Self-help and mutual aid have always been central features of survival strategies of poor people to withstand man-made and natural shocks to which they are exposed.

Some of the most valuable contributions in kind that developing countries can offer are the rich, local traditions of voluntary self-help and mutual aid, which are often ignored.

Recognizing and building strategically on rich, local traditions of voluntary self-help and mutual aid can open the way to building up a new constituency in support of development efforts.

Approximately 89 per cent of shelter repair and reconstruction was done on the basis of an Agency-aided self-help approach utilizing family and community assets, which included volunteer labour, cash and discounted building supplies.

In the opening paragraphs, the document recognizes the importance and valuable contribution of traditional forms of mutual aid, self-help and civic participation to the economic and social development of communities.

As a result, the aided self-help approach was instituted in the latter part of the reporting period, whereby special hardship case housing will now be implemented directly by the Agency, with the families assuming responsibility for all the finishing.

In article II, the parties agreed “separately and jointly, by means of continuous and effective self-help and mutual aid will maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack and to prevent and counter subversive activities directed from without against their territorial integrity and political stability”.

Both the Federal Centre for Health Education and the self-help organisation Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe take cultural differences into consideration in drafting information that they make available to migrants in various languages, for example the brochure “There is something you should know before you get married.” (Es gibt etwas, das Du vor Deiner Ehe wissen Solltest).

Progress has been less than satisfactory in raising awareness in donor countries about the link between what is generally seen in donor countries as a valuable social and economic contribution to society and as local traditions of voluntary self-help and mutual aid in developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

(i) Extend the notion of volunteerism as an additional valuable component of national development planning to development cooperation policy. Recognizing and building strategically on rich, local traditions of voluntary self-help and mutual aid can open the way to building up a new constituency in support of development efforts. Forging a link in the mind of the general public in countries providing development assistance between domestic volunteering in those countries and volunteering in countries receiving assistance can also help enlist public support for development cooperation.