Fondation Botnar

In 2003, Fondation Botnar was founded by Marcela Botnar to continue the philanthropic work of herself and her husband Octav Botnar.

Following the death of Marcela and Octav Botnar’s only child, Camelia Eugenia Botnar, who died in 1972 at the age of 20 in a car accident, the couple focused on philanthropic work and funded several large projects in their daughter’s name. When Octav Botnar died, Marcela continued the giving and carried out the wish of Octav Botnar and created Fondation Botnar. Fondation Botnar was the sole beneficiary of Marcela Botnar’s will.{{Cite web|title=The Botnar Legacy|url=https://www.fondationbotnar.org/about/the-botnar-legacy/|access-date=2020-07-14|website=Fondation Botnar|language=en-GB}}

Fondation Botnar supports a range of projects and initiatives within its strategic area of focus.

OurCity is one of Fondation Botnar’s key initiatives, aiming to support selected cities around the world to implement coordinated programs that leverage digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI), and transform them into places where young people’s wellbeing and opportunity is secured. The foundation sees OurCity as a process that will catalyse stakeholders and drive policy change through inclusive engagement and advocacy. The initiative collaborates with young people, civil society, policymakers, innovators, and other city champions to nurture wellbeing and opportunity for all.{{Cite news|date=2020-07-10|title=OurCity initiative - Fondation Botnar|language=en-GB|work=Fondation Botnar|url=https://www.fondationbotnar.org/ourcity-initiative/|access-date=2020-07-14}}

Fondation Botnar works with Unicef on the African Youth Digital Innovation Platform. The project aims to catalyse young people’s creativity and ideas on how to create economically viable business models and employment opportunities for young people across the African region.{{Cite web|date=2020-06-09|title=The African Youth Digital Innovation Platform|url=https://www.fondationbotnar.org/the-african-youth-digital-innovation-platform/|access-date=2020-07-14|website=Fondation Botnar|language=en-GB}}

Fondation Botnar funds the Healthy Cities for Adolescents Program, an  initiative managed by the International Society of Urban Health (ISUH). The program fosters multi-stakeholder, community-led consortium representing diverse groups including partners from government, civil society, and the private sector to address the health and wellbeing of young people in secondary cities.{{Cite web|date=2019-10-24|title=Healthy Cities for Adolescents Program|url=https://www.fondationbotnar.org/the-botnar-healthy-cities-for-adolescents-program/|access-date=2020-07-14|website=Fondation Botnar|language=en-GB}}{{Cite web|date=2020-04-16|title=Coronavirus: Government urged to equip DOVVSU for sexual gender-based violence|url=https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Coronavirus-Government-urged-to-equip-DOVVSU-for-sexual-gender-based-violence-925303|access-date=2020-07-14|website=www.ghanaweb.com|language=en}}

Since June 2018, the foundation has worked together with the Human Development Innovation Fund (HDIF) and have awarded D-tree international more than $6 million to work with the Zanzibar Ministry of Health and key partners to roll out a national digital community health system to improve maternal, newborn, and child health services. The project will assist community health workers and equip them with digital technology to manage care for families, women and children.{{Cite web|title=Leading digital health organization, D-tree International, awarded $6 million to support Zanzibar Ministry of Health to roll out national digitally-enabled community health worker program - United Republic of Tanzania|url=https://reliefweb.int/report/united-republic-tanzania/leading-digital-health-organization-d-tree-international-awarded-6|access-date=2020-07-14|website=ReliefWeb|language=en}}

Also, with D-tree international, is the Afya-Tek program, a consortium of five organisations that are working to improve the decision-making and quality of care in Tanzania. Afya-Tek offers a digital link between patients, government health facilities, community health workers, and the private sector drug dispensers known as Accredited Drug Dispensing Outlets.{{Cite journal|last=Watts|first=Geoff|title=The Tanzanian digital health agenda|url=https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/landig/PIIS2589-7500(20)30005-4.pdf|journal=The Lancet}}

In September 2018 it was announced that Fondation Botnar had given CHF 100 million to finance the founding of the Botnar Research Centre for Child Health (BRCCH). The research centre has been set up by the University of Basel and ETH Zurich. The purpose of the centre is to develop new methods and digital innovations that can be used in paediatrics around the world, especially resource-poor countries.{{Cite news|title=Bâle – Nouveau centre de recherche en pédiatrie|language=fr|work=Tribune de Genève|url=https://www.tdg.ch/suisse/nouveau-centre-recherche-pediatrie/story/23648629|access-date=2020-07-14|issn=1010-2248}}

Fondation Botnar announced a new partnership with Ada Health in 2018. The partnership aims to bring AI-powered healthcare to East Africa and Romania. The partnership has resulted in Ada's app becoming the first health guidance app to feature Swahili language integration, making its health assessment technology available to more than 100 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa.{{Cite web|last=Somauroo|first=Dr James|title=Ada Health Launches World's First AI-Powered Health App In Swahili|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamessomauroo/2019/12/02/ada-health-launches-worlds-first-ai-powered-health-app-in-swahili/|access-date=2020-07-14|website=Forbes|language=en}}

In Romania, Fondation Botnar contributes to an initiative run by UNICEF that is developing and implementing a community-based services modelling project in Romania's Bacau region—one of the poorest regions in Europe. The project is recruiting community workers and equipping them with a digital tablet application to maintain up to date information on families and children within the region, taking the user through a list of questions. The data can then be used to prescribe precision steps and packages to help the children, such as immunisation or education intervention. It can also be used to help policy makers understand where resources are needed. The project has so far helped over 54,000 children.{{Cite news|title=Social Inclusion Intervention: Romania|language=en|work=Fondation Botnar|url=https://www.fondationbotnar.org/article/286/social-inclusion-intervention-romania|access-date=2018-10-05}}

The inter-agency collaboration between the World Health Organization and the ITU, the ITU-WHO Focus Group on Artificial Intelligence for Health was funded by the foundation.

Fondation Botnar has memberships in the following partnerships/organisations.

• Member, Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health{{Cite web|title=PMNCH {{!}} World Health Organization|url=https://www.who.int/pmnch/en/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061115203827/http://www.who.int/pmnch/en/|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 15, 2006|access-date=2020-07-14|website=WHO}}
• Member, ITU-T Study Group 16: Multimedia{{Cite web|title=List of Company/Organization containing FONDATIONBOTNAR|url=https://www.itu.int/online/mm/scripts/gensel11?_orgname=FONDATIONBOTNAR|access-date=2020-07-14|website=www.itu.int}}
• Member, European Foundation Centre {{Cite web|title=EFC-Fondation Botnar|url=https://www.efc.be/member-post/fondation-botnar/|access-date=2020-07-14|language=en-GB}}
• Member, SwissFoundations {{Cite web|title=Fondation Botnar|url=https://www.swissfoundations.ch/mitglieder/fondation-botnar/|access-date=2020-07-14|website=SwissFoundations|language=de-DE}}
• Member, European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) {{Cite web|title=Fondation Botnar|url=https://evpa.eu.com/members/fondation-botnar?token=Odpypy_dVvoORn9WCEnK3wOuGs3vlkOp|access-date=2020-07-14|website=EVPA|language=en-US}}
• Endorser, Digital Donor Principles {{Cite web|last=Lim|first=Claudine|date=2018-12-19|title=Introducing the Digital Principles first Advisory Council|url=https://digitalprinciples.org/introducing-the-digital-principles-first-advisory-council/|access-date=2020-07-14|website=Principles for Digital Development|language=en-US}}
• Endorser, Principles for Digital Development {{Cite web|title=First Advisory Council for the Principles for Digital Development Launched to Support a Growing Community of Endorsers|url=https://digitalimpactalliance.org/release/first-advisory-council-for-the-principles-for-digital-development-launched-to-support-a-growing-community-of-endorsers/|access-date=2020-07-14|website=Digital Impact Alliance|language=en-US}}

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Category:Children's charities based in Switzerland

Category:Organisations based in Basel