ASTANA — More than 200,000 people have participated in volunteer activities across Kazakhstan since the beginning of 2026, a year designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development at the initiative of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
The year-long campaign officially launched on Jan. 30 during a national volunteer forum attended by Tokayev and has since brought together volunteers through environmental, cultural and community projects across the country. One of the key events was the Volunteering and Environmental Action session held on April 23 in Astana as part of the Regional Environmental Summit.
The event brought together approximately 200 participants from Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Türkiye, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Japan and Afghanistan, as well as United Nations Under-Secretary-General Haoliang Xu. Volunteer groups have also participated in several nationwide initiatives, including the Let’s Preserve Cultural Heritage Together campaign, focused on restoring and maintaining historical and cultural sites; the spring stage of the national Good Deeds Marathon project; and the international Clean Shores Day campaign.
According to officials, around 120,000 volunteers have taken part in the nationwide Taza Kazakhstan environmental campaign since the start of the year. The government is currently developing a Volunteer Development Concept through 2030, as instructed by Tokayev.
More than 250 active volunteers have participated in focus groups held across major cities, generating approximately 120 proposals and recommendations for the sector’s future development. Authorities are also preparing an Environmental Volunteering Development Program and plan to introduce a National Volunteer Development Index and a Digital Volunteer Passport later this year.
Volunteer activities in Kazakhstan are coordinated through the National Front Office, supported by 20 regional offices, a unified call center and the QazVolunteer.kz online platform. The platform currently includes more than 1,200 projects and nearly 3,900 organizations.
Officials said 56 volunteer projects and 60 small grants, each worth 1 million tenge (US$ 2,000), are being implemented nationwide. Kazakhstan is also working with the UN Volunteers Programme on plans to establish an Asian Volunteer Training Center at the UN Regional Center for Sustainable Development Goals for Central Asia and Afghanistan in Almaty.
In addition, five Kazakh volunteers have been deployed to international assignments with the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the Food and Agriculture Organization in Argentina and China under a fully funded volunteer program. Officials reported that participation in volunteer activities has increased compared with last year, reflecting growing public engagement in community, environmental and social initiatives.