MCMC hopes that through the programme, volunteers will have hands on and good learning experience from participating in the programmes held under MIV.
Volunteers can also increase their level of understanding and awareness of problems faced by the local businesses. This can also foster a closer relationship between volunteers and communities. Young volunteers will also be able to fully utilise their time by volunteering for their own communities through this programme.
Beyond the social aspect of MIV, the programme could potentially add value to one’s resume.
For local businesses, MCMC hopes that the MIV programme would help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) located in rural areas to use ICT as a medium that could benefit their businesses.
Through MIV, local businesses in the community would have the opportunity to grow their businesses by using technology to generate higher income.
The MIV programme is also expected to be beneficial for Pi1M. According to MCMC, Pi1M managers will be able to reach out further into the communities as the volunteers will act as Pi1M’s “hands and feet”.
For the nation itself, the MIV programme could help support the government’s initiatives in utilising ICT to empower the communities.
MIV could also provide a new resource for government agencies looking for support in their volunteer programmes or projects.
Eneng said, “For example, say a Government agency needs resources for a development project in a certain community and they’ve approached us for help, we can inform or invite these volunteers to participate in these programme.”
The MIV programme could also increase the ICT competency and digital literacy of Malaysians which would then, enhance Malaysia’s growth towards a Smart Digital nation.
Aside from that, through the MIV with IIV programme, MIV volunteers could participate in the Asean Smart Community Initiative and in time, they could also collaborate with international organisations.
The MIV programme is currently open to anyone above the age of 18 years old and its minimum qualification is Diploma.
MCMC also encourages locals who reside in or originate from the surrounding of the selected Pi1M centres under MIV.
The agency also invites retirees and professionals with insights on the business industry or has experience in ICT-related professionals to participate in this volunteer programme.
From the perspective of the economic impact of volunteerism, observers and experts believe that the volunteering labour has a far more significant impact on the community as it goes beyond social value.
Volunteering is an industry that can influence economic activity across various sectors and it affects almost the entire spectrum of government and commercial.
Volunteering WA in its ‘The Economic, Social and Cultural Value of Volunteering to Western Australia’ report, highlighted that the cost-benefit analysis in this study has also shown that because the external benefits of volunteering exceed the social costs, the outcome is not inefficient.
Therefore, there should be a concerted effort to more efficiently share the resources and knowledge embedded in volunteering throughout society and communities.