Social Innovation

Our Social Innovation Program

As the corporate foundation of Bayer, we accelerate transformative social innovations to improve access to health and food security for underserved communities. Our work focuses on building effective, resilient and sustainable, ecosystems that enable long term impact beyond traditional charity or classic development aid. We support social changemakers: impact organizations, social entrepreneurs, and local actors, with a strong emphasis on women, in low‑ and middle‑income countries (LMICs) across Africa, Asia and Latin America, who are developing innovative solutions to complex, system‑level problems.

The global challenges we’re addressing:

Health and food systems worldwide face growing pressure driven by intersecting crises:

2.3 billion people experience food insecurity, including 680 million facing acute hunger.
Global disease burden remains high, with rising non‑communicable diseases (esp. Cardiovascular and cancer) and chronic underfunding of women’s health.
Communities in LMICs often lack access to quality healthcare, agricultural knowledge, and essential inputs.
Women face systemic neglect across health, food security, and income, with the gender gap projected to take 134 years to close.
Climate change exacerbates vulnerabilities across health and agriculture.
Traditional charity approaches alone are insufficient to address these systemic challenges.

Our approach:

1. Innovators and Entrepreneurs in Focus
We empower social impact organizations and entrepreneurs – especially women – by supporting locally driven solutions and strengthening their visibility, credibility, and ability to scale.

2. Catalytic Funding
We provide strategic funding to kick start and derisk high impact solutions, unlocking additional capital through partnerships and innovative financing approaches across the continuum of capital.

3. Coalitions and Networks
We build cross sector coalitions with NGOs, governments, social investors, and global partners to amplify impact and accelerate systemic change across regions.