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A mother and her baby seek care from a healthcare provider

Health

Improving the health of vulnerable communities, children and young people

Health is at the heart of all prosperity

Without health, all other advancement is largely irrelevant. Children and young people need to be healthy to learn, realize their potential and thrive later as adults. Well-functioning, patient-centered health systems are an integral part of fighting poverty and promoting a thriving economy. Health inequities lead to avoidable death and disability, especially among the poorest and most marginalized populations. Therefore, contributing to child health is both a moral and economic imperative.

Despite this, half of the world’s population lack access to essential health services.1 Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest child mortality rate in the world, in some places 15 times higher than in high-income countries.2 And wealth can also determine access to healthcare within countries and individual cities.

Let’s look at how we can improve the health and well-being of the most vulnerable children and turn them into adults who will help their societies grow.

A mother kissing a young child

The challenges we face

Bridging distances

Two persons stays on support hands and hills

3.16 billion people cannot reach a healthcare facility by foot within one hour.3

Raising quality

Person climbing the ladder

Quality of care has eclipsed access as a driver of survival, it is the key to addressing persistent maternal and child mortality.4

Building trust

Person watering the plants

Mistrust of the health system and social and gender norms inhibit access to care.

Reducing costs

Bag with charts

Out-of-pocket health spending dragged 344 million people further into extreme poverty.5

A mother in Africa hugs her baby

Taking action

UBS Optimus Foundation network supports organizations that are improving access to quality primary healthcare and strengthening youth mental health. Through a portfolio of grants and impact investments, we back innovative, evidence-based solutions with the potential to achieve impact at scale.

In healthcare, we focus on scalable models that improve access to affordable, patient-centered care for underserved communities, particularly children and mothers. In mental health, we support approaches that strengthen social connection, expand access to early support, and ensure young people can receive quality mental healthcare when they need it.

By deploying capital flexibly across the impact spectrum, we help organizations grow, demonstrate impact, and create lasting systems change that improves health and wellbeing for vulnerable populations worldwide.

Sea beyond the blue guide cover

Want to learn more?

Want to learn more about how to have an impact towards better health for all? Download the guide Picture of health to read more about the issues and solutions, and learn from experts and other philanthropists. Inside, you’ll find concrete tips on how to improve our health system, enable the workforce, prevent the next pandemic, conduct sustainable finance solutions and much more.

Our priority areas

Beds in a hospital ward to represent primary healthcare and optimus health

Access to Basic Quality Healthcare

Quality primary healthcare (PHC) has the greatest potential to improve maternal and child health. It is the cornerstone of a resilient health system, providing essential care within communities and helping prevent minor health issues from becoming life-threatening conditions.

We focus on scaling cost-effective, patient-centered PHC models that improve outcomes for the world's most vulnerable populations. This is particularly important in low- and middle-income countries, where poor-quality care and limited access continue to result in preventable deaths.

Frozen alpine lake, Sils Maria, Engadine

Mental health

Today's youth are facing an unprecedented mental health crisis. Young people are three to four times more likely than their parents to experience mental health challenges, yet most cases go undetected and untreated because of limited access to trained support and culturally appropriate care.

Suicide is now the fourth leading cause of death among 15 to 19-year-olds, resulting in one young life lost every 11 minutes.

Our strategy aims to reverse this trend by scaling evidence-based, youth-informed, and community-based approaches that:

  • Increase social connection and belonging
  • Empower young people to seek support from trained individuals and trusted resources
  • Ensure access to early, high-quality mental health care when it is needed most

Our approach

With our health portfolio, our mission is to scale quality primary healthcare that improves the health of the world’s most vulnerable children

Problem

Access to Quality Primary Healthcare

An estimated 1.8 billion people, representing 24% of the global population, live in fragile settings where access to quality essential health services is limited. A significant proportion of preventable maternal, child, and neonatal deaths occur in these contexts.

Youth Mental Health 

Young people today are three to four times more likely than their parents to experience a mental health challenge. Globally, youth loneliness is increasing dramatically, and one in seven young people lives with a mental health condition.

Despite this growing need, most cases go undetected and untreated because access to trained mental health support remains limited.

Solutions

Access to Quality Primary Healthcare

Scaling primary healthcare interventions across low- and middle-income countries could:

  • Save up to 60 million lives
  • Increase average life expectancy by 3.7 years by 2030
  • Prevent USD 1.4-1.6 trillion in annual productivity losses caused by inadequate quality of care

Ensuring access to quality, affordable primary care for mothers and children represents both a compelling investment case and a significant opportunity to improve health outcomes.

Principles guiding our grants and investments:

Patient Centricity
Focusing on patient-centered care and measuring patient experience to build trust in health systems, improve utilization, and strengthen adherence to treatment.

Integrated Care
Prioritizing integrated, data-driven primary healthcare models that address a wide range of health needs across the continuum of care.

Affordability of Care
Supporting the scale-up of healthcare models that are affordable for both patients and health systems, while expanding access to healthcare financing mechanisms, including insurance.

Youth Mental Health

We support the scaling of evidence-based solutions that enable more young people to achieve positive mental health outcomes while reducing the need for crisis services. This includes:

  • Social connection and belonging programs that strengthen relationships and community ties
  • Integrating professional mental health care into primary care, schools, and community health settings
  • Training community members to provide mental health support
  • Expanding accessible crisis response services, including digital, peer-led, and community-based approaches

Outcomes

Access to Quality Primary Healthcare

A doctor caring for a child for optimus health
  • Increased affordability of patient-centered care
  • Reduced under-five mortality
  • Reduced maternal mortality

Your Mental Health

Students discussing
  • Reduced loneliness and social isolation, with increased social connection among young people
  • More young people able to seek support from a trained individual or trusted community resource when experiencing mental health challenges
  • Reduced suicide attempts and self-harm among targeted youth populations

Our Portfolio

We support organizations that are expanding access to quality healthcare and improving mental health outcomes for vulnerable populations. Through a combination of grants and impact investments, we help innovative models scale sustainably and reach more people with effective, affordable care.

Partner Spotlight: Healthy Learners

Cover image of Healthy Learners

Grant Partner | Zambia

Bringing healthcare directly into schools

For many children, access to healthcare is limited by cost, distance, and lack of awareness. As a result, treatable conditions often go unmanaged, affecting both health and educational outcomes.

Healthy Learners addresses this challenge by embedding healthcare within schools. Teachers are trained to identify, manage, and refer common health conditions, supported by simple digital tools and strong referral links to local health facilities. This enables children to receive timely care while reducing barriers to access.

By leveraging existing school infrastructure, the model provides a cost-effective way to improve coordination between the education and health systems and reach large numbers of children.

UBS Optimus Foundation supports the growth and long-term sustainability of this model, including targeted menstrual health interventions that improve health, wellbeing, and school attendance among adolescent girls.

Impact in 2025

  • 1.2 million children reached
  • 828 schools supported
  • Delivery costs reduced to less than USD 1.50 per child per year

Partner Spotlight: Penda Health

Cover image of Penda health

Impact Investment | Kenya

Delivering affordable, high-quality healthcare at scale

Across many urban areas in Africa, access to quality primary healthcare remains limited. Private healthcare is often unaffordable, while public systems are frequently overstretched.

Penda Health operates a network of outpatient clinics providing affordable, high-quality primary healthcare to low- and middle-income communities. Its approach combines strong clinical standards with a focus on patient experience, ensuring care is both accessible and trusted.

The organization maintains quality across its growing network through standardized clinical protocols, continuous staff training, data-driven performance management, and the use of artificial intelligence to reduce clinical errors while maintaining affordability.

UBS Optimus Foundation supports the continued growth of the model by strengthening clinical quality systems, enhancing data-driven decision-making, and enabling sustainable expansion to reach more patients across Kenya.

Impact in 2025

  • 168,000 unique patient visits
  • 2 new clinics established
  • 93% of patients reported feeling better and did not seek care elsewhere

Get inspired

Ari Johnson, CEO, Muso

With Muso’s proactive care model, community health workers (CHWs) are the frontline changemakers. CHWs go door-to-door to search for patients and connect them to lifesaving services. Muso designed and built 360º Supervision, to assess and support CHWs from multiple angles: interviews with patients, direct observation, dashboard analytics, group supervision and 1:1 coaching. Detailed cost estimating of 360º Supervision shows that this strategy is scalable at a low cost. Unique to the Muso supervision model are solo visits by the supervisor to patient homes to collect patient feedback on the CHW and verify CHW reporting.

Muso is a UBS Optimus Foundation partner.

Meet Angela from the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.

We have been working with World Child Cancer and their partner Korle Bu Teaching Hospital’s Centre of Excellence in Ghana to support them in transforming child cancer care. Learn how by spending a few minutes with Augusta Asiedu-Lartey, a Child Life Specialist, as she shares more about her daily work looking after the mental and physical wellbeing of children and their caregivers during treatment there.

World Child Cancer is a UBS Optimus Foundation partner.

Meet our team

Photo of Marissa Lefflerand Cédrine Gisin

Marissa Leffler (right) and Cédrine Gisin (left) lead health investments across the UBS Optimus Foundation ‘capital stack’ including grantmaking, debt and equity, and outcomes-based financing instruments. They set the Foundation’s investment strategy and cultivate a portfolio to contribute towards measurable impact on children’s health. The team also co-leads the Foundation’s Emergency Response efforts with the aim of providing immediate relief and supporting longer-term recovery for children affected by humanitarian crises.

Prior to UBS, Marissa spent over 10 years at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where she most recently served as the Innovation Team Leader in the Global Health Center for Innovation and Impact, a center of excellence established to accelerate the development, introduction, and scale up of priority global health interventions. Marissa also has a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Prior to UBS, Cédrine spent over two years in the life science industry. At Novartis, she most recently worked in Corporate Responsibility Strategy. She graduated from the University of St.Gallen with a Master's degree in Business Innovation. During her studies she conducted research on scaling mobile health innovations in low and middle income countries.

Want to learn more?

Guide

Better health for all

Nurses in hospital

Want to learn more about how to have an impact towards better health for all? Download the guide(PDF, 8 MB) to read more about the issues and solutions, and learn from experts and other philanthropists. Inside, you’ll find concrete tips on how to improve our health system, enable the workforce, prevent the next pandemic, conduct sustainable finance solutions and much more.

Article

Closing the pediatric cancer survival gap

Happy mother and child in a child cancer hospital

A conversation with World Child Cancer
When an organization such as World Child Cancer receives support, it initiates a chain that touches numerous lives, potentially for generations. Learn more in this article.

1 McNeill, K., Jacobs, C. (2019). Half of the world’s population lack access to essential health services – are we doing enough? World Economic Forum.
2 World Health Organization (2020). Child health. Last consulted: July 22, 2024
3 Weiss, D. J., et al. (2020). Global maps of travel time to healthcare facilities. Nature Medicine, 26(12), 1835–1838
4https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(18)30386-3/fulltext Last consulted: July 23, 2024.
5 World Health Organization. Universal Health Coverage. Last consulted: July 23, 2024.
6https://www.exemplars.health/topics/primary health care
7 The Times of India, 2023, What role can technology play in improving the health infrastructure of India.

Support our partners

Get in touch with us for more information on how to get involved and support our partner programs.