Message from the Chairman

For the world at large, 2023 was a turbulent year in both focus areas of the Swiss Re Foundation: natural hazards and climate risk, and access to healthcare. Climate change continued to make headlines, with record high average temperatures often disproportionally impacting low-income people. The persistence of many armed conflicts and the eruption of new ones reminded us that war, too, remains a grave threat to resilience. It was also concerning to see how much the pandemic has set back poorer countries on their development path.

Against this challenging background, I’m proud to say that the Swiss Re Foundation further strengthened its societal impact. Most telling is the number of people with improved resilience. Since 2019, resilience has improved for about 3 million people reached by Foundation-supported programmes.

Another milestone was the completion of the first independent impact evaluations of key partnerships. The Foundation’s growing emphasis on measuring its impact – and helping its grantees track theirs – gives a clearer picture than ever of how we help build resilience near Swiss Re offices and in low-income communities around the world. For example, fintech start-up clinicPesa – a finalist for the Foundation’s 2021 Resilience Award – has dramatically increased the number of uninsured low-income people in Uganda who use its digital wallet to save for healthcare. How this is changing their lives is the focus of an impact story that segues to clinicPesa’s current efforts, using bridge financing from the Foundation, to reduce healthcare costs and put quality healthcare within reach for millions more customers.

Another impact story features the Foundation’s work with the Swiss Capacity Building Facility, which catalyses the development and scaling of financial solutions that increase vulnerable communities’ resilience. IBISA, one beneficiary of this partnership, offers index-based crop insurance protection to smallholder farmers in India, who are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events related to climate change.

In regions seen as high risk, raising private capital for such ventures remains daunting. To lower the barriers, “impact-linked” investment ties financial terms directly to achievement of desired social and environmental outcomes. In a four-year pilot with the Impact-Linked Finance Fund (ILFF), the Swiss Re Foundation is exploring whether this approach can increase its impact per grant dollar. This project reflects an ambition to go beyond grant-making and tailor financial support ever more specifically to partners’ needs.

Swiss Re employees continue to enhance the Foundation’s impact by donating money and time to its partners and projects. In 2023 they gave a total of CHF 336 000 through the annual fundraiser and emergency aid campaigns, including for victims of Turkey’s massive earthquake. Employees also volunteered more than ever, with 24% of them doing so at least once – for a total of more than 32 000 hours – by year-end.

Centring on community engagement, the Foundation’s latest impact story features Billion Oyster Project, which Swiss Re employees in the New York office selected as their Charity of the Year. As part of this initiative to "rewild" New York Harbour with oyster reefs, Swiss Re employees have worked with other volunteers to process the shells on which oyster colonies can grow.

While the Board continues to oversee execution of the Foundation’s strategic plan for 2022– 2024, we’re also reviewing the goals and approaches that will define its strategy for 2025– 2027. Borne of the belief that corporate foundations can uniquely contribute to addressing societal challenges by supporting sustainable solutions in their early stages, the Swiss Re Foundation keeps striving to make low-income communities more resilient.

Sergio Ermotti served as the Chairman of Swiss Re and the Swiss Re Foundation from April 2021 to April 2023.