News

Ten years on from the end of civil war in Sierra Leone (18 January), mass youth unemployment poses a threat to the existing peace and stability in the country, international development charity VSO is warning.

International development charity VSO today (5 December) underlined its new global focus with the appointment of a new Chair and six new trustees – nearly half of them from the global south – to its international board.

Today VSO and the Peace Corps signed a partnership agreement at the United Nations headquarters in New York that will allow the organisations to share best practices and work more effectively in countries where volunteers serve. The event was organised by UN Volunteers as part of the 10th Anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers and International Volunteer Day.

The G20 is failing to tackle the jobs crisis facing millions of people in the world’s poorest countries with the same urgency as for people in G20 nations, warned development charity VSO today (Friday 4 November).

Obstetricians and gynaecologists across Britain are being challenged to take up their most demanding but rewarding career move yet as international development charity VSO launches its recruitment drive for 25 much needed skilled and experienced obstetricians and gynaecologists to volunteer in some of the world’s poorest countries next year.   

Leading organisations, VSO, Christian Aid and the WI have warned today that the UK Government’s announcement of £10 million in annual funding for UN Women represents a failure of ambition that was deeply disappointing for the billion women living in poverty around the world.

VSO welcomes Prime Minister David Cameron and President Obama’s announcement that they plan to do more to prevent violence towards women, and to change the lives of the 1.2 billion poor people in the world today.

VSO UK is calling on the Government to hold firm on its commitment to enshrine 0.7 per cent of GDP to international development.

The British public wants access to education for more women and girls to be the top priority (24%) for the new agency, UN Women, to help end poverty, a new YouGov survey commissioned by international development charity, VSO, has found.

Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell and the head of UN Women Michelle Bachelet will hold talks in London today on the organisation’s progress since it started work in January.

VSO is making contact with more than 170 volunteers and employees, including 22 UK volunteers, in the areas issued with a tsunami warning in Asia, the Pacific and Latin America.

Leading international development charity, VSO, has welcomed the Multilateral Aid Review assessment that new agency, UN Women, has strong potential for reform. However, VSO is concerned the that UK Government has failed to announce its core funding to the new agency despite saying it would do so following the conclusion of the Multilateral Aid Review – and is now delaying an announcement until June.

VSO has appointed Amanda Khozi Mukwashi as Director of Policy. 

As Director of Policy, Amanda will play a key role in implementing VSO’s new strategy, People First, which includes VSO’s ambitions for growing the scale and impact of its development programmes. Key to this strategy is further strengthening in VSO’s ability to measure its contribution; and a growth in its ability to transfer learning from programmes into policy proposals and external advocacy.

Leading international development charity VSO is calling on students to support women’s rights around the world, by joining ‘The Godmothers’ campaign and attending a Mass Lobby at Westminster on the 16th February in support of UN Women.

VSO UK is concerned that slow commitment of substantial funds by UN Member states, including the UK Government, is preventing the new UN Women agency from becoming fully operational.

Leading international development charity, VSO, welcomes the Bangladeshi Government’s decision to restrict the sales of acid, however it warns that more action is urgently needed to address abuse and mutilation of women in Bangladesh.

Kathy Peach, Head of External Affairs at VSO UK, responds to the Home Secretary's speech on the UK's immigration system.

 VSO responds to Government Spending Review

A new report launched this week by International Broadcasting Trust (IBT), in partnership with Plan UK and VSO, reveals that most young people in the UK are deeply concerned about global poverty, but their desire to contribute is being diluted by a growing sense of disengagement from mainstream media.

Sara Cottingham, VSO’s Deputy Director of Policy, gives her opinion on the outcome of the UN summit.

VSO today welcomes the UN’s appointment of Michelle Bachelet to the top job at the newly created ‘UN Women’. 

With the world’s biggest arts festival in Edinburgh over those interested in new and classic international films will be pleased to hear that Take One Action Film Festival starts this month.

VSO Indonesia in cooperation with Dirjen Binapenta, are looking to recruit Indonesian professionals who will be placed in VSO partner organisations in several developing countries around the world.

Leading international development charity VSO is helping to scale up and coordinate national volunteering in flood-affected Pakistan after a massive surge in calls from local people looking to help avert the spread of waterborne diseases.

Local man, John Stops of Llanelly Hill, is setting off on an extraordinary commute to work; walking 160 miles in 10 consecutive days to his London office to raise funds for leading international development charity VSO.

 
Next week sees the first two parliamentarians in VSO’s Parliamentarian Volunteering Scheme heading overseas to Mongolia and Uganda

Thousands of protestors took to the streets this weekend as world leaders dropped their Gleneagles pledge to increase aid by $50 billion by 2010.  Sara Cottingham, VSO’s Head of Programme Learning and Advocacy responds.

In a letter to David Cameron, VSO UK's Policy and Advocacy Manager, Kathy Peach sets out frustrations with negotiations for a dedicated UN women's agency.

In the run up to the G8 David Cameron has established a new £5 million fund to help tackle death in childbirth.  With a focus on transferring skills from British health workers to midwives, nurses and doctors overseas, his tactic mirrors VSO’s approach to development, where one skilled professional can train hundreds of midwives, helping them end unnecessary death in childbirth.

Members of the diaspora community are invited to grill a panel of cross party politicians on the issues that matter most to them at a pre-election debate on Tuesday 27th of April, 6pm at SOAS London.

Kathy Lette, best-selling author of Mad Cows and Foetal Attraction, has joined forces with VSO to launch Walk for Tabita, a series of UK walks designed to raise over £50,000. Find out more here.

VSO is giving students across the UK the chance to turn the tables on their teachers in new fundraising challenge Teacher’s Got Talent.

Brian Rockliffe, director of the VSO Federation, has been awarded an OBE in the Queen's New Years Honours list for 'services to International Development'.

VSO was voted Charity of the Year last night at Dod’s Charity Champion awards. Nominated and voted for exclusively by British Parliamentarians, VSO was hailed most effective charity of 2009.

18 young deaf volunteers from the UK and Nepal unite for a pioneering programme to smash stereotypes and celebrate international volunteering.

Community groups throughout the UK are being invited to help shape a new government scheme to promote and fund links with the developing world by taking part in a nationwide survey.

VSO supporters, would-be volunteers, and fans of Papua New Guinea should tune in to Charley Boorman Sydney to Tokyo: By Any Means this autumn on BBC2 to see Charley getting a taste of life as a VSO volunteer.

VSO welcomes the positive steps the UN General Assembly has taken in expressing unanimous support for the creation a UN women’s agency to be headed by a new Under Secretary-General (USG). 

International development charity VSO will be at the forefront of a number of events that are part of this year’s Take One Action Film Festival, which kicks off this Thursday with a special event for schools and the Scottish premier of Madonna’s I Am Because We Are, a portrayal of life in Malawi.  The events take place at 10.00 and 20.20 at the Edinburgh Filmhouse.

VSO’s International Programmes Director, Richard Hawkes, responds to International Policy Network’s research report, Fake Aid and explores how, with the support of the British Government, VSO is helping more people work their way out of poverty.

News has emerged from the UN that the decision on the creation of a new UN women’s agency could be delayed by yet another year. Over the past year there has been an overwhelming consensus among governments from across the world in favour of the women’s agency. Despite this, a number of governments, including reportedly, Cuba, Iran, Egypt and Sudan, are trying to postpone the decision.

The recession is de-skilling the UK workforce, the international development charity VSO warned today, as new research revealed that more than ten million Brits worry they are stagnating professionally.

This summer six parliamentarians will be using part of their summer recess to help tackle global poverty by participating in VSO’s Parliamentarian Volunteering Scheme. VSO is supporting the MPs to use their advocacy, lobbying, and policy-making skills to help tackle poverty in some of the world’s poorest countries.

Local VSO returned volunteers are urgently calling on their primary school colleagues across Derby to follow in their footsteps and spend just 20 minutes of their summer holiday applying to be a volunteer. The international development charity is looking for primary teachers who can share their skills across the developing world in 2010.

VSO officially opens its programme office in Tajikistan on 25 June 2009 following its official registration in Tajikistan last September. The British ambassador, His Excellency Mr. Trevor Moore, will host the official launch of VSO’s newest country programme. 

A government-funded education initiative to engage young people in development issues has won an award for its contribution to the professional development of teachers in global education.

As a new survey shows over two-thirds of UK adults have reassessed their career values because of the recession, Sir Alan’s former Apprentice Lucinda Legerwood is embarking on life after the boardroom as she shuns the rat race to take up a two-year placement as a VSO volunteer.

Leading international development charity VSO is urgently looking for 50 experienced primary school teachers to make a break from the UK. Primary school teachers are being urged to apply before the 31st May resignation date so they kick start the next academic year with their biggest challenge yet in Africa and Asia.

As her first public action in office, VSO’s first female Chief Executive Marg Mayne is spearheading the charity’s demand for the UN to establish a new women’s agency.

Our people, not products make us proud to be British.

Wales’s programme for tackling poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, whilst developing the skills of managers in Wales, gets underway this week with the first cohort of candidates ready for departure.