Interview
“The only battles lost are those that are not fought!”
Ernst Hirsch Ballin
Chairman of Achmea Foundation
Ernst Hirsch Ballin bids farewell to the Achmea Foundation after 8 years. The interview with Ernst Hirsch Ballin in 2019 ended with the words: “That will prove its worth in the next two years; it will become clear whether we have made a good assessment and the right choices.” A better cliffhanger to this interview – exactly two years later – you couldn’t hope for...
So the first question for this interview is not hard to guess...
“Yes, the question then was whether there were already noteworthy examples of our new working method. A way of working in which we map out the relevant success factors very precisely in advance and measure the impact of the project both at the interim and afterwards. In2Care’s EaveTubes project, which we supported, was recently in the news after being written about in The Lancet. This is a good example of this. We started this based on such a precise assessment. And we have carefully monitored this project. Moreover, we had no guarantee or certainty that it would succeed. I can vividly remember the first conversation. We thought: ‘Could it really be that simple?’ In a nutshell, EaveTubes tubes are fitted with mesh cassettes, which are installed in the wall and thus keep out malaria mosquitoes. It almost sounded too good to be true, but at the end of the project the conclusion was that it is effective.”
Let’s go back a little further in time: you took office as chairman 8 years ago. What were your ambitions?
“As early as at the establishment of the Achmea Foundation in 2006, I was asked to chair it. But exactly at that time, the issue was that the then-Minister of Justice had to resign and I had to take over that position at a moment’s notice. A few years later, in 2013, I was again asked to serve as chairman. The Achmea Foundation had a wide variety of projects then. A lot of good was done, but the direction was determined by the initiatives that were submitted. There was no recognisable line. We then set out on a course that would really allow us to stand out. We developed a line that matched the characteristics of its parent company Achmea: healthcare, agricultural activities and financial services.”
“A second ambition was to professionalise our working methods. This translated into a tightly controlled review: a system of monitoring that now leads to a dashboard showing whether or not things are developing well. With this, we have made great strides in the area of making the system testable.”
What is (was) your personal motivation to dedicate yourself to the Achmea Foundation for 8 years?
“Throughout my career, I have dealt with development issues at different times and in different ways. I was involved with Cordaid, which is an important actor in this field, and before that with a small foundation focused on education in Rwanda – I had a seat on the Under Council for Development Issues in the third Lubbers government. From my own profession, Human Rights, I firmly believe that it should not be about imposing practices from our Western perspective.
Instead, we must set in motion a dynamic in which people can free themselves from poverty, need, food shortages, homelessness. For me, that is where the personal connection lies. I am very happy that as Chairman of the Foundation, together with skilled people in the Foundation office and colleagues on the Board, and many people involved in the Achmea company and with our partners, I have been able to play a role in increasing the empowerment of the most vulnerable groups of people in society.”
Ernst Hirsch Ballin
"The art of administrative work is to make things possible that could not otherwise happen"
Are there things you are less satisfied with when you look back?
“The art of administrative work is to make things possible that could not otherwise happen. It is a conscious choice of the Achmea Foundation to invest in innovative and therefore somewhat risky projects – initiatives that regular investors would not readily put their fingers on. The vast majority of our projects have been successful. As part of this, it is my contention that if you achieve three quarters of what you had in mind, you can also call the project ‘successful’. Of course, there are also some projects – fortunately this a very small minority – where you have to conclude afterwards that the project has failed. For example, the cricket project. There were contagious diseases among the crickets, which stalled the project. But from this project we have gained the insight that protein-rich food sources other than the usual ones are possible. So you learn from that, as well. I have previously described the Achmea Foundation as a ‘learning organisation’. The motto is: The only battles lost are those that are not fought!”
The world has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic for a year and a half. You could say that a continent such as Africa is being left to its own devices. As the chairman of a foundation that works in Africa, that must really affect you.
“You can see that the pandemic is creating a huge disruption in the already unstable balance of international relations. Many people, really large groups of people, are at risk in Africa. Various factors related to food shortage, power struggles, wars, 18 million displaced persons (people forced to flee their homes or places of residence - ed.): this large continent is now even more disrupted by the pandemic. Then it is very important that interventions be made that give people access to essentials such as food, healthcare or housing. From the foundation, we have initiated some specific projects focusing on COVID-19. But I would like to stress that we should not only focus on ‘emergency aid’. Instead, we must invest in the type of projects that will also be important in other, hopefully better, times. It is, of course, primarily in the interest of the African population. But what happens in Africa is soon connected to what happens in Europe. So it affects everyone.”
Last question: what offers hope for the future?
“That’s an important question, what offers hope... (brief silence) Interaction, cooperation, personal involvement. What offers hope is that, where patterns of cooperation are possible, we as a foundation can act as a connector. As the Achmea Foundation, but certainly also from within the Achmea parent company, a great deal of knowledge and experience is available. Look at information processes, financial services, you name it. If we can link that to the projects in rural Africa, we can achieve a lot of great results.”
In September 2021, Willem van Duin will take over the chairmanship from Ernst Hirsch Ballin
Ernst on Willem: “I am very happy that Willem is taking over this role. Willem has been on the Board for a long time and has always been very committed to the foundation. Moreover, he knows the type of administrative work like no other. Do I have a tip for Willem? Stay as vigilant as you have always been! By which I mean: take into account innovation, interesting openings that we haven't seen yet – I think Willem is very strong in that.”
“Moreover, I am also very pleased that Bianca Tetteroo is taking Willem’s place on the Board, as a representative of Achmea. In this way, the connection with the Achmea Group is guaranteed. And I’m not just talking about the finances, but above all about the connecting thought: the cooperative thought where the leading motive is to make things better for society as a whole.”