UNICEF Child-Lens Investing Framework Makes TIME’s Best Inventions List
The innovative Child-Lens Investing Framework guides fund managers and asset owners to direct investment capital to the world’s most important stakeholders — children.
Students at Ecole Primaire Ilako in Mbandaka, Équateur Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, make use of a handwashing station that UNICEF installed at the school during the 2022 Ebola outbreak to prevent the spread of disease. Improving access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene in schools and communities is top priority for UNICEF programming worldwide.
© UNICEF/UN0635215/Mulala
TIME named the Child-Lens Investing Framework (CLIF) one of the best inventions of 2024 in its annual issue devoted to innovative ideas making a difference in the world.
The CLIF was developed by UNICEF USA, UNICEF’s Innovative Finance Hub, Tideline and others, and was co-funded by the Finnish Government. Its goal is to ask and support the investment community to prioritize children in their investment strategies.
The child lens recognizes that investments across a diverse range of sectors and themes can affect children intentionally and unintentionally, directly or indirectly. Without such a lens, the impact children experience could go unrecognized, as children are not direct economic agents, and are therefore underrepresented stakeholders in investment decision making.
“This award … reinforces our commitment to big thinking and bold action in service to ensuring every child has the opportunity to thrive.”
TIME named the Child-Lens Investing Framework (CLIF) one of the best inventions of 2024 in its annual issue devoted to innovative ideas making a difference in the world.
The CLIF was developed by UNICEF USA, UNICEF’s Innovative Finance Hub, Tideline and others, and was co-funded by the Finnish Government. Its goal is to ask and support the investment community to prioritize children in their investment strategies.
The child lens recognizes that investments across a diverse range of sectors and themes can affect children intentionally and unintentionally, directly or indirectly. Without such a lens, the impact children experience could go unrecognized, as children are not direct economic agents, and are therefore underrepresented stakeholders in investment decision making.
A UNICEF-supported solar-powered water system serves children and families in Torkham, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan.
© UNICEF/UNI623762/Karimi
Calvert Impact Capital — a market leader in the global impact investing industry that invests in communities that are typically overlooked by traditional finance — is a UNICEF USA collaborator working with interested portfolio partners to understand their impact on children, using the relevant metrics to do so. They are also exploring how to integrate the child risk questionnaire into their due diligence questionnaire.
Along with the Investor Toolkit, UNICEF and the Impact Fund for Children have developed a DDQ and a Child-Lens Metrics Bank to help investors implement the child lens.
Children are tomorrow’s innovators and drivers of economic growth. They are the future. Yet, over 1 billion children around the globe are deprived of their rights to a quality education, equitable health care, safe water and nutrition. Child-lens investing has the power to change that.
Join us. Visit unicefusa.org or email cshapiro@unicefusa.org to learn more.