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1. Governance

2. Cross-sectoral cooperation

Governance

Social Service Time (maatschappelijke diensttijd MDT- Doe mee met MDT) is the national policy for volunteering by young people of 12 to 30 years. It was established by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, in cooperation with young people, civil organizations, the National Youth Council (Nationale Jeugdraad, NJR), the Association of Dutch Voluntary Organizations (Vereniging Nederlandse Organisaties Vrijwilligerswerk (NOV), the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. 

The national government stimulates all voluntary activities, but it is mainly the municipalities responsibility. Voluntary work is bound to certain laws and regulations, concerning compensation, accommodation, insurance and, especially in the case of young people, whether and how many hours somebody can work as a volunteer. 

The focus of the Dutch government is access to education and work. Volunteering is part of the Social Support Act (2015) (Wet maatschappelijke ondersteuning – WMO), which stimulates informal and formal social systems. The Social Support Act gives municipalities the assignment to connect with initiatives of citizens. 

Main actors

The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science is responsible for the Social Service Time (maatschappelijke diensttijd MDT- Doe mee met MDT) program. It gives out subsidies for organizations that want to host young volunteers through the MDT program. 

The National Youth Council (Nationale Jeugdraad, NJR) is the umbrella organization of 41 youth organizations in the Netherlands. The council works on two main ambitions

1. Young people discover who they are, experience their own capacities so as to develop themselves to their full potential.
2. Society is designed to enable young people to leave their mark on the world.

The NJR offers volunteering opportunities themselves, promotes it through the youth organizations in their network and contribute to youth participation in the Social Service Time (maatschappelijke diensttijd MDT) program.

The Directorate Social Support (Directoraat Maatschappelijke Ondersteuning) of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport has a a coordinating role concerning voluntary work in general in the Central Government. The department does deliberate and discuss relevant developments within the Central Government and with external actors in the field of voluntary activities and work. Other ministerial departments are also part of voluntary work. For example, the Ministery of Justice and Security gives special attention to volunteers in the police force and the fire brigade. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment focuses on the link between paid labour and voluntary work. 

The Association of Dutch Voluntary Organizations (Vereniging Nederlandse Organisaties Vrijwilligerswerk (NOV) is the leading organization within the voluntary work sector of the Netherlands. The association is independent since 2012 and now has 375 member organizations that work with or for volunteers. It has two kinds of members: organizations that perform voluntary work and those that fulfil a supporting or coordinating role. NOV is unique because it is the only organization in the Netherlands geared to strengthening voluntary effort and work. The main tasks of NOV are:

• To serve the interests of the voluntary work sector. NOV is the spokesperson and lobbyist of Dutch voluntary work and discussion partner of politicians, government officials and other policy-influencing parties. NOV provides solicited and unsolicited advice.
• To provide a major stimulus to voluntary work. NOV works towards more public recognition of voluntary work, and contributes to innovative initiatives.

NOV focuses on the voluntary work sector as such. The member organizations determine NOV’s future policies, and they are invited to make maximum use of the networking role of NOV.

Netherlands Centre for Social Development (Movisie) is a national knowledge institute offering a comprehensive approach of social issues. The mission is to promote the participation and independence of citizens by supporting and advising professional organizations, volunteer organizations and government institutions. Five themes are central to their work: effectiveness; professionalization; participation; combating and preventing domestic and sexual violence; social care. The expertise of Movisie ranges from active citizenship to client participation, and from combating domestic and sexual violence to effective interventions in the social sector. The organization collects knowledge from abroad, to gain international inspiration and to place developments in the Netherlands in a broader international context.

Volunteers on the Move (Vrijwilligers Aan Zet) is a knowledge center for volunteers. Volunteers on the Move offers a range of options to enable volunteers to function optimally in organizations. They work on:

• Collecting and disseminating knowledge about working with volunteers
• Cooperating and connecting
• Offering training and tools
• Motivating organizations to work with volunteers

Municipalities play an essential role in the governance of volunteering. Most of the voluntary work takes place within the local context in municipalities. There, volunteers, volunteers organizations, local organizations, companies and  local government work together. Policy about voluntary work is developed on a municipal level and therefore different per municipality. 

General distribution of responsibilities

The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science hostst the team working on the Social Service Time (maatschappelijke diensttijd MDT). In the MDT network, civil organizations, schools, municipalities, companies and funds implement the politcy together. The National Youth Council (Nationale Jeugdraad, NJR) for example, promotes youth participation throughout the program and runs a pilot on an alumni-network for young people who participated in Social Service Time (maatschappelijke diensttijd MDT). The Association of Dutch Voluntary Organizations (Vereniging Nederlandse Organisaties Vrijwilligerswerk (NOV) is another member of the MDT team. 

The Directorate Social Support (Directoraat Maatschappelijke Ondersteuning) of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport takes a decentralized approach to goveranance of volunteering. The Central Government strives to remove legal bottlenecks and other limitations for volunteers, and works on innovating and facilitating volunteers policy. Municipalities are obliged to have volunteering policy in place, according to the Social Support Act (2015). National organizations such as the Association of Dutch Voluntary Organizations (Vereniging Nederlandse Organisaties Vrijwilligerswerk (NOV) advocate for the position of volunteers and support organizations who work with volunteers. 

Cooperation

There was no international exchange program found on a governmental level. The Netherlands Centre for Social Development (Movisie) invites potential international partners to learn from practices in each country. 

Cross-sectoral cooperation

As part of its coordinating role the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport subsidizes the Association of Dutch Voluntary Organizations (Vereniging Nederlandse Organisaties Vrijwilligerswerk (NOV). The government also invests in collecting and dispersing of knowledge, information and good practices about volunteers and voluntary work, for example via the Netherlands Centre for Social Development (Movisie) and Stastistics Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek). The Netherlands Centre for Social Development (Movisie) developed a step-by-step plan to implement a support centre for voluntary work in a municipality, which the Central government mentions on their website about supporting volunteers.