Nina Vollmer
Director Child Rights and Sustainability
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How are Global Child Forum’s unique benchmark studies carried out?
Methodology
Global Child Forum and the Boston Consulting Group initiated the Corporate Sector and Children’s Rights Benchmark series in 2013 to fill a gap in existing research. To date, we have produced global and regional studies which include the Nordic countries, the Middle East and Northern Africa, Southern Africa, South America and Southeast Asia – covering more than 3000 companies across eight different sectors.
The purpose of the series is to develop a children’s rights benchmark for the corporate sector and enable the tracking of progress on how children’s rights are addressed by businesses and investors.
In 2020, Global Child Forum joined the World Benchmarking Alliance and adopted the SDG2000 as our base universe. Read more about how companies are selected for the SDG2000 list here.
The eight sectors are largely based on the Refinitiv Business Classification (TRBC): Basic Materials; Business to Business (B2B); Consumer Discretionary; Energy & Utilities; Financials; Food, Beverage & Personal Care; Healthcare; and Technology & Telecommunications.
During the first half of the year, publicly available information in English from the selected companies (for example, in sustainability reports) is screened against a set of 25 indicators.[1] Each indicator has a possible score of:
0 – No information could be found;
5 – The company is reporting on human rights or sustainability for this issue;
10 – The company reports on how they address children’s rights for this issue.[2]
The results in our benchmark are based only on publicly available data, and the systematic assessment of corporate organisational response to impact on children’s rights. However, we do not evaluate actual compliance with policies, or the outcomes of policies or programmes. Individual results are shared with each company to allow for feedback and possible corrections, ensuring a fair assessment prior to the launch of the benchmark.
The indicators align clearly with the Children’s Rights and Business Principles[3] and are divided into the impact areas of Governance & Collaboration, Workplace, Marketplace, and Community & Environment. This approach not only offers an overview of what companies are doing in each of these spheres of influence, but also gives companies an opportunity to identify areas for improvement in relation to their operations.
[1] Since the 2021 study, the number of indicators has decreased from 27 to 25.
[2] The original methodology applied until 2017 used 7 indicators with a binary answer option of yes (score 1) or no (score 0), and a total possible score of 9 (two of the questions were weighted and offered a possible score of 2).
[3] A comprehensive framework for understanding and addressing the impact of business on the rights and well-being of children developed by UN Global Compact, UNICEF and Save the Children.
Want to know more? Contact our experts.
Global Child Forum bases its 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 have been made available to all companies for fact-checking purposes, but not all companies acknowledge this review process. Read more at the bottom of this page.
POLICIES & COMMITMENT (25%)
IMPLEMENTATION (25%)
REPORTING & ACTIONS (50%)
POLICIES & COMMITMENT (25%)
IMPLEMENTATION (25%)
REPORTING & ACTIONS (50%)
POLICIES & COMMITMENT (25%)
IMPLEMENTATION (25%)
REPORTING & ACTIONS (50%)
POLICIES & COMMITMENTS (25%)
IMPLEMENTATION (25%)
REPORTING & ACTIONS (50%)
This impact area focuses on how successfully companies integrate children’s rights into their governance mechanisms, comprising indicators that were previously included in the other three impact areas (Workplace, Marketplace and Community & Environment). Governance & Collaboration centres on the following:
In our benchmark, impact through operations and supply chains – specifically in relation to employment – is covered under the Workplace impact area. In Workplace, companies impact children’s lives in several ways:
Impact through marketing and products or services is covered under the Marketplace impact area. Companies impact children’s lives in several ways in Marketplace:
In our benchmark, impact through operations and supply chains – specifically in relation to more indirect impact – is covered under Community & Environment. Here, companies impact children’s lives in several ways:
The Corporate Sector & Children’s Rights Benchmark
Each industry a company belongs to is weighted across the impact areas, according to identified material topics.
Click below to find out more and see the individual industry weightings.
Benchmark update
177 companies changed industry between 2023 and 2024. Since industries are weighted differently against our benchmark impact areas, some company scores have been adjusted.
Click below to find the full list of companies and their updated scores.
To assess the degree to which a child rights issue has been addressed and integrated in a meaningful way by a company, the benchmark indicators are grouped into three maturity steps:
The first indicator of whether a company has truly integrated a children’s rights perspective is whether it addresses child rights issues through a policy or an explicit commitment in its publicly available documents.
Commitments can cover different aspects of children’s rights across the impact areas of Governance & Collaboration, Workplace, Marketplace, and Community & Environment, and might include child labour, responsible marketing to children, product safety, or a commitment to contribute in a positive way to children in the local community.
The next level of integration of a children’s rights perspective is the extent to which these policies have been integrated into an organisation’s processes. For instance, is the board ultimately accountable? Does it receive regular updates about developments on these issues? Are children’s rights issues included in materiality analyses? Does the company conduct supplier assessments? In addition, are there grievance mechanisms in place which allow both internal and external actors to report on cases of misconduct in relation to children’s rights issues?
While policies and commitments are important to establish where a company stands on issues, such statements mean little if there is no periodic review, follow-up, and impact evaluation. To accomplish this, it’s essential that companies report on results (both positive and negative). Additionally, companies need to address their impacts, mitigate those that are negative, and contribute to positive development.
Global Benchmark Report
Which companies are living up to their responsibilities on children’s rights? Take a look at this year’s benchmark study.
To the Benchmark 2024Watch to discover more about the benchmark process and our methodology!
Learn from your peers
Find some great examples of how companies have successfully reported and gained a score of 10 on a range of our benchmark indicators.
To the Reporting Best PracticesThe information and data sourced by Global Child Forum is collected from publicly available sources (herein referred to as “Benchmark Data”). Benchmark Data is provided free of charge, in good faith, and for informational purposes only. Global Child Forum does not verify data sources beyond what is made available on company websites. Benchmark scores are shared with benchmarked companies and they have an opportunity to provide additional information that may impact their score. During our screening process, AI is used on a select set of indicators to increase time efficiency. Global Child Forum always reviews AI results to ensure maximum accuracy with our methodology.
Benchmark Data shall in no event, whether used in whole or in part,
(i) constitute or be construed as investment advice;
(ii) be interpreted as an offer, recommendation or solicitation to any person to buy or sell securities, to select a project, or make any kind of business transactions;
(iii) represent an assessment of any issuer’s economic performance, financial obligations nor creditworthiness;
(iv) be a substitute for a professional advice; or
(v) otherwise be used as a reference of past performance to guarantee any future results.
Benchmark Data and related information is subject to continuous change and therefore may not be up-to-date, complete, accurate, error-free, or fit for a particular purpose. Benchmark Data is provided “as is” and without warranties of any kind. Benchmark Data only reflects Global Child Forum’s opinion at the date of elaboration and publication. Global Child Forum does not guarantee the consistency, adequacy or completeness of any information and is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information.
Global Child Forum and its employees, contractors, suppliers, and partners are not liable to any third party for damages, expenses or loss of any kind, whether direct or indirect, howsoever caused, arising from the use of the Benchmark Data, or opinions contained herein, in any manner whatsoever.