IBM and Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) today announced the findings of an international, 15-person pro bono IBM Corporate Service Corps (CSC) consulting team that worked with the VMC UNICEF- Gujarat Chapter, Deepak Foundation and Gujarat State Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS on critical public health, environmental and social service initiatives. This is the first time a CSC team has visited Vadodara and the 35th time CSC teams have visited India in the last nine years.
The outcomes of the IBM CSC Vadodara program were presented at an event held in The Gateway Hotel, Akota. Among the dignitaries in attendance were Shri Bharat Dangar, Mayor, VMC and Ms. Rumi Mallick Mitra, Country lead, Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs, IBM India Private Limited.
During the IBM CSC Vadodara program, IBM applied its expertise in the areas of design thinking and analytics to suggest sustainable solutions and at-scale impact to the areas of health, environment and women’s empowerment. These were all problem areas identified in collaboration with the Vadodara Municipal Corporation and United Nations Children’s Fund.
At the event, all the IBMers involved in the CSC Vadodara program spoke highly of the support provided by their respective clients to understand and execute the projects on-ground, as follows:
- The first IBM sub–team worked with the Solid Waste Management department of VMC to design a waste segregation campaign for the city. The team identified the key behavioral road blocks and designed a strategy to overcome the challenges which will be taken up by the authorities.
- The second IBM sub–team worked with the Complaint Redressal department of VMC to assess and recommend improvement to the effectiveness of the current complaint redressal system in Vadodara which includes a help line number, vigilant Vadodara app and ward offices.
- The third IBM sub–team engaged with the Health Department of VMC to share a plan for implementing a pioneering disease burden mapping system for Vadodara city. This will enable all citizens to have a unique health ID, to enable the tracking of health history planned by the VMC.
- The fourth IBM sub–team associated worked with the UNICEF-Gandhinagar and Deepak Foundation to create a dashboard for the Government flagship program “Beti Bachao and Beti Padhao,” which aims to provide social service to disadvantaged girls. The dashboard will be a tool to track the progress of, and resources allocated to, each girl in a village. The dashboard has the potential for scale-up across the state of Gujarat by UNICEF.
- The fifth IBM sub–team worked with the Gujarat State Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS towards strengthening the Jatan Scheme for people living with HIV/AIDS. The team designed an effective mechanism for smooth operation and effective outreach.
Recognising the work by the IBMers in such a short duration, Shri Bharat Dangar, Mayor, Vadodara Municipal Corporation congratulated the teams and said, “The work done by the IBMers in such a short duration is really impressive and more Corporate Houses should initiate such programs as such skilled people provide fresh perspective and approaches for city development”.
Sharing the experience, Ms. Rumi Mallick Mitra, Country lead, Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs, IBM India Private Limited, said that “IBM is committed to the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development and one of the unique ways of involvement is to contribute the human capital to make the world a better place to live. The CSC program is one of the most valued programs of IBM and there are multiple projects we have committed to in India and across the globe which are designed to have a positive impact on society at large.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Praveen Kumar G, Office-In-Charge, VSO India said, “VSO has been working towards harnessing the potential of volunteers for the last four decades. We work with corporates from across the globe but the commitment of the IBM CSC teams are unique in that they create a difference through the delivery of multiple skills that directly benefit all the stakeholders involved”.
