Welcome to VOI Social Impact

Peace, Social Cohesion & Development

VOI Social Impact works with Companies, International Organisations, DFIs & Local Partners to promote peace, development and stability in fragile and conflict-affected regions.

Who We Are

VOI: A global social enterprise leveraging local capacities for peace

VOI is a social entreprise that creates positive social impact and promotes local stability in fragile and conflict-affected communities using an innovative methodology.

It is currently incubated by Cambridge Social Ventures.

What We Do

Innovative, field-tested and award-winning approach that promotes social cohesion and peaceful coexistence

VOI applies a scientific and systematic community-based approach, developed at the University of Cambridge, that minimises the impact of violence and promotes local stability, development, and effective community engagement.

If you are a public institution, we help you improve the lives of vulnerable communities, promoting peace, social cohesion and development.

If you are a company, we offer means to stabilising your operating environment in sensitive settings, ensuring the safety of your projects and improving your Return On Investment, while contributing to local development and positive social impact.

Get more Information about VOI​

Learn how your organisation can ensure stability to its projects and investments.

VOI as a solution

VOI promotes local stability and offers unique benefits to public and private entities implementing projects in vulnerable settings

Implementing projects in fragile and sensitive environments is challenging. Whether it is a peacebuilding initiative, a development effort, or an infrastructure investment, there are inherent risks to exacerbating local tensions and creating risks for human rights abuses, damaging the reputation of the implementing institution.

Yet, the effective engagement of local communities is known to increase the positive impact of such projects. The question is often on the how. While the drive towards localisation is ongoing, practical answers to this question are still hard to find.

Troubles with a multi-billion US dollar project in Africa: Total Mozambique LNG

Located in Mozambique’s marginalised north region of Cabo Delgado, the area presented significant instability risks: it had pre-existing tensions among different Muslim sects, and it faced high poverty rates and socioeconomic inequalities.

The consortium proceeded with the project in 2019, despite escalating instabilities. In March 2021, ISIS-linked insurgents attacked Palma, the main city next to the project site, causing Total to suspend the project and spend an additional $200M on remediation for humanitarian actions.

The VOI is an award-winning methodology that offers an opportunity to change the status quoVOI is an effective, systematic, validated, and award-winning community-based approach with a solid track record of effective community engagement and positive social impact on the field, thus increasing the legitimacy, impact, and sustainability of projects in fragile settings.

VOI projects improved significantly 98% of the community-sourced indicators of success from the baseline.

On top of its effectiveness, VOI is also fast, cost-effective, easy, flexible and accountable.

Fast

VOI is faster when compared to other standard community-based approaches: field results in 6 months have far exceeded expectations and have comparative advantages to the 2-3 year standard for effective local community engagement and efforts to minimise violence.

Cost-effective

Compared to the average budget for human rights consultants or development projects, the VOI stands out for incurring lower costs: the methodology is already developed and ready for implementation, avoiding additional time and resources.

Easy & Flexible

VOI is simple to understand by all participants and easy to apply. It needs simple adaptations to be context-specific: it promoted peaceful coexistence in Guinea-Bissau, prevented violent extremism in Burkina Faso, and is ready to improve the well-being in multiple settings.

Accountable

The impact of VOI is strictly measured by community-sourced indicators, which are measured and analysed on all phases of the methodology to track its impact and make it accountable and certifiable.

Mitigate Risks and Reduce Costs

Use VOI as the right stability solution for your investments and infrastructure projects.

In Collaboration With Renowned Institutions

VOI Awards & Partnerships​

Awards GCSP

In May 2023, VOI was awarded a Geneva Center for Security Policy (GCSP) Prize for Innovation in Peace and Security.

UN Development Programme

In 2021-22, VOI partnered with the UNDP to implement two pilot projects in Guinea-Bissau.

Search for Common Ground

Search's country team in Burkina Faso has partnered with VOI to improve the lives of communities affected by violent extremism.

VOI Insights

Latest News & Field Stories

Discover the latest news and field stories about VOI and our social impact.

News

Making Peace interview

João Costa, the CEO of VOI, interviews about Making Peace to Enterprising Minds of Cambridge Judge Business School.

Read More

F. A. Q's

Frequently Asked Questions​

Explore our FAQ to learn more about our commitment to local development, social cohesion, and the impactful work of VOI in creating positive social change.

VOI has been implemented with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Guinea-Bissau to promote the peaceful coexistence and development of communities divided by violent land disputes. The VOI projects achieved outstanding results: 98% of community-sourced indicators of peaceful coexistence improved significantly from the baseline.

Furthermore, the VOI was also integrated into a competitive funding proposal that was awarded over $2 million by the Government of Canada to promote social cohesion in communities affected by violent extremism in Burkina Faso. The implementation was conducted by Search for Common Ground, whose team was trained by a VOI expert.

The projects led to 26 socioeconomic interventions chosen by the communities, focused on infrastructure development, based on consensual communal agreements achieved through the VOI exercises.

There have been many cases where large-scale projects and foreign investments have been disrupted by violence and instability. One such case is the Mozambique LNG project, worth $20 billion and located in the Cabo Delgado region in the north of Mozambique. This project was sponsored by a consortium of global energy companies led by the French major, TotalEnergies.

The project area was sensitive, with high poverty rates and socioeconomic inequalities. External investment without effective community engagement, with tangible benefits for communities as a whole deriving from the presence of external actors, could fuel resentment between civilians and the company. Further, since 2017, this region has been plagued by social unrest due to pre-existing religious tensions between Muslim sects. This has since escalated into ISIS-linked insurgencies and violent attacks in the area, including in the town of Palma - the main town next to the project site and the location of vital onshore facilities for the project. These attacks led Total to suspend the project works, evacuate its personnel and contractors, and evoke force majeur on the project.

An effective tool like VOI to manage the pre-existing tensions could have helped to de-escalate the situation associated with socioeconomic grievances and religious intergroup clashes, helping to stabilize the project site and surrounding areas. By strengthening social cohesion among populations and improving their well-being, it could have prevented disruption and violence and/or contribute to overcoming the situation once it had been stabilized militarily. These are foundational elements to increase the chances of success for a project of this magnitude.

VOI is targeted at the community-level and therefore the length and costs of a VOI project are context-specific.

As an example, the two successful VOI pilots that were implemented in Guinea-Bissau with the UNDP lasted 6 to 9 months from start to end, covering in full the three phases of VOI.

In terms of costs, apart from licensing and support from VOI experts, they depend on the socioeconomic interventions to be implemented by the communities in Phase III. As an indication, for the two pilots in Guinea-Bissau, the four socioeconomic interventions implemented were cost-effective and none of them involved the construction of any new major costly infrastructure.

The VOI is an innovative, effective and award-winning methodology, developed at the University of Cambridge, that offers an opportunity to change the status quo.

What sets VOI apart from other initiatives and approaches and led to its recognition as an award-winning and innovative tool is:

  • It is based on a robust and validated three-step systematic procedure that has delivered exceptional results in practice, bridging the gap between theory and practice – it adds science and rigour to peace and development while maintaining its simplicity;
  • Effectively shifts the power imbalances in favour of communities through decisive involvement of local communities in the decision-making process and implementation of key aspects of the project (e.g. definition of the indicators to be measured and of the socioeconomic interventions);
  • It is fast and cost-effective, ensuring partners can quickly achieve tangible results and value for money.

As with any intervention in a sensitive and volatile setting, success is never guaranteed. There could be unpredictable events (political events, power dynamics, natural events such as cyclones or droughts, etc.) that could threaten the VOI works, e.g. suspending the socioeconomic interventions.

The success of a VOI project is also dependent on the competence, diligence, and timeliness of the implementing partner – which can be supported by VOI experts and will always have the VOI Manual to ensure that risks are mitigated to the minimum.

In addition, the completion and success of each stage is a necessary condition to proceed to the next phase. By relying on communities for final decisions, their agreement is necessary for the correct continuation of the projects.

However, VOI projects manage expectations from the outset and engage extensively with representatives of communities to ensure the smooth roll-out of the process. Finally, even when socioeconomic interventions in Phase III are symbolic (that is, relatively cheap), they will still bring tangible, material benefits to community members.

This helps navigate turbulences and contributes to shared goals and commitments between groups that might be at odds. So far, in all VOI experiences – and despite occasional setbacks – results have consistently exceeded expectations.

Companies, especially multinational corporations, often have business operations, projects and investments in regions that neighbour fragile and conflict-affected areas or where local communities are affected by the implementation of the companies’ projects (e.g. infrastructure or construction works). These operations often create tensions with communities and can disrupt workplans, while also risking human rights abuses and reputational costs.

VOI addresses these issues as a stability and social impact solution for companies in any stage of their projects:

  • A preventive solution in new and ongoing projects (project preparation and management): where there is no conflict, but the inherent risk is high and needs to be mitigated to ensure the security of the company’s operations and assets.
  • A corrective solution in conflict-affected and disrupted projects (project remediation): where tensions and conflicts between communities have been observed and solutions to prevent escalations are required.

VOI is also a means to ensure that businesses can do good. Companies nowadays should have a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) vision and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) targets. VOI increases the success and positive impact of social programs and actions systematically and consistently.

The socioeconomic interventions implemented in any VOI project are specific to the context, decided and implemented by the local communities with the financial support of the project sponsor.

To this date, socioeconomic interventions – chosen consensually by the communities – have focused on a mixture of social and economic ideas. To illustrate, in one VOI pilot in Guinea-Bissau, the communities agreed that (i) it would be fundamental to rehabilitate the rice fields to improve the lives of all; and that (ii) joint football tournaments and traditional dance festivals were seen as key renewing inter-communal relationships.

To rehabilitate the dikes, the team sponsored a visit from an agrarian engineer and provided funds to purchase tubes to ensure the irrigation of the fields. The communities organised themselves to work on the rice fields in mixed shifts: as the VOI team visited the project site, we found the village chiefs working side-by-side over the sound of a small radio to the benefit of all.

The football tournament also showcased the ethos of the VOI project. Without explicit guidance, communities decided to host the tournament with mixed teams, instead of having the villages play against one another.

All VOI projects are customised to each client, their projects and the specific context of the targeted area (e.g. source of the tensions, respect of traditional and local norms and customs, involvement of key local stakeholders, etc.).

All the key elements of a VOI project (community-sourced indicators, intergroup contact exercises, socioeconomic interventions, among others) imply leadership from local communities in the decision-making processes and implementation of activities, effectively ensuring local agency, legitimacy and sustainability of the project.

The expected results of VOI projects include:

For the communities:

  • Community members increase their perceptions of peaceful coexistence over time;
  • Emotion regulation strategies decrease levels of negative affect and increase positive affect;
  • Social cohesion is strengthened and civilians, including youth and women, work together to improve their communities;
  • Individual perceptions and attitudes towards “the other” are changed;
  • The number of violent incidents and involvement of community members in the conflict decreases;
  • Two interventions address the fundamental needs of the community, as consensually defined by its members, and contribute to its development.

For partners:

  • VOI provides a clear, scientific way of measuring and demonstrating progress and impact;
  • Strengthens the toolkit of the institution to address peace and development issues. For the private sector, it also guarantees compliance with ESG and CSR requirements;
  • Ensures the replicability of a cost-effective process in different target locations;
  • Improves community engagement and trust between communities and institutions;
  • Increases the Return on Investment by minimising violence and stabilising the working environment;
  • Offers sustainability of results and continuous channels of communication through local bodies created from the VOI projects.

The geographical area as a target for a VOI project would have the following criteria:

1. Relatively small geographical area (rural village, small towns, urban neighborhoods, etc.);

2. That area has been affected by tensions and/or violence;

3. The causes of the tensions should be related to social identities and have a clear intergroup component (geographical, ethnical, religious, political, ...);

4. The VOI project should contribute to the socioeconomic well-being of the communities (i.e. impact on their daily social lives and local economy).

Finally, the targeted area needs to present minimum security standards that enable the VOI team and its local partners to operate safely.

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VOI Approach

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We are scaling up VOI and increasing our positive social impact in the world! If you would like to know more about VOI and partner up with us in our mission, send us a message or book a 15-30min call with us!

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