WINTER 2022 / REAL-LEADERS.COM 79 LEADING LEADERS 75 MONEY 76 CLIMATE ACTION 78 SOCIAL IMPACT 74 INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY 80 INVESTING but to test a new economic model, designed to better support people in need." The humanitarian impact bond is legally known as the Program for Humanitarian Impact Investment. It’s not strictly a bond but a private placement. The initial payments by social investors New Re, part of Munich Re Group, and others identified by co-sponsor Bank Lombard Odier, enabled the ICRC to run the activities at each rehabilitation center and expand the ICRC's Physical Rehabilitation Program. With the completion of the program's fifth year, “outcome funders” — the governments of Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, the UK, and the la Caixa Foundation — will pay the ICRC according to the results achieved. These funds will be used to pay back the social investors partially, in full, or with an additional return, depending on how well the ICRC performed in terms of the efficiency of the new centers. Independent auditors will now verify the ICRC's reported efficiency in the three new centers based on how many people received mobility devices as compared to existing centers that did not form part of the program. If above the benchmark, the social investor will receive its initial investment plus an annual return. If the performance of the new centers is below the benchmark, it will lose a certain amount of the initial investment. “The challenge was to develop a product that would make investors comfortable with the idea to invest in a very volatile and fragile context: post-conflict zones,” says Kois Invest founder François de Borchgrave. Of the 90 million people with physical disabilities who need a mobility device worldwide, only 10%, on average, have access to adequate physical rehabilitation services, leading to both social and economic exclusion. An estimated 29 million people — about 14 per 100 of the population — live with a disability in Nigeria, and physical rehabilitation services are not available for many of them. In the North-East of the country, conflict and violence have left many without access to essential health care services, forcing people to travel 600 miles to reach a facility with adequate care. The ICRC is the world's largest provider of physical rehabilitation services in developing and fragile countries. In 2016, the Physical Rehabilitation Program operated 139 projects in 34 countries, helping almost 330,000 people with physiotherapy and mobility devices, including wheelchairs, artificial limbs, and braces. The center has already had an immense impact on patients like Bintu Umar, whose leg was amputated in 2009 after an attack on her village. “When I didn’t have the prosthetic leg, some activities were challenging for me. But thanks to the leg, I can assist my parents. I also do household chores now.” n Florian Seriex is a public relations officer at the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva.
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