The Costs of Using Volunteers in a COVID-19 pandemic Response Program in Iran

An intervention that Iran implemented to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic was to screen passengers during the Iranian New Year holidays (17 March to 3 April 2020). The purpose of this study is to examine the costs and benets of using volunteers in this program for the Iranian government. Using the cost-benet analysis method, the national data of the screening program were analyzed. A total of 83,810 volunteers worked on the project for 17 days, which cost $ 27,7811. If the Iranian government had hired permanent employees instead of using volunteers, it would have cost $ 558733 more. It is used wage replacement method for calculating cost of voluntary work using the minimum wage of workers in Iran in 2020. Volunteer Investment and Value Audit (VIVA) rate also showed that $ 2 was saved for every dollar the Iranian government spent. It can be concluded that the use of volunteers, especially in volunteer-oriented programs in times of disaster, including epidemics, can be economically benecial to the government. At the same time, it should be noted that the use of volunteers is also costly, and the government must identify the optimal number of volunteers before implementation. Moreover, if there are several plans on the table to intervene, the Viva rate can be a measure of cost-effectiveness.


Introduction
On 19 February 2020, Iran reported its rst con rmed case of COVID-19 infection 1  Researchers began valuing off-market services for the rst time in the 1920s and early 1930s by researching housekeeping services that the market has not priced 3 . In the following decades, the issue of the monetary value of public goods in general and the valuation of voluntary labor in particular was examined by various researchers in the eld of economics and policy 4 . Cnaan et al. (1996) provided a framework for de ning volunteers by reviewing more than three hundred different de nitions of the term volunteer 5 . A person with his or her own will and without a salary -does work for a non-pro t organization, and the members of the organization and other people are the bene ciaries of voluntary activities 5 . Numerous initiatives have been taken in recent decades to identify the importance and extent of volunteerism, such as the Johns Hopkins Economic Data Project, the Volunteer Assessment Project, and the United Nations Nonpro t Organization's Operation Book of Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University 6 . Many stakeholders are interested in the economic value of volunteer work 7 . For example, social investors are interested in returning their capital. Lobbyists and nonpro ts use economic valuation to show policymakers the importance of volunteering in society and the importance of volunteering. They are looking for government subsidies for the volunteer sector, and lawmakers want to know how useful the subsidies they approved and allocated have been. Economists are interested in knowing how important the volunteer section is compared to other sections. All stakeholders are more interested in knowing statistical information and monetary value of voluntary activities than in qualitative data 8 .
In Iran, various voluntary activities are carried out 9,10 . Due to the high number of disasters in Iran, volunteering is also popular in emergencies 11 . For example, the Iranian Red Crescent Society ranks second among the national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies in terms of the number of volunteers in the world 12 . This has led Iran to use its volunteers in emergencies including in COVID-19 response. Due to the increase in the number of people with corona and the increase in travel due to the new year in Iran, the Iranian government decided to set up screening stations at the entrances and exits of all cities 2 . In this plan, the Red Crescent operational volunteers, based on the situation in the 31 provinces, worked in more than 851 temporary posts at the entrances and exits of cities, train stations, and airports to control passengers and identify infected people to COVID-19 2 .
However, the use of volunteers will incur costs and bene ts for the country and volunteer organizations.
Thus far, not much research has been done on the economic value of voluntary activities in Iran. This study aims to determine the economic cost of using volunteers in the Corona screening scheme, as well as its monetary bene ts for the Iranian government.

Methods
It is used a bene t-cost analysis (BCA) method for this study 13 . BCA is a type of policy analysis method that evaluates the value of all impacts of a policy to all members of a community or a society in monetary terms. It is used this method for regulations, policies, programs, projects, and other interventions. This method helping to policy makers and authorities to improve e ciency 13 . BCA could be used before the intervention, or after the intervention that is called ex post or retrospective BCA 14 . In the retrospective BCA, the question is: "was this policy or project a good idea?" In this descriptive-analytical study, considering the expenditures and costs of the COVID-19 screening national plan of passengers. It is used wage replacement method for calculating the cost of voluntary work. The data from this method was obtained from daily reports from Red Crescent. The replacement wage approach directly assesses the activity that is performed in volunteering work 15 . In this approach is indicated the economic value of volunteers by calculating the hourly wage cost of doing the same work by the workforce 16 . The identi cation of wage and labor market costs will be possible, but the search for this cost and the amount is challenging and time consuming. Therefore, it is used the minimum salary of workers in Iran in 2020.
For calculation of volunteers, bene t for the government was used from the Volunteer Investment and Value Audit (VIVA) method. It is a method that analyzes the costs and activities associated with the volunteer program and compares it to work in the job market, and this ratio represents the amount of return on investments made related to the volunteers' program 17 . The allocation of market value or "shadow wage" represents the amount that the organization would have to pay to the workforce if it did not have voluntary workforce services. With the VIVA rate also it is possible to conduct a costeffectiveness analysis through input measurements (resources used to support the volunteer) relative to the output (the monetary value of the time spent by the volunteer) for different programs. This method also shows the organization's economic saves for each dollar spent 18 .
The VIVA (investment on volunteer and economic value of volunteering work) rate is calculated by the following formula 17 :

Results
From March 18 to April 5, the project provided screening and metering services to 21,640,861 people. Based on the situation in the provinces, the Red Crescent volunteers worked on more than 851 temporary stations at the entrances and exits of cities, train stations, and airports to control passengers and identify infected people. Screening and fever monitoring were associated with symptoms of high fever. The number of volunteers for this project was 4,930 per day in the Red Crescent screening and metering posts in different provinces. In total, 95,371 people were used by the rescue forces to implement the national plan for screening and fever testing of their compatriots, using 15,278 vehicles per day.
According to the data presented in Table 1, the Yazd Red Crescent Population has spent $ 6547.7 on young people volunteering for the National Safety and Health Plan of Nowruz Passengers Volunteers did not receive a salary for their work in this project. If they were to be hired for the project, such as police o cers or the Ministry of Health, they would have to be paid. The minimum wage for in Iran for workers is 28 million IR Rials or $ 200 per month ($ 6.6 per day). On this account, the Iranian government had to pay a sum of 558733.

Discussion
The ndings of this study showed that volunteer work is a major economic source in Iran. The ndings of previous studies also con rm this 16,19,20 . Using volunteers in emergency situations is usual in the world and many countries are investing in it [21][22][23][24][25] . For example, a study in Australia was showed that the Australian Government, spent 83 million in a year for volunteer's management for emergency management 26 . However, it should be noted that the bene ts of volunteers in emergencies, because of their intangible character, cannot be monetized easily [27][28][29] .
The study also found that for every dollar the Iranian government spent on the project, it saved $ 2.
Another study in Iran found that using the volunteer force for the Iranian government saved more than $ 4 per dollar 30 . The reason for the decrease in this rate in recent years is the devaluation of Iran's currency and the consequent rise in prices for various services such as food and transportation 31 . On the other hand, wages in Iran have not increased in proportion to the devaluation of the currency 32 . Thus, the VIVA rate has halved in ve years. In other words, the cost of volunteer-oriented programs for humanitarian and government organizations has also increased. This suggests that these organizations need to analyze the bene t-cost analysis before starting the program. In addition, given the high costs such as food and transportation, humanitarian organizations and the government need to be careful in determining the optimal number of volunteers needed in humanitarian programs. Otherwise, they will have to pay a lot of money to pay for the logistics costs. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies published various reports on the value of voluntary programs in different countries 33 . The reports were indicated that the VIVA rate for a voluntary preparedness Programme by the New Zealand Red Cross was 41; voluntary emergency response program by Pakistan Red Crescent was 3; and a youth engagement in family medicine kit project by China Red Cross was 11 33 .
Iran is in one of the worst economic conditions in recent years 34 . If the plan was to be carried out by another organization, such as the Police, Army, and the Ministry of Health with permanent employees, the government might not have been able to pay for its funding and would not have done so at all. Moreover, in this study, the alternative method of wage and including the minimum wage of workers in Iran was used. If instead of the minimum wage, the average wage of health workers was used, the cost of this plan would certainly be much higher. This study focused only on the economic bene ts of this project, but the social bene ts of this project are also very signi cant. The project helped identify people with the disease 2 . It also sensitized the public to safety precautions to prevent the coronavirus 2 . The plan came as the government ordered a nationwide quarantine and did not intend to use military force to force people to stay home. Another goal of the project was to encourage people to stay home and not travel between cities 2 . Because with the implementation of this plan, long queues were created at the entrances and exits of all cities in Iran. This caused the passengers to get tired and return to their hometown, as well as other people to stop traveling. Voluntary program has positive impacts on volunteers themselves, including skills, social relations, and wellbeing [35][36][37] . However, it is also possible to determine whether other projects can be done at a lower cost. Measuring passenger fever is not the most accurate way to detect coronavirus. That's why it can be useful to spend a lot of money on such projects.

Conclusion
Using the cost-bene t analysis method, the national data of the screening program were analyzed. A total of 83,810 volunteers worked on the project for 17 days, which cost $ 27,7811. If the Iranian government had hired permanent employees instead of using volunteers, it would have cost $ 558733 more. It is used wage replacement method for calculating the cost of voluntary work using the minimum wage of workers in Iran in 2020. Volunteer Investment and Value Audit (VIVA) rate also showed that $ 2 was saved for every dollar the Iranian government spent. It can be concluded that the use of volunteers, especially in volunteer-oriented programs in times of disaster, including epidemics, can be economically bene cial to the government. At the same time, it should be noted that the use of volunteers is also costly, and the government must identify the optimal number of volunteers before implementation. Also, if there are several plans on the table to intervene, the Viva rate can be a measure of cost-effectiveness.

Declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate Not applicable.

Consent for publication
Not applicable. Figure 1 Number of death due to COVID-19 disease in Iran per day