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Lombard Odier and UNICEF publish Donor’s Guide to Children
A unique partnership to strengthen and focus aid for children all over the world, at a time when the pandemic highlights the need for more resources
Lombard Odier and UNICEF have pooled their expertise to produce the Donor’s Guide to Children and Youth. The publication is aimed at individuals and private foundations looking to provide tangible assistance to disadvantaged children in three key areas: education, health and child protection.
It seeks to raise awareness and encourage commitment by providing donors with the information and analysis needed to properly understand the current challenges. Whether these relate to Covid-19, climate change or conflict, new international philanthropic partnerships are needed more than ever. Ten specific case studies illustrate the range of opportunities open to donors, focused on two priorities: meeting children’s needs and fundamental rights and imagining a better future where each one of them can flourish.
Following the success of the Donor’s Guide to Cancer in 2018 and the Donor’s Guide to the Environment in 2020, for this third publication Lombard Odier has teamed up with UNICEF and followed the same formula. The Donor’s Guide to Children and Youth is currently available in English and will soon be translated into French and German. It can be downloaded free of charge on the Lombard Odier and UNICEF websites.
A more difficult context because of Covid
“The world has made huge progress since UNICEF was created: infant mortality rates have fallen, while school attendance rates have risen across the board. Much child protection legislation has been passed, but too many children are still left behind. This is where philanthropy has a vital role to play,” says Bettina Junker, CEO of UNICEF Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
Patrick Odier, Senior Managing Partner of the Lombard Odier Group and Chairman of the Fondation Lombard Odier remarks: “This guide is all the more important now the global pandemic has generated further need for child support. Fundraising tends to have a shifting focus, driven by emergencies as they arise. Sadly, education and children’s rights are too often relegated to the background.”
The Covid-19 pandemic is widening inequalities and threatening decades of global progress. On top of that, climate change is affecting the most vulnerable communities, whilst conflicts in Africa, Asia and the Middle East are becoming protracted.
“It is important to remember that behind each statistic in our guide stands a child whose life can be changed for ever. Along with UNICEF, we hope to make a constructive contribution to better help disadvantaged children through strategic philanthropy,” concludes Maximilian Martin, Global Head of Philanthropy at Lombard Odier Group.
Three key areas of intervention
Health
Between 1990 and 2019 the global infant mortality rate before the age of five fell from 9.3% to 3.8%. However, the vast majority of these deaths can still be avoided with solutions that are often very simple. For example, the kangaroo method for saving underweight premature babies, where skin-to-skin contact with the mother creates an incubator-like environment. Vaccines are another simple and effective solution, but the infrastructure (transport, refrigeration, etc.) is often lacking.
The CARE Bangladesh project
The CARE Bangladesh project aims to raise awareness among mothers, families and the community of the need for medical care during pregnancy and childbirth. With the help of local volunteers, the project aims to spread essential knowledge about the health of mothers and babies.
A donation of USD 25,000 can train 2,500 community health volunteers. With USD 75,000, CARE Bangladesh can reach 600,000 women to encourage them to visit a healthcare facility.
Education
Even though great progress has been made, 20% of the world’s children and young people do not attend school. Worse still, the Covid-19 pandemic may have caused another 24 million children to drop out of education. Digital tools have the potential to improve distance learning and raise the quality of teaching, but two-thirds of the world’s school-age population has no internet connection at home.
The Insaka initiative in Zambia
The Insaka initiative in Zambia targets toddlers in rural areas. First, there are meeting places where the children can benefit from learning activities while the adults are taught to encourage their children’s development. Insaka also tackles questions of nutrition and provides health monitoring. The initiative then relies on a network of volunteers giving door-to-door to give advice to parents in local communities. With USD 225,000, donors can help build two Insaka centres in Zambia. Donations of USD 50,000 to USD 100,000 will support volunteer training.
Child protection
Violence, exploitation and abuse have devastating effects on children and their communities. Globally, one-quarter of children under five are not on government registers and so do not benefit from any protection: action by health, education and social services is crucial. Dealing with these problems requires a systemic change rooted in collaborating with governments and raising community awareness of harmful practices like corporal punishment and child marriage.
Right to Play in Uganda
Violence inflicted on children is widespread in Uganda, and is particularly present in disadvantaged settings like refugee camps. The NGO Right to Play works in the Adjumani district, where there are almost 230,000 refugees. To improve child safety in schools, it uses a play-based approach that allows both trainers and pupils to defend themselves against violence and to condemn it.
The other part of the Right to Play project aims to meet the needs of children who have a disability or are not in school by helping local leadership structures to manage violence better. A donation of USD 700,000 facilitates the development of child protection in the community and in the project’s 33 schools.
The impact of strategic philanthropy
Money is essential, but donors can maximise the impact of their funding by working in a focused way to support the activities of public authorities. In concrete terms, there are four distinct ways to maximise the impact of philanthropy: financing innovation, co-financing an initiative, supporting underfunded areas and providing organisations with flexible funding that can be used with a minimum of conditions. An abundance of options that highlights the need for a structured approach to philanthropy.
Important information
This media release has been prepared by Bank Lombard Odier & Co Ltd, a bank and securities dealer authorised and regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) (hereinafter "Lombard Odier"). It is not intended for distribution, publication, or use in any jurisdiction where such distribution, publication, or use would be unlawful, nor is it aimed at any person or entity to whom it would be unlawful to address such a document. This media release is provided for information purposes only. It does not constitute an offer or a recommendation to enter into a relationship with Lombard Odier, nor to subscribe to, purchase, sell or hold any security or financial instrument.
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