The Malta Sociological Association (MSA) has submitted its feedback as part of the public consultation on the “National Volunteering Strategy 2025-2030.”

The MSA said that it commends the development of the National Volunteering Strategy 2025-2030 and welcomes the opportunity to contribute.

It outlined some recommendations to “strengthen the strategic approach through evidence-based planning, social impact assessment, and conceptual clarity.”

Data and Evidence-Based Planning

The strategy would benefit from a stronger commitment to research and data transparency. The MSA said that this includes:

• Ensuring regular, comprehensive research on the state of volunteering that informs strategic decisions and reflects sectoral needs.

• Making up-to-date data on Voluntary Organisations publicly accessible for research, policy, and sectoral planning. Data collection frameworks should be designed by qualified social scientists to ensure methodological robustness.

• In particular is the need for research to understand further the motivations that drive volunteers to engage and maintain their commitment. Formal recognition may indeed drive volunteers away from the sector, and therefore new ways of recognising and acknowledging the value of volunteering need to be factored in.

Social Impact Assessment

The MSA said that the strategy “should adopt a dynamic and participatory approach to evaluation by establishing a continuous Social Impact Assessment (SIA) process that not only monitors outcomes but also enables ongoing adjustment of actions in response to changing social contexts.”

It also noted that “this SIA process should be embedded at the core of the review mechanism outlined in Section 8 (‘Implementation, Monitoring, and Review’, p. 39) and should be co-developed by both Voluntary Organisations (VOs) and the communities they serve. Doing so ensures that evaluation is grounded in lived experiences and enhances the long-term effectiveness of initiatives.”

The MSA stressed that “a key feature of this approach should include mapping the logical pathways between activities, outcomes, and intended social impacts to maintain coherence between actions and strategic objectives – identifying assumptions, potential barriers, and necessary conditions for success. This mapping should be revisited and refined throughout the SIA process to ensure achievement of goals.”

Terminology

The Association also insisted that “clear and consistent terminology is essential for a shared understanding across stakeholders” and noted that:

• The strategy should avoid the general use of the term “NGOs” when referring specifically to Voluntary Organisations, as NGOs may include entities outside the voluntary sector.

• At one point (p. 27) the document mentions non-formal volunteering. If such discriminations are to be made at all, the document should clearly outline what it means when it refers to formal, non-formal and informal volunteering.

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