This blog strives to drive dialogue, inspire change and generate new perspectives and ideas on children’s rights and business. The blog features writing from Global Child Forum’s own staff, guest bloggers as well as Q&As with leaders and influencers. If you’re interested in writing for Frontlines, please contact our Communication Manager.
To mark the UN World Day Against Child Labour, and this year’s focus on the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour 2021, Global Child Forum’s Nina Vollmer looks more closely at what companies can do to help erase child labour from the map. Child labour is a complex issue, but findings from our benchmark report reveal that closing the disclosure gap, can be one step in the right direction.
In the final days before lockdown was introduced in the United Kingdom, CRIN hosted a panel discussion on surveillance and facial recognition at the Tate Modern where we addressed some of the risks they pose for children’s rights. Since then, the Covid-19 pandemic has forced many people to move their lives almost exclusively online, as adults began working from home and schools resorted to online learning. Such big changes, however, raise basic questions.
Of all the heartbreaking effects of COVID-19, its impact on young people could prove to be one of its most damaging legacies. In fact, the coronavirus crisis risks turning back the clock on years of progress made on children’s well-being and has put children’s rights under serious pressure across the globe. Linda Lodding, Head of Communications at Global Child Forum, takes a closer look at these pressure points.
To mark Global Child Forum’s ten-year anniversary, Désirée Abrahams asked both adults and children, what they considered the top 10 most important child right’s issues for business to consider in the next decade. In this blog post, she shares her reflections on the process and the survey’s findings
Johan Öberg, a core member of The Boston Consulting Group’s Principal Investors & Private Equity practice and a board member of Global Child Forum, comments on the results of the global benchmark study The State of Children’s Rights and Business: From Promise to Practice.
For a decade, Global Child Forum has been working to promote children’s rights – focusing primarily on the business sector to drive this change. To mark this anniversary, the organization is looking back at how the situation for children’s rights in business has transformed, and flagging new emerging issues that require urgent attention.
How the Swedish retail giant views children’s rights and business. As one of the largest fashion retailers in the world, the H&M Group has the capacity to drive economic and social change. Global Child Forum’s Head of Communication, Linda Lodding, spoke with Anna Gedda, H&M’s Head of Global Sustainability about how the Swedish retail giant addresses child rights issues in their vast supply chain – and what keeps Anna awake at night.
HRH Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, Founder of Missing Chapter Foundation, makes the case that, when businesses engage in intergenerational dialogue and children’s ideas are given serious attention, the result is better, more innovative solutions to sustainability issues.
The world has taken on a tremendous task: to eliminate child labour. Global Goal for Sustainable Development no 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth states that by 2025 child labour in all its forms shall be eliminated. This is ambitious as the target is supposed to be reached five years earlier than 2030, the end date for the Global Goals as a whole. At the same time, the latest report on child labour from the International Labour Organization (ILO), shows that even though child labour is on the decline, it’s not declining fast enough, and in recent years, the pace has slowed considerably. At the current rate, the ILO estimates that by 2025, 121 million children will still be in child labour. So, what are we doing wrong? And more importantly, how can we improve, so that child labour can finally be a thing of the past?
“Business impacts children. And therefore, we must let children impact business.” These words from H.M King Carl XVI Gustaf, during his speech at the recent Global Child Forum in April 2018, underline the importance of understanding children’s rights - especially recognizing the unique position investors and companies have to protect and advance these rights.
At the 10th Global Child Forum, Fauza and Kesia, two youth workers and members of the Indonesian Children's Advisory Committee shared their message to business on behalf of the world's working children.
The ICT sector has an enormous role to play in protecting children online and connecting them to a better future. Mats Granryd, Director General of the GSMA, the global body representing the interests of mobile operators worldwide, shares how his industry is contributing to children’s rights.
Clothing brands can learn from their peers who dare to be honest about detecting child labour in their supply chains by knowing the risks, limiting them, and taking action where necessary. As fashion designers take to the runway during New York Fashion Week, Sophie Koers, Associate Director of Fair Wear Foundation, reminds us that all that glitters is not necessarily gold.
“My husband and I came out to work for our children but we couldn’t take them with us. We don’t have the time to take care of them or to cook for them…so we left them with their grandparents,” said Liu Jing*, a factory worker whose three children live with their grandparents in a village in Hunan, China. She is part of the “247 million” – the number of people who have migrated for work in China. She has been a factory worker for the past ten years, and like many in her situation, only returns home a handful of times throughout the year to see her children. If her situation can be represented by a number, so can her children’s. They belong to the “61 million”, the estimated number of children in China who grow up without one or both parents present. Behind these numbers however, are stories far more intricate, stories that have implications not only for society but for businesses as well.
In the 1980s ballad, The Greatest Love of All, US pop diva Whitney Houston sang, “I believe the children are our future; teach them well and let them lead the way...” While she sang convincingly, this is not a new sentiment – children have always been the future. But how and whom is responsible for ‘teaching them well and letting them lead the way’, well, that’s changing.
Some medium-sized enterprises in Latin America and the Caribbean are putting in place paternity packages that give their working fathers time to invest in their children. Marcelo Ber, Regional Child Rights and Business Focal Point for UNICEF Latin America, talks to new father, Rodrigo, on why spending time with his baby daughter is a valued employee benefit - for the short-term and long-term.
Selected as a UN Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals, Colombia’s Carolina Medina is, no doubt, goal-oriented. She wants to ensure that urban households have access to healthy and affordable food. A well-fed child, after all, has the opportunity to become well-educated child. Through her start-up, Agruppa, Medina is making this goal a reality – one “Mom and Pop” shop at a time.
Paul Sistare is a man on a mission. As the Founder and CEO of Atlantica Hotels International (Brasil), he not only ensures that his guests get a good night’s rest, but he makes sure that he does too. How does he do this? By knowing that he, and the whole Atlantica Hotel chain, promotes sustainable tourism with a special emphasis on protecting children’s rights.
Björn Sellström, Coordinator for Crimes Against Children team from Interpol, talks about Interpol’s fight against commercial sexual exploitation of children and what the corporate sector can do.
Jenny Fredy, Senior Analyst at Global Child Forum, argues that for business to take on the global goals will require that businesses act responsibly, by incorporating the UN Global Compact Principles, as well as by identifying the opportunities that the new agenda provides. However, perhaps more than anything, what's needed is a new mind-set to drive new sustainable solutions and business models.
Sonia Livingstone OBE is Professor of Social Psychology in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Taking a comparative, critical and contextual approach, her research examines how the changing conditions of mediation are reshaping everyday practices and possibilities for action. She has published twenty books on media audiences, media literacy and media regulation, with a particular focus on the opportunities and risks of digital media use in the everyday lives of children and young people.
Sonia has advised the UK government, European Commission, European Parliament, Council of Europe and other national and international organisations on children’s rights, risks and safety in the digital age. She was awarded the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2014 'for services to children and child internet safety.'
Aarti Kapoor is the Director and Lead Consultant of Embode, an international human rights consultancy. She has spent the last 16 years working on children’s rights issues, with a particular focus on child protection, child labour, child trafficking and exploitation across Asia, Africa and Europe.
In her lead role with Embode, Aarti manages a broad child rights portfolio across Asia and Africa. This has included projects in child labour in cocoa supply chains in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Indonesia, migrant labour vulnerabilities in the palm oil sector of Malaysia, gathering effective practices in child participation in Cambodia.
Aarti has worked across the civil service and law enforcement sectors, for both local and international NGOs, as well as the corporate sector. She is also a qualified lawyer in both the UK (England and Wales) and the US (New York state) and has an LL.M in Law and Economics, and a M.A. in Systems Leadership and Organisational Analysis.
As Research Manager, Nina’s main area of responsibility is to lead and develop the work on the Corporate Benchmark Studies on children’s rights that Global Child Forum produces in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group. In addition to this work, she also takes on other research projects and works on developing the content/inviting speakers for Forums and events.
She has previously worked at the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, the Swedish Teacher’s Union, the Swedish Fellowship of Reconciliation – SweFOR in Colombia and SonyEricsson. She has also held the voluntary position of group secretary for Amnesty Business Group Sweden and been a member of the Board of Directors at Amnesty Sweden.
She has a Master’s Degree in Political Science with a focus on human rights and development from Lund University in Sweden. Nina joined Global Child Forum in 2015.
Christoph Selig has been responsible for the development and the implementation of the international GoTeach partnership between Deutsche Post DHL and SOS Children’s Villages since April 2010 and has been actively involved in the design of the Global Programs on Education for Deutsche Post DHL Group (GoTeach). In his current role he also takes responsibility for the refugee aid initiatives of Deutsche Post DHL in Germany and international. Christoph Selig has 13 years of experience in politics, working in the German Bundestag, the Federal Foreign Office, and for more than 8 years he represented Deutsche Post DHL in Berlin as Manager Government Relations and Public Affairs. He completed an MBA Entrepreneurship with a main focus on Social Entrepreneurship and Social Business.
As Director General, Mats Granryd leads the GSMA in supporting its global membership through a range of industry programmes, advocacy initiatives and industry-convening events. In 2016, Mats led the mobile industry in becoming the first sector to commit to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Supporting this, Mats serves on the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, the Business & Sustainable Development Commission and The B Team. Before joining the GSMA, Mats was President and CEO of Tele2 and also spent 15 years in a variety of roles at Ericsson.
Sophie Koers, author of Practical Idealism, wants companies to be proud of their work with FWF. Being transparent about their progress will make companies more attractive to consumers.
Ellen works at the Beijing office of CCR CSR, where she has been in charge of the organization’s internal and external communications since 2015. She provides guidance and support to all of the organization’s regional bases (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Vietnam, Bangladesh) and is responsible for promotion, marketing, design and media relations, as well as maintaining the organization’s web presence.
Ellen has been living in China for almost nine years where she held positions in the media and charity sector before joining CCR CSR. Ellen holds a BA in Chinese and Politics from SOAS, University of London, and speaks fluent English, Mandarin and German.
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