We recognise that human well-being is inseparable from the health of our planet. People can only thrive in peace and freedom when living within a balanced environment.
Humanitarian Aid
Through our support for humanitarian aid, we aim to save lives, uphold dignity, and alleviate suffering for those affected by conflicts, natural disasters, and emergencies. Guided by the principles of humanity, impartiality, accountability to affected communities and equality, our efforts go beyond addressing immediate needs – we aim to empower communities and strengthen resilience through a locally-led approach. We prioritise neglected crises, ensuring that the most vulnerable populations receive the aid they need to prepare for, cope with and recover from crises.
Our priorities include:
- Saving lives and drawing attention to neglected crises through rapid life-saving assistance to those in immediate need and raising awareness and advocating for the needs of people living in neglected crises.
- Protecting women’s rights and advancing gender equality in crises by ensuring humanitarian responses address the specific needs of women and girls, promote gender equality and defend the rights of women and girls in crisis-affected areas.
- Strengthening resilience to conflict, climate change and environmental degradation by building community resilience to these threats and enhancing the capacity of affected communities to prepare for, anticipate and recover from crises.
- Advancing and supporting locally led humanitarian responses by supporting local organisations and communities experiencing crisis to design and lead humanitarian response efforts, and developing community driven solutions that are accountable, promote dignity and restore local agency.
Human and Women’s Rights
Through our support for human rights, we strive to build a resilient and inclusive human rights & social justice movement, empowering communities to understand and assert their rights, and seek justice for rights violations. In that respect we also support the International Justice system and strive to tackle the harm the digital revolution and big tech are doing to human rights as lived by us all. Our support for women`s rights is based on our vision of a world in which there is full equality and equity for women, where gender-based discrimination, violence, oppression and marginalisation is eliminated. We collaborate with organisations that tackle the root causes of inequalities and discrimination to dismantle patriarchal and other oppressive power structures. Human rights and full equality and equity of women are an important criterium for our activities in all the impact areas of the Foundation.
Our Human Rights priorities include:
- Promoting access to justice and accountability through human rights monitoring and documentation for citizens whose rights have been violated, expanding access to national, regional and international accountability mechanisms, and access to legal resources and representation particularly for marginalised communities, and those traditionally excluded from justice systems.
- Combating marginalisation, inequality, and discrimination by enhancing access to legal, psychosocial, and protective services for vulnerable communities and empowering them to advocate for their rights.
- Strengthening the digital rights and technology environment to secure an open, transparent and accountable digital information and technology sphere, addressing the human rights impact of digital and technological advancements, and advocating for digital standards.
- Building a resilient human rights movement through strengthening the work and capacity of human rights organisations and defenders, amplifying their voices and ensuring severe rights abuses are heard, represented, and advocated for at all levels.
Our Women’s Rights priorities include:
- Promoting the equality of women/girls and men/boys under the law in countries/regions where discriminatory laws/policies persist. Over 2.5 billion women and girls worldwide are affected by discriminatory laws and lack legal protections (UN Women), particularly in areas such as protection from violence, marriage and divorce rights, inheritance, property ownership, employment, and personal status – including rights related to travel, citizenship, and participation in public life. Broad law reforms and the repeal of discriminatory laws are essential for achieving gender equality and sustainable development.
- Enhancing access to justice for marginalized women and girls, especially those living in poverty with low literacy levels and traditionally excluded from formal justice systems.
- Preventing and eliminating violence against women and girls in all its forms and settings. Violence against women and girls (VAWG) represents the most visible manifestation of deep power imbalances in our societies and is a pervasive violation of women human rights, affecting 30% of women and girls globally.
- Integrating gender equality and women's rights, through a transformative approach, across development, humanitarian, and nature and species protection programmes.
Development
Through our support for development, we work to enhance livelihoods and improve the well-being of marginalised communities. This approach integrates and complements our efforts across other impact areas, emphasising holistic, community-led solutions. By fostering collaboration with civil society, the private sector and local and national governments, we work toward sustainable and inclusive progress.
Our priorities include:
- Supporting entrepreneurship through a holistic approach, integrating vocational training, business and life skills development, mentoring, and access to finance. Innovative approaches are essential to reducing unemployment and increasing income opportunities.
- Advancing regenerative agriculture in order to mitigate climate change impacts, ensure food security, and support vulnerable small-scale farmers. This includes sustainable resource management, climate change preparedness and resilience strategies, and income generation for family-run farms through research, innovation and collaboration.
- Enhancing women’s economic independence by recognising their crucial role in family incomes and poverty alleviation, while promoting inclusive opportunities for women and girls. This initiative also supports men and boys, provided it upholds the principle of gender inclusion and equality.
- Improving the welfare of disadvantaged and marginalised groups, such as indigenous people through education and health programmes being basic human rights.
Nature and Species Protection
Through our support for nature and species protection, we aim to protect landscapes and species, safeguard biodiversity, and enhance planetary health. This approach complements our efforts across other impact areas, emphasising holistic, science-led, and community-driven solutions which alleviate poverty and reduce inequalities. With rising threats to nature and species, we aim to accelerate funding in this area.
Our priorities include:
- Conserving landscapes and ecosystems by safeguarding national parks, community reserves, cultural and agricultural landscape, ensuring both environmental conservation and sustainable livelihoods for communities inside and outside of protected areas.
- Protecting endangered species by supporting efforts to protect key species that play a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem balance, recognising their importance in sustaining biodiversity.
- Enhancing marine resource protection to strengthen biodiversity, carbon storage, and food security.
- Recognising indigenous peoples as key custodians of nature by leveraging traditional knowledge and empower indigenous communities in conservation efforts.
Special Projects
Outside of the four impact areas, we also allocate funding to initiatives of special importance to the Founder or Foundation Board, that cover a landscape or multi-pillar approach or have a specific thematic incline within the mandate of the Foundation.
A special project that was specifically defined and mandated by Irène M. Staehelin in her last will, is the creation and long-term support to an academic centre at the University of Zurich. The academic center will identify the causes for the systematic discrimination of and violence against women worldwide from an anthropological and religious point of view. The respective agreements were signed with the University of Zurich in November 2024.
We also have special projects providing long-term support to improve the socioeconomic and sociopolitical conditions of the Indigenous San People in Southern Africa.