Fostering resilient societies: Swiss Re Foundation

Who we are

The Swiss Re Foundation reflects Swiss Re’s social and humanitarian values. Since its establishment ten years ago, the Foundation’s focus areas have been shaped by Swiss Re’s world-leading risk expertise: natural hazard and climate risk management, human health, and innovative research that sheds light on how to make societies more resilient.

In cooperation with our external partners and Swiss Re’s employees, we help strengthen resilience in targeted low-income communities as well as communities near Swiss Re locations. To help build resilient societies, the Foundation offers its partners tailored grant financing, access to expertise, research and capacity building, as well as collaborative networks, to create measurable, lasting impacts.

Making healthcare financially accessible to low-income people – tackling Mexico’s biggest health threats:

Demand for affordable healthcare has increased in tandem with the growth of the global population, and COVID-19 has intensified the challenges of providing it. Spending on healthcare pushes an estimated 100 million people worldwide into extreme poverty every year. New approaches to financing healthcare are needed more urgently than ever.

To help bridge this gap, the Swiss Re Foundation’s flagship programme – the Entrepreneurs for Resilience Award – initiated a three-year commitment in 2021 to help one million people improve their health resilience. The winner of the 2021 award cycle, Clínicas del Azúcar, provides affordable diabetes and hypertension care to low-income Mexicans by offering all the necessary treatments for a flat-rate membership fee.

In Mexico, nearly 13 million people – 15% of the population – suffer from diabetes. People diagnosed with diabetes and/or hypertension have two options to obtain treatment: pay out of pocket at a private clinic – at an estimated annual cost of over USD 1 000, which only the wealthiest 10% of the population can afford – or endure long waiting times, inconvenient appointment scheduling and short consultation times at a public hospital. Technology and process improvements have allowed Clínicas del Azúcar to reduce the cost of specialised care by more than 60% compared to the public healthcare system.

In nine years, Clínicas del Azúcar has grown into Mexico’s largest private provider of specialised diabetes care, with more than 153 000 patients served to date. With the award grant from the Swiss Re Foundation, Clínicas del Azúcar is primarily developing its “digital clinic”, which will allow the organisation to extend care to patients living in smaller towns and rural areas who could not be served by a physical clinic, thus closing a large gap in the market. Read more here.

"The Entrepreneurs for Resilience Award catalysed our creation of a virtual clinic to reach rural areas of Mexico and scale at a much faster pace. Now our service will be available to patients with diabetes and high blood pressure all over Mexico and other countries in Latin America.

As well as providing funding and access to coaching, the Foundation introduced us to Swiss Re’s team in Mexico. Together we’ve been exploring ways to reach more patients and prevent diabetes-related complications.

One initiative we’re working on is to provide insurance to people with the pre-existing condition of diabetes, who are typically ineligible for coverage. Despite the distance between us – geographically and as organisations – the collaboration with Swiss Re has been a success thanks to Clínicas del Azúcar’s clear business model and a shared focus on having an impact."

Miguel Garza, Chief Operating Officer, Clínicas del Azúcar