Global Child Forum & IKEA Foundation Extend Partnership, Amplifying Efforts to Prioritise Children’s Rights in Business

Global Child Forum, the leading platform for championing children’s rights and business, today announced a 4.5 million Euro grant (approx. 50.4 million SEK) from IKEA Foundation over the next four years to influence global multinationals to increase their positive impact on children’s rights.

Global Child Forum brings leaders and influencers together across business, civil society, academia, and governments and is dedicated to supporting businesses in putting children’s rights at the forefront of their operations. The organisation addresses a spectrum of crucial issues affecting children – including the right to a clean and healthy environment.

This four-year grant from IKEA Foundation renews a partnership that originated in 2013, emphasising IKEA Foundation’s unwavering confidence in the impact and efficacy of Global Child Forum’s initiatives and, by doing so, in the organisation’s capacity to continue to play its important role in the future. Previous grants have served to help the organisation activate the corporate sector to advance children’s rights in their operations and communities and increase the organisation’s benchmark activities – the largest of its kind in the world.

“In the context of climate change, the private sector has a responsibility to advance children’s rights to a fair, equitable, and just transition to a green future and a liveable planet,” said Katarina Mellström, Global Child Forum’s Secretary General. “With this generous grant from the IKEA Foundation, we can continue to generate the information, knowledge, and data necessary for the private sector and investors to champion children’s rights within their operations and communities and take decisive action.”

As a strategic philanthropy that focuses its grant-making efforts on tackling the two biggest threats to children’s futures: poverty and climate change, the IKEA Foundation is renowned for driving substantial and enduring change by funding comprehensive, long-term programmes in the area of climate change and in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.

Jessica Anderen, CEO of IKEA Foundation, underscores the foundation’s belief in the power of business as a force for change in children’s rights. “We firmly believe that businesses can be powerful change agents to create a sustainable future on a liveable planet for children and their communities. The IKEA Foundation, in collaboration with Global Child Forum, is dedicated to supporting businesses in putting children’s rights at the forefront of their operations and actively working to protect and promote these rights. This has never been more important than today in the context of the current climate emergency.”

For media inquiries and further information, please contact:

Linda Ravin Lodding

Head of Communications, Global Child Forum

+46 72 387 0248

linda.lodding@globalchildforum.org

Founded in 2009 by the Swedish Royal Family, Global Child Forum is a leading forum for children’s rights and business dedicated to innovative thinking, knowledge-sharing and networking. Global Child Forum believes in the power and responsibility of business, working in partnership with all parts of society, to create a prosperous, sustainable and just society for the world’s children. In addition to forums, Global Child Forum delivers research perspectives, best practices and risk assessment tools designed to unlock opportunities for business to integrate children’s rights into their operations and communities.

For more information, please visit: www.globalchildforum.org.