Diaspora volunteering
A diaspora is a group, or organisation of people who have current or distant roots in another country.
Together we harness the unique contributions of diaspora volunteers to fight poverty in their countries or continents of origin.
To do this, VSO's diaspora volunteering programme works with the Diaspora Volunteering Alliance (DVA); a network organisation for UK based diaspora organisations.
What’s the result?
With funding from Department for International Development (DFID) from 2008 to 2011, the programme successfully worked with 14 diaspora organisations to manage over 600 volunteering placements around the world.
The programme was awarded the top score for development impact overseas by DFID. We are now working with BIG Lottery Fund to build diaspora organisations' capacity to undertake similar projects.
Why do we work with diaspora partners?
Because diaspora volunteers bring a knowledge of culture, context and language that’s hard to find anywhere else.
Our partner organisations overseas also offer grassroots links to diaspora communities, who operate transnationally to help develop links between the UK and places of heritage - and they bring extensive in-country networks.
What do we offer our partners?
The Diaspora Volunteering Programme is currently developing the capacity of small, UK-based diaspora organisations to have a bigger impact through their development and overseas volunteering work.
We offer our partners a comprehensive capacity-building programme focusing on organisational development, fundraising and volunteer management support.
More information
If you would like further information on our capacity-building programme and how your organisation can become a diaspora capacity-building partner, please email the Diaspora team
We are not currently recruiting for new partners; however, we are accepting expressions of interest for future opportunities.
Find out more about our diaspora programme's impact overseas, capacity-building work and partner organisations
