ImpactPlus

As director of the Achmea Foundation, Agnes van Daal is committed to projects in sub-Saharan Africa and social projects within the Netherlands. She wants to ‘make the world a little bit better.’ How is she doing that?

A Ghanaian taxi company, run for and by women, wants to set up an HR department, but does not have the expertise in-house. So, Dutch insurer Achmea is flying in an HR expert to help the Ghanaian entrepreneurs get started. And the expert is not the only one: every year, about 35 Achmea employees go to an organisation in Africa for a week or two to carry out an assignment. Among them is Achmea Foundation director Agnes van Daal: she was most recently in Ghana, visiting ongoing projects by PharmAccess in a rural hospital and by Solidaridad on a palm oil plantation.

Van Daal tells her story at the Achmea headquarters in Zeist, surrounded by forest and detached villas. She has worked for Achmea for 32 years, holding IT positions for the past 15 years. When she turned 50 two years ago, after 12 private trips to different countries in Africa, more than ever, it was time for reflection. Now, as director of the Achmea Foundation, she focuses mainly on the continent that made her realise how fortunate we are in the West.

But you don't even have to cross the border to see that, Van Daal says. Because she is also committed to programmes in the Netherlands. One such programme is the Voor Elkaar (‘For Each Other’) platform, a kind of marketplace site on which Achmea employees themselves can post social initiatives. Van Daal herself participated in the long-running Mentoring for Refugees project last year. “I had the opportunity to accompany Turkish IT expert Ufuk, who fled to the Netherlands with his wife three years ago. The two highly educated people went from one asylum seekers’ centre to another and Ufuk searched for a job in vain.” That was, until Van Daal posted an appeal for him on LinkedIn. “Within a week, he had 10 interviews. You could see his spirits brighten. Van Daal’s official mentorship ended some time ago, because Ufuk has found a paid job. But there is still warm contact between the two. "My husband baked them an apple pie the other day – authentically Dutch. A real friendship grew out of it.”

The independent Achmea Foundation consists of as many as three people, but works extensively with Achmea, which has approximately 14,000 employees. Each year, the Foundation receives a donation amounting to 0.5 per cent of Achmea's profits. The Foundation has twenty-four ongoing projects in sub-Saharan Africa in which Dutch NGOs are involved and supports these organisations with donations, loans and knowledge. That support is based on a well-thought-out strategy. “We always look to see if there is a business case behind it”, Van Daal says. That way, when funding ends, that type of project can continue independently as a social enterprise.”

The same principle applies to Dutch projects. For example, the Foundation supports eight selected candidates each year with six months of free training and access to Achmea’s knowledge and network. The theme for this year was Healthy and Sustainable Living for All. One of the participants was Butterfly Effect, an organisation that rents out tiny houses to people who volunteer for residents of care facilities. The idea in this approach is for Butterfly Effect to fight both the housing shortage and the staff shortage in healthcare at the same time. For example, two hundred people with disabilities live at Cello’s Binckhorst care facility in Rosmalen, the Netherlands. Three tiny houses are occupied by volunteers. Entrepreneur and former Cello innovation manager Stijn van Kreij started Butterfly Effect following the successful realisation of the Binckhorst project in 2018. Butterfly Effect is now building volunteer homes across the Netherlands.

Van Daal has found her “absolute dream job”. “I am not naive, and I do know that what the Foundation is doing is a drop in the ocean.” But if we all make drops together, we will already be making the world a much better place.”