Global Child Forum, in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group, has been benchmarking companies since 2014. Since then, we have produced 11 regional reports covering Middle East and North Africa, Southern Africa, Southeast Asia, the Nordic region and South America, as well as additional Global Benchmark reports in 2019 and 2021.
Our benchmarks are based on publicly available information assessed by Global Child Forum and are accompanied by insights, key take-aways and present wide-ranging recommendations for actions to raise individual company and sector scores.
About the selection of companies
All children have rights. What they don’t always have is a say in their future. That motivates us at Global Child Forum to focus on ways to support the next generation. With that in mind, in 2021-2022 we chose a specific sector, Technology & Telecommunications sector, and considered how change can be accelerated within this area. As part of that effort, we created this sector specific benchmark. It includes 252 of the world’s most influential IT companies (all the companies from the IT & Software Services, Telecommunications and Electronics industries in the SDG2000 list[1]). This study includes the 120 companies from the Technology & Telecommunications sector. In addition, we assessed the remaining 132 companies within the SDG2000 list from the Technology, IT Software & Services, and Telecommunications. This broad scope provides an opportunity for Global Child Forum to engage with companies that are not included in the Global Benchmark Study, which covers only the largest companies in the sector.
Scoring is based on publicly available information (in English) and was collected between March and June 2021. All companies in the study have been informed of their scores and have been given an opportunity to provide feedback on their results.
About the industries included in this study
The Technology and Telecommunications sector[2] is comprised of three industries:
Electronics
The electronics industry includes 93 companies that manufacture electronic devices (e.g. phones, laptops, computers, TVs, etc.) and other electronics components. The value chain includes the raw materials necessary to make these products, such as minerals.
IT Software & Services
This industry includes 55 companies that provide services online, including social media, financial payments, hospitality bookings, retail and home delivery/transport services.
Telecommunications
This industry includes 104 companies that build and host telecoms systems, the components of which include physical, electronic and digital infrastructure.
[1] In 2020, Global Child Forum joined the World Benchmarking Alliance and adopted their SDG2000 as the universe from which companies are selected for our Corporate Sector and Children’s Rights Benchmarks.
[2] The benchmark uses an adapted version of the Refinitiv TRCB Sector Classification system for classifying sectors and industries. A company can only belong to one sector and one industry. Companies are classified based on available information about their main business operations/source of revenue.
Disclaimer
Global Child Forum basis it’s benchmark scores on a company’s publicly available information, systematically assessing a corporate’s response to impacts on children’s rights. Scores are not a measure of actual company compliance with policies, outcomes of policies and/or programmes. Final scorecards were made available to all companies for fact checking purposes, but not all companies have acknowledged this review process.