Wednesday 19 October 2011

Citi India Partners with 12 NGOs for Economic Inclusion Projects in 2011

Citi India today announced that it has partnered with 12 NGO’s in 2011 towards social development projects to promote economic empowerment in India. Citi India has sharpened its focus around the concept of Economic Inclusion, which integrates Financial Inclusion, Market Access and Financial Education. This concept addresses each stage of the economic cycle of a household, thereby creating truly economically empowered communities. Grants distributed through Citi Foundation, the global philanthropic arm of Citigroup, enable the poor to access the formal financial sector, improve production skills, establish sustainable enterprises and manage their finances better. Citi has committed approximately Rs 100 million in grants across these 12 NGO’s during the year. Since 1999, Citi has supported innovative projects with over 22 NGOs across the country. During this period, Citi-funded programs have benefited more than 1.65 million economically disadvantaged families by way of enterprise development, youth education and livelihoods, financial capability and asset building, and microfinance.

In keeping with its focused philosophy to promote economic empowerment, Citi increased its investments in enterprise development, and youth education and livelihoods in 2011. Its partnership with the American India Foundation (AIF) for the first time is designed to enable AIF expand its Market Aligned Skills Training (MAST) program and provide unemployed youth with the skills needed to secure service-sector jobs. In addition to technical training delivered by AIF, Citi is also committed to providing financial education to 2500 young women and men residing in the slums of Delhi and Jaipur.

Neelima Khetan, Country Director, AIF said “AIF's relationship with Citi has allowed us to not only scale-up our skilling efforts for youth across India, but has integrated a financial literacy component into our foundational coursework for the first time. The MAST program enables disadvantaged youth the access to formal, service-sector employment thereby providing stable incomes and a sense of confidence to young people.”

The first in India to invest in financial literacy for poor women, Citi continues to support its eight-year relationship with the Indian School of Microfinance for Women (ISMW), an organization that it co-founded with SEWA and Friends of Women’s World Banking (FWWB), India. The Citi Centre for Financial Literacy at ISMW has enabled access to financial education for more than 800,000 women from low-income backgrounds. Citi also continues to support Meljol, an innovative program that brings financial education to schools across Maharashtra, Kerala Assam, Rajasthan, Orissa and Jharkhand. Over the last four years, the partnership between Citi and Meljol has reached out to 2,500 government schools and increased the financial awareness of more than 460,000 children. Some of the other growing relationships include Medha Corp, Appropriate Technology India and Access Development Services.

Commenting on the longstanding partnership with Citi, Jayshree Vyas, Executive Director, ISMW,. said, “Our growing partnership of over eight years with Citi, demonstrates their deep commitment to the communities we serve. The initiatives taken together during this period have successfully created a strong foundation to make economic empowerment and financial inclusion possible for disadvantaged women from low-income backgrounds from across the country.”

The Citi Foundation’s ‘more than philanthropy’ approach encourage senior employees to engage with its partner NGOs as Business Champions and Board members, providing key inputs on strategy, operations and management. In addition, hundreds of Citi employees across the country volunteer with and donate to local NGOs through Citi India’s Global Community Day and Payroll Giving program.

About Citi

Committed to India for over 109 years, Citi takes pride in being a premier locally-embedded financial institution backed by an unmatched international network. Citi's presence in India spans 42 Citibank branches across 30 cities and over 700 ATMs. With capital invested of over US$4 billion, Citi is the single largest foreign direct investor in the financial services industry in India and offers consumers and institutions a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, and wealth management. Citi is an employer of choice to approximately 7500 employees in India. Citi's franchise in India includes businesses such as equity brokerage, equities distribution, private banking (Citi Private Bank) and alternate investments and private equity (CVCI). In line with our commitment to make a positive difference in the communities where we work, Citi India's citizenship programme targets its strategic efforts in the priority focus areas of Financial Capability & Asset Building, Microfinance, Enterprise Development, and Youth Education & Livelihoods.



The Citi Foundation is committed to the economic empowerment and financial inclusion of individuals and families, particularly those in need, in the communities where we work so that they can improve their standard of living. Globally, the Citi Foundation targets its strategic giving to priority focus areas: Microfinance, Enterprise Development, Youth Education and Livelihoods, and Financial Capability and Asset Building. The Citi Foundation works with its partners in Microfinance and Enterprise Development to support environmental programs and innovations.

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