Adolescents have been a “missing population” in global health priorities for far too long, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). That’s according to Swiss philanthropists Fondation Botnar. 

To address that, it has attracted ten global organisations providing commitments to support adolescent health and wellbeing.

Ten global organisations will join the foundation in a bid to address those needs, of which include UNICEF, Generation Unlimited, Surgo Health, Pivotal Ventures, MTV Entertainment Studios and the FIA Foundation. 

The announcement, part of the Clinton Global Initiative 2023 Meeting, builds on Fondation Botnar’s previous commitment of $45 million for improving adolescent health and wellbeing, through initiatives such as making cities safer, protecting adolescents in safe digital environments, and improving mental health and wellbeing.  

“The adolescents of today are the first generation to have grown up in a digital world and with an acute consciousness of the transformations our world is facing. If we don’t engage them now, we are wasting an opportunity to create a world that is fit for the future,” said Fondation Botnar CEO Stefan Germann. 

Fondation Botnar has a hsitory of supporting organisations assisting young people. Since 2020, it has been supporting BASAbali, an organisation that engages young people in Indonesia to participate in civic issues through digital platforms and in local languages.

Back in April this year, Alliance took a look at how fundees and grantees learn from one another. Siddhartha Jha, from Fondation Botnar, and Alissa Stern, from BASAbali, sat down to describe what funders and grantees could each contribute to a mutually beneficial funder-grantee relationship, what they learned from the other’s perspective, and what an effective collaboration might look like.

Shafi Musaddique is news editor at Alliance magazine.