This global status report is the second in a triennial series tracking worldwide progress in prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). The majority of NCDs are preventable. This report gives encouraging evidence that premature NCD deaths can indeed be significantly reduced worldwide. The primary target audience of this report are Ministers of Health. The report provides information on voluntary global targets and how to scale up national efforts to attain them, in a sustainable manner. The 2010 baseline estimates on NCD mortality and risk factors are provided so that countries may begin reporting to WHO on progress made in attaining targets, starting in 2015. The country case studies on successful prevention and control of NCDs highlighted in the report can be instructive for others facing similar challenges. As discussed in this report, there is an agreed set of very cost-effective -- and globally applicable -- NCD interventions for attaining all nine targets by 2025. This second global status report comes at a time when only a decade is left to achieve the internationally agreed voluntary global NCD targets. It is also a time when we can be more optimistic about the future prevention and control of NCDs, than perhaps at any stage in recent history. In order to attain the global NCD targets, governments, international partners and WHO will need to work together, sharing and exchanging evidence and information and taking the necessary steps for reducing gaps in capacity and resources.

Contents: 1. The emerging issue of retaining volunteers -- 2. Understanding the basics of volunteer retention -- 3. Welcoming volunteers to the team -- 4. Making volunteers feel special -- 5. Creating meaningful volunteer experiences -- 6. Instilling organisational values in volunteers -- 7. Building processes that foster volunteer retention -- 8. Sustaining retention along the volunteer life cycle -- 9. Handling volunteer burnout -- 10. Moving volunteers from short-term to long-term commitments.

Many of us may have participated in grassroots groups, changing the world in small and big ways, from building playgrounds and feeding the homeless, to protesting wars and ending legal segregation. Beyond the obvious fruits of these activities, what are the broader consequences of volunteering for the participants, recipients of aid, and society as a whole? In this engaging new book, Nina Eliasoph encourages readers to reflect on their own experiences in civic associations as an entry point into bigger sociological, political, and philosophical issues, such as class inequality, how organizations work, differences in political systems around the globe, and the sources of moral selfhood. Claims about volunteering tend to be astronomical: it will create democracy, make you a better person, eliminate poverty, protect local cultures, and even prevent illness. Eliasoph cuts through these assertions by drawing on empirical studies, key data, real-life case studies, and a range of theoretical analyses. In doing so, the book provides students of sociology, political science, and communications studies with a framework for evaluating the role of civic associations in social and political life, as well as in their own lives as active citizens.