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Research Journal of the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka- Rohana 11, 2019

               order  to  gear  up  local  level  development  by  global  organizations  like  the  United
               Nations.



               The  idea  that  social  development  is  an  intervention  committed  to  promoting  the
               welfare of the population has also been articulated (Midgley, 1996; UNDP 1996).

               Midgley  (1996)  and  Pawar  (2014)  convincingly  emphasized  that  social  welfare
               would not occur automatically as the result of natural processes. In its institutional

               definition of social welfare, United Nations (1967) highlights that social welfare has
               a  function  within  the  broad  space  of  a  country's  social  development,  and  in  this

               sense,  social  welfare  should  play  a  major  role  in  contributing  to  the  effective

               mobilization and deployment of human and material resources of the country to deal
               successfully with the social requirements of change to enhance people’s well-being.

               This indicates the recognition that social development is an action. It seeks to link
               the action of social development to economic development in a dynamic way as it

               has to happen within the broad context of development.


               Modern volunteering


               Reaching  a  universal  agreement  on  the  interpretation  of  the  modern  form  of

               volunteering has not been an easy task. Leigh (2011) suggests that it is because the
               terms  which define volunteering, and the form  of its  expression vary in  different

               languages and cultures, though the expressive values and norms could be common
               and  universal.    One  of  the  earliest  attempts  to  universalize  the  core  meaning  of

               volunteering can be found in the work of United Nations (UNO, 2001). They point

               out  that  modern  volunteering  is  an  activity,  which  should  not  be  undertaken
               primarily  for  financial  reward,  but  be  undertaken  voluntarily,  according  to  an

               individual’s own free-will, and be of benefit to someone other than the volunteer, or
               to society at large. This interpretation elaborates several aspects of volunteer action

               and implies the fact that volunteers may not benefit from volunteering. However, it

               is  now  widely  recognized  that  volunteering  brings  significant  benefits  to  the
               volunteer as well.  For example, Volunteering Australia, an organization which has

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