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.
