The power of philanthropy

371

programs managed

172,415

professionals reached

9

offices/entities globally

25+ 

years of experience

CLEF

The Child Learning and Education Facility (CLEF) has been launched in 2022. The Government of Côte d’Ivoire, the Jacobs Foundation, the UBS Optimus Foundation, and 16 cocoa and chocolate companies have set up this innovative public-private partnership focused on scaling investments to systemically improve access to quality education as one essential tool for promoting children’s rights and fighting child labor in Côte d’Ivoire. By 2030, CLEF aims to provide quality education for five million children and influence the behavior of 10 million parents. To achieve this goal, CLEF is expected to bring effective learning to up to 10,000 primary schools in cocoa growing areas and beyond, and to build 2,500 classrooms and other education infrastructure. CLEF will first focus on the areas of greatest need in the cocoa-growing regions based on a heat map developed by Enveritas and in consultation with relevant ministries. CLEF’s target capitalization is CHF 110 million, committed funding is now at CHF 75 million, including USD 13 million from GPE’s Multiplier fund.

CEEE

Since 2021, the UBS Optimus Foundation has been supporting the Center for Experimental Economics in Education (CEEE), Shaanxi Normal University on designing interventions that leverage information technology to deliver high-quality education resources to rural China. By adopting a proven “Computer- Assisted Learning” and further piloting a set of effective, implementable and scalable delivery models in rural areas, the project directly provides English, science and social-competence classes to students in poor regions and improve the capacity of local teachers. By the end of 2022, a total of 18,509 children benefitted from the project, and 460 professional teachers were trained in 79 rural schools in two provinces in Northwest China. CEEE will also validate the effectiveness of the interventions through randomized control trial for future scale-up and policy advocacy, and thus contribute to the long-term education equality in China.

Youth Impact

Youth Impact continued implementation of its ConnectEd program in 2022. ConnectEd is one of the most cost-effective methods for delivering one-on-one tutoring, delivering roughly one year of quality schooling for every USD 100 spent. Results from a five-country replication study show large and significant impacts in each of the five countries where ConnectEd was implemented. The effort, which included partnerships with NGOs and governments in Kenya, Nepal, India, the Philippines and Uganda, reached over 16,000 children and represents some of the largest, fastest-produced research efforts ever in education. Rapid impact assessments have been key to readying ConnectEd programming for scale. Successive rapid tests have resulted in small program tweaks to improve cost-effectiveness and double program impact for enrolled participants. Youth Impact’s phone-tutoring model inspired a similar effort in Central and South America through the Inter-American Development Bank.

Education Partnership Group (EPG)

In 2022, EPG continued to support governments in low- and middle-income countries to improve education outcomes for children. EPG worked on policy projects across five countries in sub-Saharan Africa, which will eventually reach almost five million children and 220,000 teachers from pre-primary to senior secondary school. In Sierra Leone, EPG developed an implementation plan for its flagship Radical Inclusion Policy. In Côte d’Ivoire, EPG facilitated a new government pilot of an accelerated school readiness program for children who have had no access to pre-primary education, signing a new five-year MOU with the Ministry of National Education and Literacy. EPG’s efforts to expand and grow impact continued to gain momentum as it hosted a Ministerial Roundtable in London on approaches to early and continuous teacher training, with delegations from seven sub-Saharan African countries.

LIFT

In 2022, LIFT reached 1,753 families across the US, helping more than 90% progress toward their financial goals, such as increasing savings, eliminating debt or securing a living wage. Almost two thirds made progress on their educational goals and just over half increased their well-being, including increased levels of hope and decreased levels of stress. LIFT continued to enhance its coaching model with new approaches (trauma-informed and racial-equity-driven), new formats (virtual and group coaching), and new programming that continues to respond to families’ needs and interests, such as an entrepreneurship program in partnership with Rising Tide Capital. An external evaluation study, LIFT’s Model and Two-Generation Prevention of Intimate Partner Violence, found that LIFT members see statistically significant shifts in income, social support, financial well-being, education and employment – all factors correlated with prevention of intimate partner violence.

Imagine Worldwide

Imagine Worldwide’s child-directed, tech-enabled intervention was successfully piloted in 250 schools in Malawi since 2014, serving 225,000 children via the Unlocking Talent program. It has proven to be effective at remediation and acceleration as well as taking pressure off of teachers and systems. As a result of this strong track record, the Government of Malawi is now committed to launch a countrywide scaling in September 2023. This will be the largest edtech scale-up on the African continent. Children learn at their own pace in the national language, Chichewa, on dedicated tablets that can be used both at home and at school with no need for internet. This has proven effective in supporting learning during times when schools may close due to pandemics, natural disasters and other unforeseen circumstances. Imagine Worldwide is planning an outcomes-based funding structure in the second year of implementation.

Educate!

Educate! is back in scale-up mode following the pandemic. Educate! successfully resumed its in-school model in Uganda, reaching a total of 35,000 students in 2022. Educate! reached over 4,000 in Kenya and Uganda through its bootcamps for out-of-school youth. An evaluation of the autumn Kenya cohort showed an average income increase of 100% three months after participation. At the start of Rwanda’s school year, Educate! scaled up its education system solution from a third of secondary schools to 55% of all upper secondary schools, preparing for full nationwide scale to reach 158,000 students. Educate! also continued advocacy efforts and technical advisory services for Kenya’s education system. And Educate! established a formal relationship with Tanzania’s national education body, laying the foundation to impact millions of students in the years to come.

Healthy Learners

Healthy Learners trains teachers to become school health workers who ensure timely diagnosis and treatment for school-aged children, reducing sickness and absenteeism. Healthy Learners won the UBS Optimus Foundation COVID Prize competition in 2021 and helped Zambia to be one of the first countries on the continent to reopen schools safely. Healthy Learners’ national expansion with the Zambian Government more than doubled program coverage in 2022 and for the first time, the program was implemented in rural settings outside of Lusaka. Healthy Learners now provides healthcare access to over 450,000 students, 15% of Zambia’s public primary school population. Healthy Learners is at a crucial inflection point with the model being adopted as policy by the Ministry of Education of Zambia, which concurrently established a School Health and Nutrition Department responsible for supporting the scale-up and management of the program.

Jacaranda Health

Since 2020, we’re supporting Jacaranda Health to scale. Now, two million expectant and new mothers in Kenya are receiving information and referral to care through Jacaranda Health’s PROMPTS, an AI-based triage system. PROMPTS – which is completely free to the user – answers 5,000 questions from mothers daily and offers customized referral during emergencies in 15 minutes or less. Thanks to PROMPTS, 90% of high-risk mothers now report receiving care in a referral facility. PROMPTS also provides mothers with the ability to report on whether they were treated with respect in facilities as well as the clinical quality of their prenatal care.

Integrate Health

Integrate Health reached a significant milestone in Togo in the process of handing over program ownership to Kozah district health officials in the Integrated Primary Care pilot sites. In November 2022, Integrate Health signed a protocol agreement with the Kozah district health director and Kara regional health director, formalizing next steps for the handover process. This agreement defines and formalizes the budget and payment structure, monitoring and evaluation plan, and supply chain management process. Integrate Health and government partners are recruiting a comptroller who will sit on the district health team and oversee the handover process, including finalizing the work plan and budget for the first quarter. A communication plan will inform all stakeholders, including community members, for the 2023 handover.

Penda Health

The UBS Optimus Foundation made an equity investment in Penda Health, a social enterprise that provides low-cost, trustworthy, high-quality primary healthcare services to low-income families in urban and peri-urban Nairobi, expanding across Kenya. This is a flagship investment for UBS Optimus Foundation’s new health strategy, launched in early 2022, which seeks to increase access to and affordability of quality primary care through public and private sector channels. Penda’s focus on the delivery of quality care at a low cost and reaching low-income populations makes it a great fit. The investment will support Penda to grow its telemedicine offering while optimizing the brick-and-mortar clinic model for further scale.

Leapfrog to Value

The UBS Optimus Foundation established a partnership with Leapfrog to Value to test models for insurance schemes to pay for healthcare outcomes for mothers and newborns. This value-based care model is innovative in that it is specifically aiming to transform the ways in which we measure, deliver and pay for care, with a focus on rewarding providers for quality and outcomes, rather than the volume of services provided. It also is innovative in its approach to bringing providers, patients and payers together at the design stage to maximize the potential for impact and scale.

World Child Cancer

The positive impact of World Child Cancer’s programs on childhood cancer survival rates in Ghana continues to rise. Overall survival rates stand at 71% (with no significant gender difference) compared to 49% when the UBS Optimus Foundation’s investment began in 2018. The proportion of patients abandoning or refusing therapy within the first 90 days was 13.8% from 2018 to 2020, compared to 7.5% in 2021 – a reduction that is expected to translate into improved long-term outcomes. There were 325 children diagnosed with childhood cancers from the two main pediatric treatment centers – Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital – in 2021, the latest figures available. This compares to an average of 235 patients per year in the preceding three years – a dramatic increase indicating that the interventions to improve early diagnosis of childhood cancer are also working.

African Parks

A new partnership between the UBS Optimus Foundation and African Parks was launched in 2022 that includes general support as well as a specific focus on the Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve in Malawi. Since African Parks took over Nkhotakota, poaching has reduced and elephant numbers have increased from a low point of fewer than 100 individuals to 769 in 2021, and growing. UBS Optimus Foundation’s support enables African Parks to build on this achievement, bringing 1,800 hectares under sustainable management and continuing increase in wildlife populations by up to 10%. Local community engagement is supporting 32,000 people to strengthen livelihoods, and a large-scale tree planting program will restore degraded areas with 247,518 trees planted over the five years of the program, with 139,459 planted in 2021 and 2022.

Peace Parks Foundation

A new five-year partnership was initiated with Peace Parks Foundation for conservation of Banhine National Park in Mozambique. Rewilding Banhine will enable ecological connectivity of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The program also incorporates Herding 4 Health (H4H), a herder-based rangeland restoration program that uses rangeland stewardship and climate-smart livestock management to reduce humanwildlife conflict, conserve biodiversity, and strengthen coexistence between community and protected areas.

M40 Initiative

Mangroves are a powerful nature-based solution for climate adaptation, climate mitigation and biodiversity. Yet the world’s mangrove ecosystems are critically under threat – 50% of global mangroves have already been lost. The M40 Initiative tackles this challenge head on, enabling mangrove restoration and conservation at scale by identifying good projects, enabling capital flow and delivering benefits for climate, community and conservation. The M40 Initiative identifies 40 locations globally that hold over 70% of remaining mangrove ecosystems. It engages with cities in these locations to create hubs of mangrove finance; and it aims to catalyze global financing for mangroves and coastal resilience. Beginning in Indonesia, which holds 12 of the 40 locations, the M40 Initiative has shortlisted 20 projects and in 2023 will select six pilots. These projects will demonstrate innovative approaches to financing scalable mangrove conservation through replicable, impact-driven investments with potential blue carbon revenue.

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)

In 2022, the first climate and environment grants were made on US soil, bringing direct benefits to local US communities and ecosystems. Funded by both UBS clients and employees, the UBS Optimus Foundation launched support for programs with partners The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). This includes the Southern High Plains Initiative (SHPI), the Bayou Grand Marsh Restoration Program and the Five Star Urban Waters Regeneration Program. These three programs began delivering activities with benefits for biodiversity, climate mitigation and local communities: conserving biodiverse grassland ecosystems for ranchers and wildlife, restoring tidal salt marshes to protect coastal communities and restore biodiversity, as well as rescuing and regenerating urban wetlands and waterways providing key ecosystem services to local communities in US cities. The SHPI has identified a growing pipeline of potential direct land protection projects and is established in all five states, with on-the-ground projects in three states. TNC’s Southern High Plains Initiative has reached first year targets of protecting over 16,000 hectares of ranch land across the Midwest of the USA and in East Africa, a new partnership with Tanzanian NGO Six Rivers Africa provides over 5000 sq km of African wildlands with enhanced protection from poaching and land degradation.

Farm Africa

Farm Africa’s environmental and climate resilience work in Ethiopia’s Bale Ecoregion is helping communities build resilience through specific and much-needed improvements in resource management, with a focus on the livelihoods of pastoral communities. In 2022, the first phase of the Farm Africa project created a framework to help the government sustainably manage forests, rangelands and water sources, while developing forest-friendly enterprises and increasing yields on existing agricultural land to prevent communities from further deforestation. Farm Africa and its partners are tackling unsustainable practices from multiple angles, successfully working with Climate portfolio highlights stakeholders to become active participants in the sustainable management of forests and water resources, while improving the livelihoods of communities living in the region. Phase two will expand the project to reach 1.6 million people by the end of 2024, while improving drought resilience and food and nutrition security for an estimated 12 million people living downstream who depend on the region for their water supply.

myclimate

Fundraising by the Global Giving Campaign team enabled a partnership with myclimate foundation, supporting the rewetting and restoration of upland peat across the Swiss mountains. Moors are enormous carbon stores and biodiversity hotspots. In Switzerland, moors are protected but are nonetheless in poor condition due to lack of funding. Restoration of these precious systems can both capture carbon as well as avoid further emissions. Healthy moors are also rich in biodiversity, providing habitats for rare and even endangered plant and animal species, while also improving flood protection and water management. This project is funding the restoration of 1.6 hectares of moorland, which has so far resulted in verified emissions reduction of 496 Co₂e in 2021 and 1,310 Co₂e in 2022. Further work to come will provide additional emissions reductions, and the rewetting will also lead to additional sequestration of Co₂ as well as enhancing local biodiversity. As an indicator of success to date, in Neuchâtel 24 dragonfly species were identified on site where previously no dragonflies had been observed; of these, five species were characteristic of peat bogs.

Street Business School

We commissioned Street Business School (SBS) to build the capacity and amplify the impact of up to 10 nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in the UBS Optimus Foundation’s Families Not Orphans portfolio, advancing these organizations’ work by training them to customize and deliver SBS-proven training models to help families increase their incomes so they can keep their children at home. SBS will provide comprehensive training and support, including an 8-day Immersion Workshop to train two staff members of each organization, all curriculum and teaching materials, a monitoring and evaluation system to track impact data, and ongoing support through the SBS network. NGOs certified in SBS at the workshop will go on to train an estimated 3,600 women over the next five years. The positive gains in income these women will experience from business ownership will positively impact the lives of an estimated 18,000 children, increasing the likelihood that they are raised in the family environment instead of in an institution.

ECPAT International

In 2022, ECPAT International provided evidence and recommendations to governments and the private sector on how to address legal and policy framework gaps that make children vulnerable to sexual exploitation. These recommendations were presented to changemakers through targeted advocacy at global, regional and country levels, drawing attention to Summary Papers on voluntourism and country overviews. As a result, there is increased recognition of the need to enforce regulations and safeguard measures for children to prevent offenders from taking advantage of orphanages, schools, clubs and other settings where unregulated volunteering opportunities provide access to children. The project also engaged travelers and tourists through social media and podcasts to examine the impact of unregulated tourism on children and discuss what needs to be done to protect them as part of responsible tourism.

Hope and Homes for Children

Nepal’s orphanage economy, largely funded by tourists and overseas donors, is confining over 11,000 children and placing them at high risk of abuse and exploitation. Hope and Homes for Children and its local Nepali partners, Forget Me Not and The Himalayan Innovative Society, are working with the Nepalese Government to change this. Momentum is gaining and in the past five years, the number of registered orphanages has reduced by 26%. In 2022, Hope and Homes for Children partnered with civil society organizations to develop policy briefings to ensure sustained political pressure for care reform that is strategic and safe for children. A network of care-experienced young people is influencing government officials through a series of inspiring care reform workshops. Hope and Homes for Children is also partnering with two municipalities to develop community-owned models for family support and foster care, with potential to scale countrywide.

World Bank

The UBS Optimus Foundation entered a collaboration with the World Bank, USAID and GHR Foundation to provide small grants for cash-plus-care social protection programs that address children orphaned and made vulnerable by COVID-19. Around 10.6 million children have lost parents or other caregivers to COVID-19 – 10 times the number of children who lost a parent during the decade following the discovery of HIV/AIDS. Grants will come from the World Bank’s multi-donor Rapid Social Response Adaptive and Dynamic Social Protection Program trust, to which the Foundation contributed, and will help World Bank teams work with client country governments to design, implement and scale up their cash-plus-care social protection programs. Social protection schemes that offer cash transfers and complimentary programs are highly effective in improving the well-being of children in adversity. These small grants will incentivize other World Bank groups to consider children in need of parental care in their social protection programming. To date, the RSR initiative has approved catalytic grants worth USD 175 million in at least 100 countries, which has led to more than USD 14 billion of financing for social protection operations.

Impact Foundation India

Large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination. The UBS Optimus Foundation has embraced the model of collective impact with the Transform Collective, which aims to catalyze a global movement for children in families. The first group of partners for Transform, Neev, has been established in Maharashtra, India. Key to the Transform Collective’s success is connecting partners to act collaboratively in tackling the problem of lack of priority given to supporting children in families and continued reliance on harmful forms of alternative care. Coordinating the collectivization of Neev is Dasra, acting as Neev’s backbone organization. This is an important strategic relationship because Dasra has deep local knowledge, extensive experience with the philanthropic sector (which Neev aims to educate on the importance of support for family-based care), and sound technical capabilities for programming and strategic advice.

Justice and Care

The charity is committed to an all-out assault on human trafficking. It works in Asia, Eastern Europe, the UK and is beginning operations in the US. It partners with more than 100 organizations globally to tackle the issue. As well as developing innovative frontline projects that fill gaps in a country’s response to the crime and then uses its frontline experience to spark systemic change. This approach has led the charity to receive a number of prestigious awards in 2022, including its Bangladesh Country Director being named as one of the Global Heroes in the fight against human trafficking by the US State Department. In 2022, and supported by UBS Optimus Foundation, globally 67 victims of human trafficking have been freed as a result of Justice and Care’s work. They have supported more than 400 survivors, helping them to rebuild their lives, their work has seen 28 traffickers brought to justice and they are currently involved in 310 prosecution cases against more than 900 accused traffickers.

SDG Impact Finance Initiative

The Building Bridges Summit in Geneva in October 2022 was a moment to reflect on a fast-paced year of growth for the SDG Impact Finance Initiative. It was at the same event in 2021 that the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the Swiss Development Cooperation Agency (SDC), the UBS Optimus Foundation and the Credit Suisse Foundation launched a fledgling initiative with big ambitions. Not only would it raise CHF 100 million for innovative financial solutions to mobilize new capital around the SDGs, but it also set a target of unlocking CHF 1 billion in private finance by 2030 – all focused on accelerating progress on delivering the SDGs. The urgency of the challenges is reflected in the pace at which the Initiative has achieved a number of milestones. By the end of 2022, the four founding donors had committed nearly a third of the fundraising target and were ready to start disbursing grants to the seven winners of its first call for proposals, tackling climate change, education access and quality, smallholder farming and SME support.

Human Family Fund

Launched in October 2022 at the Faith and Philanthropy Summit, hosted at the Vatican, the Human Family Fund is part of an overall endeavor to redefine how philanthropists can work together, across all faiths, to help solve some of the world’s most pressing issues. With a goal of raising and deploying at least USD 50 million, the Human Family Fund will pilot a results-based approach to delivering impactful philanthropy to address issues across four thematic pillars: education, health, combatting human trafficking and environment. In 2022, the Human Family Fund worked closely with the impact advisor, the Common Good Marketplace, to onboard the first cohort of four grantees. These grantees will be working in Malawi, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Liberia to increase school enrollment, build reading and math proficiency, reduce neonatal and maternal mortality, and increase access to essential health services.

OutcomesX

We established a novel partnership with the social impact marketplace OutcomesX to pilot the use of outcomes purchasing to channel funding to grassroots Ukrainian NGOs. Through our previous experience with outcomes contracts, we learned the value of paying for outcomes versus paying for inputs or activities. With OutcomesX we saw the clear potential to break down some of the barriers to funding grassroots NGOs in Ukraine. OutcomesX vetted more than 60 nonprofits, out of which UBS Optimus Foundation selected a portfolio of organizations working to improve learning outcomes and the mental well-being of children in Ukraine, with results to be achieved and verified over the ensuing 6-12 months.

Ukraine Relief Fund

More than USD 56 million raised to help those affected by the war in Ukraine.

Together with 12,000 employees and some 10,000 clients – as well as matching funds from UBS and strategic partner XTX Markets – we raised more than USD 56 million to help those affected by the devastating war in Ukraine. We are currently supporting 19 programs through the UBS Optimus Foundation and have committed nearly USD 30 million for relief and recovery efforts. Of these programs, 80% work in Ukraine. We supported at least 62 local grassroots organizations so far (directly or through intermediaries) to ensure as much funding as possible is reaching local Ukrainian organizations that have been working in their communities for some time and will continue to do so. We are proud that our work with the Ukraine Relief Fund was recognized by the 2022 Money Management Institute/Barron’s Industry Awards. The awards recognize innovation and leadership in the investment advisory solutions industry.

Pakistan Relief Fund

USD 1.2 million allocated towards mobilizing emergency support for Pakistani families.

The unprecedented flooding in Pakistan had a devastating impact, with an estimated 33 million people affected, many with homes, livelihoods and crops washed away. Through our two existing partners, The Citizens Foundation and Americares, we provided USD 1.2 million toward mobilizing emergency support for Pakistani families in affected regions. The partners provided economic assistance, meals, as well as medical and non-food emergency supplies; they provided health-focused humanitarian aid by sourcing and distributing critically needed medicine, deploying emergency medical teams and supporting access to health services and programs; and they supported vulnerable children and families to rebuild and repair homes and schools. The Citizens Foundation reached over 10,000 families with cash transfers and delivered over 5.2 million meals to 65,000 households. Americares installed hand pumps wells in 16 communities and partnered with a local NGO at four medical camps supplying medicines and medical supplies.