Investing in the Present and the Future
Investor stewardship for children’s rights
Highlights
Children are our greatest hope for a sustainable future, but they are also very much the present with needs and rights that must be respected. The choices we make today will shape their lives tomorrow.
UNICEF’s “Investing in the Present and the Future” aims to equip investors with the tools and knowledge needed to ensure that children’s rights are respected and supported within their investment strategies. This four-part publication, developed in consultation with investors and other finance sector experts, brings practical guidance to support investors in using stewardship to address the impacts of investee companies on children, and to advance respect for child rights in business conduct overall.
It does this by providing an overall framework for child rights integration in stewardship strategies, and outlines key considerations and issues across three specific child rights topics commonly identified by investors as material:
- How investor stewardship can help eliminate child labour
- Advancing child rights and safety in the digital environment through stewardship
- The role of stewardship in advancing family-friendly workplaces
The guidance is designed to be used together with UNICEF’s 2021 “Tool for investors on integrating children’s rights into ESG assessments” and forms part of UNICEF guidance to implement the UNICEF Child Lens Investing Framework (CLIF).
