HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Children's Investment Fund Foundation (UK) (CIFF) is an independent philanthropic organisation with offices in
Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...
,
Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
,
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
,
Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...
and
New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...
. It is a registered charity in England and Wales and in 2021 disbursed $468 million and committed $772 million in charitable investments. With assets of GBP £5.2 billion (USD $6.6 billion), it is the 5th largest global development philanthropy in the world based on annual disbursements. According to
OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...
published data, it is the world's second largest private funder of reproductive health and environmental protection globally and the largest philanthropy that focuses specifically on improving children's lives. In 2021, CIFF pledged $500 million towards gender equality over five years as part of the generation equality forum. CIFF was established in 2002 by Sir Chris Hohn and wife, Jamie Cooper-Hohn as the philanthropic arm of Hohn's hedge fund,
the Children's Investment Fund Management The Children's Investment Fund Management (TCI) is a British hedge fund management firm founded by Chris Hohn in 2003 which manages the Children's Investment Master Fund. TCI makes long‐term investments in companies globally. It is the 2nd l ...
(TCI Fund Management), which in 2019, topped the list of the most profitable
hedge funds A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that holds liquid assets and that makes use of complex trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and insulate returns from market risk. Among these portfolio techniq ...
in the world. By utilising a hybrid fund-and-foundation model, Hohn sought to bring a private sector-like approach to philanthropy with intellectual rigour and commercial acumen to attain clear returns for children from the outset. The foundation's approach emphasises a high appetite for risk to invest in bold ideas for transformative and scalable solutions and reliance on high-quality data and evidence. It has pioneered the use of several innovative financing tools and catalytic funding mechanisms within development contexts and has become one of the leaders in venture philanthropy for global development. Unlike other foundations of similar influence, CIFF is known for avoiding press, though it is most commonly in the news for its climate action, in partnership with co-founder Chris Hohn and TCI Fund management, particularly the Say on Climate campaign which has enlisted global investors to press dozens of companies to set out their plans for dealing with their greenhouse gas emissions and to allow investors to regularly review the strategy. Jamie Cooper-Hohn managed CIFF until 2013 when Michael Anderson was appointed Chief Executive Officer. The CEO is now Kate Hampton, a key figure behind the creation of the 2016
Paris Agreement The Paris Agreement (also called the Paris Accords or Paris Climate Accords) is an international treaty on climate change that was signed in 2016. The treaty covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance. The Paris Agreement was ...
. The Children's Investment Fund Foundations is within the Partner Circle of the
Foundations Platform F20 Foundation(s) or The Foundation(s) may refer to: Common uses * Foundation (cosmetics), a skin-coloured makeup cream applied to the face * Foundation (engineering), the element of a structure which connects it to the ground, and transfers loads f ...
, an international network of foundations and philanthropic organizations.


History

In an example of " venture philanthropy" or " philanthrocapitalism", CIFF was set up to automatically receive a portion of profits from TCI fund management. The original formula involved transfers of 0.5 percent of the fund's assets each year, with a further 0.5 per cent of assets for every year during which the fund achieved returns of more than 11 per cent. It is reported that Hohn established the formulaic charitable link in order to motivate himself.TCI goes where other funds fear to tread - FT.com
/ref> Coinciding with the couple's divorce proceedings, changes set in motion in 2012 led to the splitting up of the fund and the foundation. The fund no longer donates money to the foundation on a contractual basis, though it may do so on a discretionary basis.


Activities

CIFF focuses on transforming the lives of poor and vulnerable children living in developing countries. CIFF's investment priorities are childhood and adolescence, child protection, and climate change. Within childhood and adolescence, areas of work include empowering girls and boys to control their sexual and reproductive health and to avoid unwanted pregnancies and HIV/AIDS; improving children and mothers' health and nutrition; preventing low birthweight babies; eliminating deaths from severe acute malnutrition, nested within a more integrated approach to childhood development; and deworming efforts to break transmission for good. In 2019, CIFF in partnership with
Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of Burroughs Wellcome, one of the predec ...
also launched a joint Lancet-Financial Times Commission on Artificial Intelligence in global health expected to be published by end of 2021. CIFF's child protection work focuses on ending child labour and sexual exploitation by enabling an environment that reduces vulnerability of communities and increases protection of children. Highlights from CIFF's portfolio in 2018 include: * CIFF and its co-founder Sir Christopher Hohn agreed to donate US$500 million to climate action over the next five years at the Global Climate Action Summit. * CIFF partners BRAC and Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) created the largest commercial model for micronutrient powder in the world. Over 145 million sachets of the powder have been sold over the past five years, and an evaluation undertaken in 2018 shows a significant reduction in anaemia among children under five years of age. * HIV self-testing increased from 500,000 in 2017 to over 5 million in 2018, spurred on by a partnership between CIFF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and OraSure, which lowered the price of HIV self-tests to US$2. * CIFF partner, Bachpan Bachao Andolan's work to facilitate access to justice for children in India led to the launch of prosecution in 9,177 cases of juvenile justice, child labour and commercial sexual exploitation of children. * CIFF expanded its commitment to deworming, which has so far delivered 1.8 billion treatments for parasitic worm infections in India, Ethiopia and Kenya including the world's largest ever public health intervention in a single day during which the Government of India delivered treatment to 270 million children in 2016. * CIFF saw the conclusion of the Implants Access Programme, in which a volume guarantee from CIFF and Gates Foundation halved the price of contraceptive implants from Bayer and Merck – increasing uptake of implants by projected 10 fold from start of the program in 2012 and saving procurers over US$500 million. * CIFF catalysed a new $275 million coalition (including $175 in aligned capital investments) among 8 philanthropies and 4 governments (Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom) to accelerate
energy transition An energy transition (or energy system transformation) is a major structural change to energy supply and consumption in an energy system. Currently, a transition to sustainable energy is underway to limit climate change. Most of the sustainab ...
in South East Asia. The partnership helps to promote the right market conditions for the region's private sector to ramp up investments in climate initiatives. Some of the grants CIFF made in 2014 include: * $50 million funding to prioritise national deworming programmes through the Uniting to Combat
Neglected Tropical Diseases Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a diverse group of tropical infections that are common in low-income populations in developing regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. They are caused by a variety of pathogens, such as viruses, bacteri ...
partnership. * $50 million to increase the number of children receiving life-saving antiretroviral therapy in partnership with the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief ( PEPFAR). * $20 million pledged in response to the
Ebola Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after in ...
outbreak in West Africa. * Launched (along with UBS Optimus Foundation, Educate Girls and Instiglio) the first ever development impact bond. In 2013, CIFF committed to spend $787 million over 7 years to tackle
malnutrition Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients which adversely affects the body's tissues a ...
. This was part of a total pledge of $4.1 billion towards reducing malnutrition announced at the Nutrition for Growth summit in London, co-hosted by the United Kingdom, Brazil and CIFF. In 2012, CIFF was one of the signatories of the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases, a WHO inspired
collaborative Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. The f ...
disease eradication programme of 10
neglected tropical diseases Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a diverse group of tropical infections that are common in low-income populations in developing regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. They are caused by a variety of pathogens, such as viruses, bacteri ...
. The
Clinton Foundation The Clinton Foundation (founded in 2001 as the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, and renamed in 2013 as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation) is a nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. It was e ...
lists CIFF among 7 organisations from which it received more than US$25 million. According to the
OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...
, CIFF provided USD 253.4 million for development in 2019, of which 98.9% was provided in the form of grants and 1.1% in the form of non-grants.


See also

* Absolute Return for Kids


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Children's Investment Fund Foundation Children's charities based in the United Kingdom Development charities based in the United Kingdom Medical and health foundations Organizations established in 2002 2002 establishments in the United Kingdom