At first, the Program was established for foreign students only. It developed partnerships with public and private educational institutions to enable exchange students the opportunity, during their exchange period, to provide voluntary services at the City Hall. The main objective was to offer these students into the workings of public service within their respective fields of study, thereby providing practical experience and an opportunity to contribute fresh insights to the development of public policies.

Subsequently, the Program was expanded to include Brazilian students  of the International Relations field. The idea was to expand the experiences of these students, and enable them to contribute to the internationalization of public policies. Given their specialized education, these students can fit in several areas of the City Hall, where they could identify and advocate for projects with international potential.

The Program aims to:

● Promote cultural and knowledge exchange between volunteers and municipal officials;

● Develop specific skills and competencies of volunteers according to the different professional areas;

● Support the publication of scientific papers through the approach between academia and the municipal public administration;

● Develop national and international partnerships with higher education institutions;

● Disseminate the public policies of the municipality abroad.

The International Volunteering Program was developed by the IRO via Decree no. 15.319 on September 3, 2013. Since then, it has been coordinated by IRO itself.

Through a system of partnerships, the program receives candidates from all over the world. The International Relations team, after careful analysis of their curriculum and interests, identifies the potential department of City Hall that will host the students. Contact is established between the candidate and the public administration, where the operation of the Program and the work that will be carried out are explained.

During the volunteering period, the volunteer is accompanied by a supervisor who is responsible for the development of activities. The IRO maintains constant contact with both volunteer and supervisor in order to ensure that activities are being carried out as agreed. The volunteer can work from 12 to 20 hours per week for a period of 90-180 days, according to their availability and respecting the priority of their commitment to educational studies.

Finally, after their volunteering tenure is completed, a meeting is held where volunteers present the results of their work in a scientific article, that can be published on the Belo Horizonte City Hall website.

The main challenges and barriers faced by the Program were difficulties in political nuances, identifying city officials equipped to manage language differences and supervising foreign volunteers, making it appealing for exchange students to provide voluntary services in Brazil's public administration, and more recently, the constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic which halted the intake of exchange students.