Ensure people survive and thrive

Improving health care systems

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At the UBS Optimus Foundation, we help you maximize your impact in the area of health. Your contribution will help increase access to and the quality of health services in communities, clinics, and hospitals that will save children’s lives.

Greatest opportunity: contributing to children under the age of five

Contributing to child health is both a moral and economic imperative. A nation's productivity – and economic growth potential – depends on children surviving and thriving. Despite this, only 21 percent of global health funding is spent on children, who often lack access to low-cost, effective healthcare.1

That's why within child health, our overall goal is to support programs that expand the reach of quality health services to the most vulnerable children between the ages of 0 to 18, with a particular focus on children under age of five.

Children under five have the highest mortality rate of any age group, and the vast majority of these deaths are preventable.2  Between 2000 and 2017, global child death rates decreased significantly, saving millions of children. But, progress is expected to slow in the coming years and, with the current trajectory, the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target for all countries to reduce child deaths to no more than 25 per 1,000 live births by 2030 will not be met. The 0 to 5 age group presents great need and a high health burden, but it also shows tremendous potential: it is here that you find the greatest opportunity to achieve both short- and long-term positive health impacts.

Evidence-based solutions

To help you maximize your philanthropic impact in the area of health, we, at the UBS Optimus Foundation have conducted detailed landscaping studies that helped us to identify priority health conditions, knowledge gaps and areas of under-investment by other foundations and government donors. Based on these findings, we suggest you focus your efforts on addressing last mile gaps in public health, and the lack of surgical and pediatric cancer care in developing countries – by supporting carefully selected non-profit organizations.

Three entry points

You can strengthen health care systems through three entry points:

1. Frontline health care

Community health workers and primary health care facilities are central to ensuring the most vulnerable get care – both go hand in hand.

I want to know more about frontline health

2. Safe surgery

Access to safe and affordable surgery is critical to achieve universal health coverage.

I want to know more about safe surgery

3. Pediatric cancer care

With timely diagnosis and treatment, most children can survive cancer.

I want to know more about pediatric cancer

1Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (2019). Flows of global health financing. Retrieved from: https://vizhub.healthdata.org/fgh/. Last consulted: November 6, 2020.

2 UNICEF (2020). Under-five mortality: Child survival. Retrieved from: https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-survival/under-five-mortality/#:~:text=In%202019%2C%201%20in%2013,in%2013%20rate%20by%201999. Last consulted: October 30, 2020.