Tool for Investors
on Integrating Children’s Rights Into ESG Assess
Highlights
Building on UNICEF and Sustainalytics’ 2019 Investor Guidance on Integrating Children’s Rights into Investment Decision Making, which sets out a number of actions that investors can take to integrate children’s rights into investment decision making, the Tool for Investors on integrating Children’s Rights into ESG analysis aims to provide actors within the investor ecosystem with specific guidance on analysing companies within their portfolios against children’s rights. Specifically, the tool sets out a framework for assessing how companies manage and address risks to children as part of their approaches to human rights due diligence and social responsibility within ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) analysis.
The tool is aimed at institutional investors, asset owners, asset managers and other actors critical to the measurement of corporate performance on human rights, including ESG researchers, ratings agencies and index providers. To help investors better understand how companies impact children’s rights, the tool contains guidance on identifying material children’s rights risks. This includes guidance on how children’s rights issues relate to common sustainability issues, and issues that are known to be material to companies operating in certain industries. The tool also sets out indicators for measuring corporate performance on managing children’s rights impacts. To aid integration, the indicators are aligned as much as possible with existing reporting standards and initiatives, while also reflecting best practices in managing impacts on children’s rights. The indicators can used as a stand-alone model for a child rights analysis (for instance, as part of building a portfolio focused on children's rights in a financial product or to develop a child rights benchmark), or to integrate children’s rights aspects into a broader ESG risk assessment.
