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.
The Donor’s Guide to Children and Youth can be downloaded in English here.
