The Department of Foreign Affairs is to set up a "one-stop shop" in Dublin city centre to provide information on opportunities for volunteer work in the developing world.
A spokesman said yesterday that the proposed walk-in store would be similar to the Enfo information centre set up by the Department of the Environment, which has been on Dublin's Andrew Street for many years.
The facility will provide information on suitable vacancies for volunteer work, mainly overseas but also at home, and will advise potential volunteers about the different options available.
In a speech to the Royal Irish Academy last month, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern announced two new policy initiatives on the developing world: 1) the establishment of a volunteer corps "to harness the strong volunteer spirit which exists across the country" and 2) a rapid response corps of specialist personnel "to travel at short notice to situations of great need".
The new bodies are to be established by the end of the year at the latest, the spokesman said. A website for the volunteer corps is to be launched in conjunction with the city-centre shop.
In the operation of the Volunteer Corps, priority will be given to work in Ireland's "programme countries", which are the primary recipients of Irish overseas aid. Six of these are in Africa: Ethiopia, Lesotho, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
The other two are Asian countries, Timor-Leste (East Timor) and the latest addition to the list, Vietnam.
There will be close liaison with the United Nations and other international agencies and special emphasis will be placed on opportunities for Irish volunteers to work in UN peacekeeping and human rights missions.
There will also be opportunities for short-term placements for students. College graduates will be offered one-year internships working "in the field" alongside personnel from Development Co-operation Ireland (DCI), the aid division of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Plans are also being made to offer short-term assignments to mid-career professionals and specialists, and a register will be established of potential volunteers with experience in engineering, information technology, communications and other areas.
The department will also facilitate "development partnerships" between institutions in Ireland's public and private sector and their counterparts in the developing world.
The rapid response corps, which will be more specialised than the volunteer corps, is expected to be administered by the Defence Forces in co-operation with department officials. There will be close liaison with other EU states and with the UN to avoid duplication and to identify particular areas where Ireland can contribute most.
Several high-level meetings have been held at Farmleigh to discuss the details of these and other policy initiatives arising mainly out of the recent increase in Official Development Assistance.