Pakistan

We’ve been working in Pakistan since 1987, building healthy communities and supporting people to develop sustainable and resilient livelihoods. We’re currently active in over a third of the country’s districts.

258,986

We've directly impacted 258,986 people since we started working in Pakistan.

5,618

We supported 5,618 young people to improve their employability and entrepreneurship skills.

180

We're building the capacity of 180 organisations to address gender-based violence effectively.

Healthy communities

A female police officer stands in front of the regional police office — The PFDP works with the police to improve their ability to manage cases of gender-based violence effectively.

In collaboration with local NGO Rozan, we’re working to reduce the risk of, and improve the response to, gender-based violence (GBV) in Pakistan. As a founding partner of the Pakistan Forum for Democratic Policing (PFDP), we’re strengthening the capacity of the Pakistani police force to engage with communities on GBV issues, manage reported cases appropriately, and refer survivors to relevant health services.

We’ve helped to scale up the PFDP, growing its membership from eight to 180 organisations, while improving its governance and equipping members with the skills and knowledge to tackle GBV effectively. We also support the network to run advocacy campaigns and lobby for police reforms and improved accountability.

Pakistan Forum for Democratic Policing

Resilient livelihoods

Our livelihoods work in Pakistan focuses on improving young people’s skills and access to employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. Alongside our partner Indus Consortium, in 2018 we developed the Youth Employability Network (YEN), a network of over 800 members collaborating to promote jobs and develop entrepreneurial skills.

Our Empowered Youth for Employability and Entrepreneurship (EYEE) project directly supported 5,618 young people through targeted training, skills development and identification of relevant opportunities.

Inclusive education

Multi Year Resilience Program (2022-2025)

VSO is implementing a three-year Multi Year Resilience Program (MYRP) supporting inclusive education in partnership with Education Cannot Wait (ECW). VSO is among the lead consortium partner along with UNICEF and RSPN.

The project aims to improve access to equitable and quality education for 32,400 children, focusing on the most vulnerable girls and boys, including refugees, adolescents, and those living with disabilities.

The project aims to ensure that:

The most vulnerable girls and boys including adolescents and those living with disabilities have access to inclusive, relevant, and quality learning, and have improved mental and physical wellbeing.
Learning environments are safe, accessible, and conducive to learning for all learners.
Education systems in Pakistan are strengthened through sustained capacity development support at national, provincial, community and school levels.
The educational outcomes of girls, including adolescent girls, are improved through targeted programming focused on enrolment, retention, and learning.

VSO local implementing and technical partners include Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi, the Pakistan Alliance for Girls Education, Participatory Rural Development Society and Taraqee Foundation.

The Back to School project

Currently, there are an estimated 23 million children in Pakistan unable to attend school, the second highest figure in the world. Many of these children are refugees whose families have fled to Pakistan to escape armed conflict in Afghanistan. However, climate change poses another threat: in 2022, Pakistan experienced some of its deadliest floods in years.

Our Back to School project funded by the FCDO ACTIVE grant, has helped over 200 out of school children return to school after the 2022 floods by establishing climate resilient structures to serve as schools and transitional learning centres.

The Back to School project

Hear from the children and teachers who have been able to return to school

The ACTIVE programme

VSO Pakistan is implementing the FCDO funded Active Citizenship through Inclusive Volunteering and Empowerment (ACTIVE) programme. In 2023-24, the project is developing more inclusive, open, resilient, and gender equitable societies by making positive contributions towards youth.

VSO is facilitating youth-led advocacy for the development of national youth volunteer policy and adoption of the Global Volunteering Standard. We see fostering active citizenship in young people and volunteer networks as central to our ability to affect change.

We also want to promote volunteering as a tool for development at national level through our leadership work. VSO, in partnership with local organisation Bargad, has formed the National Youth Engagement Network, which is implementing social action projects aimed at enhancing active citizenship and youth advocacy.