Norway’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund is teaming up with the United Nations United Nations children’s agency UNICEF to set up a network with leading fashion and footwear brands and retailers to improve children’s rights.
The initiative with Norges Bank Investment Management is designed to help companies assess the business risk of child labour – as well as broader issues such as standards of living, access to education, basic hygiene and pollution.
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“Over time, we hope and expect that the network will contribute to improved market practices among companies and greater respect for children’s rights,” says Carine Smith Ihenacho, global head of ownership strategies.
The network will provide a platform for discussion as well as exchange experience of children’s rights efforts, and work to increase awareness and acceptance of children’s rights. The companies will discuss how best to integrate respect and support for these rights into their policies and practices and their management and reporting systems, UNICEF says.
“Child labour is only one of the areas where child rights are affected. Parents’ conditions and their ability to care for their children are also very important. The families’ standard of living, access to education and to basic hygiene, pollution – they could all be affected in various ways by companies’ conduct,” adds Camilla Viken, executive director of UNICEF Norway.
A number of companies in which Norges Bank Investment Management has holdings have been invited to join the network.
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By GlobalDataMore than ten will attend the first network event in Geneva on 27 November, together with experts in the field who will help guide the dialogue. Over the next two years, the plan is to hold three workshops as well as quarterly meetings.
Swedish fashion retailer H&M, Gucci owner Kering, and VF Corporation, which owns brands including The North Face, Wrangler and Timberland, are among the companies included in the network, the fund said. However, it declined to provide the full list of participants.
Financial stakeholders – including investors, lenders and insurers – increasingly want to know what steps companies are taking on environmental and social issues such as climate change, water scarcity and human rights, and how this could impact business performance in the future.
Companies will be expected to be transparent not only about their own performance on these topics, but also about the financial risks and opportunities they face from them and the likely effects on the business’s value creation in both the short and long term.
Expanding legislation across Western markets also means mandatory human rights due diligence on supply chains could soon become the norm for multinational companies.
