Kusuma Trust UK New Strategy for 2015 to 2018

1. Strategy
2015-2018
1. Vision
The Kusuma Trust UK (the Trust) believes that every child and young person has the potential to
transform and improve their life, and should have opportunities to grow and develop as active and
productive citizens in their communities.
2. Mission
Our mission is to facilitate and increase access to quality education and other life opportunities for children
and young people, with a focus on the most disadvantaged. The Trust enables children and young people
to realise their potential and break the inter-generational cycle of poverty. The Trust also supports
innovation, new developments in education, research and advocacy.
3. Strategic Priorities
Education remains central to our strategy and we also invest in research and advocacy.
Education
Our focus is to improve education outcomes for young people in secondary and higher education. We
address major obstacles in secondary and higher education for motivated young people from the most
disadvantaged backgrounds. Our grants contribute to a range of outcomes, including improvements in
student attainment, teaching quality and community engagement, and an increased number of young people
pursuing higher education and gaining employment.
Our priority interventions focus on teacher professional development, school governance and management,
parent and community involvement, scholarships, career development support for young people, and
widening access to educational resources. Points of transition during education and entry into employment
receive special attention.
Research and Advocacy
Research with a focus on baseline and outcome measures is integrated into projects supported by the
Trust. This is reinforced with qualitative research to understand the impact on beneficiaries, including
multiplier effects and unintended outcomes that are as important as the intended outcomes. We also
support research to better understand the obstacles in education and the causes of educational failure.
Evidence generated from research is used to shape our grant making, and influence the practices and
policies of implementers, other donors, government and policy bodies.
4. Geographic Focus and Beneficiaries
In India, we concentrate our efforts in two districts - Sambalpur in Odisha and Hardoi in Uttar Pradesh -
that are among the lowest performing in these States based on education and human development
indicators. We also support selected initiatives at national level and with national policy relevance.
In the UK, geographic locations selected based on indicators of significant economic and other deprivation
are the focus. This includes coalfield, mining, industrial and coastal communities in decline.
We target young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, teachers and government education officials,
programmes that engage parents and communities and appropriate higher education institutes, universities
and centres of excellence.
5. Our Approach
Our core values include being apolitical, secular, efficient, responsible and mutually respectful. The guiding
principles for our work are excellence, innovation, openness, transparency and a focus on results,
collaboration, financial responsibility and communication. We collaborate with strategic and
implementation partners to deliver programmes. We review our strategy every 3-5 years.