Nueva Acrópolis

Save the Date

Saturday 5 December 2026

International Volunteer Day Format: online

See city start times

The forum is underway

Days
Hours
Min
Sec

Ethics to Decide. Standards to Act. Technology to Prevent.

6th International Forum on Humanitarian Volunteering

Register

Reserve your place — limited seats

Convened by New Acropolis International

See proposed programme

The Forum

A framework for volunteering that works

Open the cards below to go deeper. The page stays light; the ideas expand when you want them.

This has outpaced the frameworks many institutions still rely on. Risk is systemic, and systemic risk requires cooperation that crosses government, science, humanitarian action, and civil society.

Within that shift, volunteers and locally rooted networks are increasingly the connective tissue between early warning and early action — between global data and local decision-making.

This Forum is designed for those whose choices shape preparedness and response.

It is not a conventional conference track; it is a platform for dialogue across fields that rarely share a table.

  • UN agencies and multilateral bodies
  • Disaster risk reduction and emergency management institutions
  • Academic and research institutions
  • Humanitarian leaders and practitioners
  • Public policy makers
  • Foundations and institutional sponsors
See the panels

But goodwill alone does not guarantee competent decision-making, coordination, or safety under pressure — and that gap is what this Forum exists to close.

Volunteering must evolve without abandoning what defines it: the willingness to act in service of others, now grounded in ethical clarity, professional standards, and intelligent use of tools that prevent harm before it occurs.

This is not a slogan. It is the architecture the Forum proposes for a field that can no longer afford to treat goodwill as a substitute for competence.

Expand the three cards below to explore each condition in depth.

Explore the framework
Volunteers planning on site with maps

Together, they decide well, act competently, and prevent harm before it happens.

Treating ethics, standards, and technology as separate conversations is precisely what limits their impact. Their integration is the central task facing humanitarian volunteering today.

The framework

Ethics · Standards · Technology

Three conditions. One integrated foundation for the volunteering the coming decades will require.

Volunteers regularly face scarce resources, incomplete information, and short time. Who receives assistance first? How do you balance urgency against unintended harm? What does dignity require in an unfolding emergency?

An ethical foundation gives a structured way to weigh competing goods and remain accountable to principles rather than instinct alone. Ethics is not a constraint on humanitarian action; it is what makes that action trustworthy.

Humanitarian standards create quality, trust, coordination, professionalization, and accountability. They are the bridge between the moral clarity ethics provides and the disciplined execution emergencies demand.

This Forum treats standards not as a specialist topic, but as a condition for volunteering to be taken seriously as a professional contribution to humanitarian action.

The significance of these tools lies less in what they can do during a crisis than in what they can do before one. Prevention, preparedness, and resilience are where technology offers its most transformative potential.

Without ethical direction and last-mile reach through volunteer networks, capability stays locked in institutions instead of becoming a shield for people at risk.

Humanitarian drone supporting flood response

Proposed programme

Dialogue grid

Two conversation blocks that integrate ethics, standards, and technology in one shared frame.

Online

Ethics and Standards for Humanitarian Action

How organizations translate principles into guidance volunteers can apply — and what a professionalized model requires in training, accountability, and coordination with the wider humanitarian system.

Technology, Prevention and Humanitarian Resilience

What it takes to move AI, earth observation, and early warning from specialized use into local preparedness — and where volunteering can be the connective infrastructure between advanced science and the people it is meant to protect.

Hands-on training for humanitarian volunteers
About New Acropolis International
Nueva Acrópolis

The convener

About New Acropolis International

Philosophy as a practical discipline for living — and volunteering as service.

A global philosophical organization present in dozens of countries, engaged for decades in cultural, educational, and humanitarian work.

Humanitarian volunteering has long been part of this work. New Acropolis convenes this Forum not as the center of the dialogue, but to create the space, invite the expertise, and hold the conversation to a standard worthy of those who take part — contributing its experience in the ethical dimension of volunteering as one voice among many.

acropolis.org

Invitation

The conversation is open

Every generation inherits a version of humanitarian volunteering — and leaves behind the version it chose to change. This Forum is an invitation to integrate ethics, standards, and technology into one coherent foundation. The responsibility is shared. The invitation stands.

Register to attend Propose a collaboration

Complete the registration form

Gallery

Volunteering in action

Training, congresses, emergency response, and field work: images from the New Acropolis international network.

Agenda 2030

Sustainable Development Goals

Which goals do we collaborate with?

This Forum aligns with New Acropolis' commitment to measure and strengthen its contribution to four priority SDGs — and asks how humanitarian volunteering can accelerate that contribution through ethics, standards, and technology.

  • SDG 4: Quality education

    SDG 4: Quality education

  • SDG 15: Life on land

    SDG 15: Life on land

  • SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

    SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

  • SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals

    SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals

Reserve my place at the Forum Learn more about these goals

Schedule

One session, your local time

The 6th Forum takes place online on Saturday 5 December 2026. Use your reference city so you can join on time.

Saturday 5 December 2026

  1. New York 09:00 EST
  2. Santo Domingo 10:00 AST
  3. Buenos Aires 11:00 ART
  4. Madrid 15:00 CET
  5. New Delhi 19:30 IST

One live stream for every time zone. Zoom connection details will be sent to registered participants.

Reserve your place at the Forum

Share your details and we will send online access information and programme updates.

Country

  • No countries found
I am interested in

We will use this information only to organize the Forum and coordinate access.