VSO India works on poverty alleviation through strategic investments in the areas of Education, livelihoods, youth participation and inclusive governance.

1. 1
Organisation
profile
VSO India
Shaleen Rakesh
Executive Director

2. 2
Who is VSO India?
VSO in India is a knowledge partner for civil society,
government and the private sector to innovate, incubate
and scale development initiatives.
We harnesses programmatic impact in-country and across
VSO globally in the areas of
• Secure livelihood,
• Inclusive education,
• Youth engagement and
• Participation and governance.

3. 3
For over 55 years, VSO, world’s leading development
organisation has been addressing development
challenges by engaging with people.
• VSO currently works in 29 countries across Asia-Pacific
and Africa region impacting 26 million people.
• VSO has build capacity of over 500 programme partners
globally.
• Addressing issues of exclusion and poverty
43,000 VSO volunteers have made lasting change in
more than 120 countries.
VSO International

4. 4
We engage highly skilled volunteers from India and across
the globe as inputs into our programming which creates
an additional impetus for achieving our ambitious goals.
VSO India also uses technology to cover the last mile in
our efforts to reach the marginalised communities we
serve.
How is VSO different?

5. 5
• SMS story is an innovative education
programme that enables teachers to
enhance their English teaching skills and
improves the reading ability of students
in elementary classrooms in India. This
project is currently being piloted in Bundi
district of Rajasthan with local partner
NGO Pratham.
• Youth Citizen Service (YCS) engages
young Indians from across the country to
work with a local community and develop
innovative solutions to development
problems. Over 6,900 people were
directly impacted through 14
development projects led by the YCS
volunteers in the last cycle.
Innovative programmes

6. 6
• Samadhan – Citizen’s action for
governance is an online government
service grievance system that allows
marginalised communities in Kalahandi
and Koraput districts of Orissa to lodge
complaints through SMS or toll free
phone call. The complaint can then be
tracked through to resolution by the
District Collectorate.
• System of Rice Intensification (SRI) aims
to increase agricultural productivity
whilst using less water. It creates greater
opportunities for poor and
marginalised communities, particularly
women by enhancing their skills,
awareness, knowledge and bringing in
linkages to markets and financial
institutions.
Key programmes

7. 7
Goal 1
• End poverty in all its forms everywhere
Goal 4
• Ensure inclusive and equitable quality
education and promote lifelong learning
opportunities for all
Goal 5
• Achieve gender equality and empower all
women and girls
Goal 8
• Promote sustained, inclusive and
sustainable economic growth, full and
Directly impact Sustainable Development Goals
productive employment and decent work
for all
Goal 16
• Promote peaceful and inclusive societies
for sustainable development, provide
access to justice for all and build effective,
accountable and inclusive institutions at
all levels
Goal 17
• Strengthen the means of implementation
and revitalize the global partnership for
sustainable development
VSO India is addressing following proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

8. 8
Evidence and Impact
• 4,979 children, of which 2,532 are girls in
32 government schools of Rajasthan and
Delhi have better educational outcomes.
• 2,48,528 persons with disabilities in 977
villages have benefitted from our disability
programme across four states of
Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and West
Bengal.
• 10,000 tribal families in Jharkhand have
enhanced food security with access to
land and water resources.
• 35,754 women have been empowered to
demand and access government health
services through the support of
community volunteers in Jharkhand.

9. 9
• VSO is a development partner of choice
for diverse actors in the development
sector.
• Over the years, we have successfully
build long term strategic partnerships
with likeminded and forward –thinking
organisations.
• We have worked and build capacity of
with over 100 local NGO partners across
the country.
• Our key strength is in bringing different
stakeholders together to build synergy
and deliver collective impact.
• These include people from marginalised
communities, grassroot NGOs,
government departments, UN agencies,
donors, private sector and media.
Partnerships

10. 10
• Each corporate partnership is strategically
developed and we draw upon our collective
strengths to deliver shared value and development
impact.
• We work with corporates through CSR
partnerships and employee volunteering
programmes. These include both national and
international employees.
• We have nurtured a programme funding
relationship with Accenture India through which we
have secured livelihoods of 10,000 tribal
households in Jharkhand and trained.
• We work with IBM through their Corporate
Service Corps programme which helps solve critical
community problems while providing IBM
employees unique development opportunities.
Corporate engagement

11. Look forward to meeting you
for further discussion.
Get in touch via any one of these:
t: +91 11 46681501 – 01 | e: infovsoindia@vsoint.org
w: www.vsoindiatrust.org | f: www.facebook.com/vsoindia