HACE

Bloomberg yesterday covered our work on child labour, and how climate change is acting as a ‘threat multiplier’ of this social sustainability issue that affects 160 million children globally. There are common misconceptions around child labour and modern slavery, emphasising the importance of distinguishing between the two, to ensure that child labour risks are not inadvertently overlooked. The distinction between child labour and forced labour is significant and often misunderstood. leading to the oversight of the former when efforts are concentrated on the latter. HACE’s Engagement Toolkit incorporates commodity- and country-specific engagement guidance from Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and other strategic alliances. This will boost investors’ understanding of best practice on outcomes and impact around child labour, whilst connecting smaller organisations’ subject-matter expertise to the investment community. https://lnkd.in/enkCx7y9 Bloomberg News #childlabor #childlabour #intersectionality #esginvesting #sustainableinvestment #esg #climate #climatechange

Last week, we attended Kumi Consulting Ltd’s “Collaborative Partnerships to Tackle Child Labour in Supply Chains” event, along with a variety of stakeholders from the investment, charity and corporate sectors. It was inspiring to be in a room full of organisations and individuals working on the specific, prevalent issue of Child Labour, as a standalone area of human rights alongside Forced Labour and Modern Slavery. We particularly resonated with Congo Children Trust’s words on the daily experiences faced by children in the artisanal mining industries. These words brought to life HACE’s focus on the interconnectivity between Child Labour and the increase in demand for critical minerals, often mined artisanally, that are essential for the Energy Transition. Many thanks to Kumi for hosting and Stewart Investors for sponsoring 🌎 Will Oulton Isabelle Bryan Jean-Baptiste Collovray #ChildLabour #ChildLabor #Data #ChildRights #BizHumanRights #HumanRights #EnergyTransition #JustTransition

Yesterday, we attended Bureau of International Labor Affairs’ announcement of updates to the goods produced by Child Labour or Forced Labour, the industries where children are exploited and how governments and the private sector can combat these abuses. With new Goods and Countries being added, the updated list is a significant step towards understanding the full scale of Child Labour as a growing and complex social issue. At HACE, we believe these additions mean that we are about to experience a material change in the profile of this business and investment risk. We would like to thank the US Department of Labor, ILAB, Sweat & Toil and Better Trade Tool teams for their fantastic work to continue bringing this issue into the spotlight. We also want to thank Marcia Eugenio for her incredible contribution to the field over the last 23 versions of these reports, as she retires to leave behind a legacy of passion and integrity. Read the update and the reports here: https://lnkd.in/diWZ8Y3X Roberta Mather Claudia Giudi Shelley Stinelli #ChildLabour #ChildLabor #Data #ChildRights #BizHumanRights #HumanRights #CorporateAccountability #EndChildLabor #EndForcedLabor #WorkersRights

After a conference hiatus over summer, it was great to attend UNICEF's "Children's Lives: International Conference on Children and their Families, using the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys" this week. Among a growing Child Labour regulatory landscape for companies and investors, it’s always insightful and encouraging to see the breadth and depth of new research being carried out in this area. Particularly interesting was a talk on the differences and similarities between income-generating and care and domestic work by Elena Camilletti, Franziska Gassmann, Wim Groot, and Bruno Martorano, who highlighted the importance of accurately defining and differentiating children’s domestic work and Child Labour. Definitions within the field of Child Labour and Human Rights are vital; the distinction between Child Labour and Forced Labour is significant and often misunderstood, leading to the oversight of the former when efforts are concentrated on the latter. The event was organized by the UNICEF MICS Programme and the #BristolPovertyInstitute at the University of Bristol. https://lnkd.in/emZnFVjN #ChildLabour #ChildLabor #Data #ChildRights #BizHumanRights #HumanRights #Technology #StartUps #AI #Innovation #SupplyChains #ResponsibleInvestment #UNICEF #ChildRights #UNICEFMICS #UniversityofBristol

Today marks this year's World Day Against Child Labour: "Let's Act on Our Commitments: End Child Labour". Marking this year's World Day Against Child Labour, HACE have undertaken analysis on Child Labour prevalence in commodities key to the Energy Transition, echoing key themes seen at Bureau of International Labor Affairs event last week in Washington D.C. HACE analysis highlights that 73% of the country-commodity combinations were specific to Child Labour, with no Forced Labour reported. The distinction between Child Labour and Forced Labour is significant and often misunderstood, leading to the oversight of the former when efforts are concentrated on the latter. HACE’s investigation into 458 country-commodity combinations sheds light on the distinct nature of child labour risks. 72.7% of these combinations present risks exclusively related to child labour, without any overlap with forced labour. This finding emphasises the breadth of child labour risks that may be neglected if monitoring is geared towards forced labour. Only 17.4% of country-commodity combinations had both child labour and forced labour reported. Child Labour is still widely prevalent across global supply chains, with 160 million children in Child Labour, 79 million of whom are working in precarious working conditions and 89 million of whom are under the age of 12 years old. Increasing due diligence directives, tariff acts and transparency regulations; are now forcing both companies and investors to disclose information specifically on Child Labour, as a standalone risk aside from Modern Slavery or Forced Labour. Negative public sentiment around Child Labour, combined with possible regulatory or legislative consequences, mean that poor supply chain management and the continued use of Child Labour will quite simply be bad for business. The associated brand damage could lead to customer losses, supply chain disruption and a negative impact on both share price and cost of capital. It is in the interests of institutional investors, alongside public regulators, to pressure companies into more careful and equitable supply chain management. Sustainable Development Goal 8.7 calls an end to Child Labour in all its forms by 2025, a goal that UNICEF Deutschland states 'can no longer be achieved', unless key stakeholders in both the public and private sector address Child Labour as a growing and standalone risk within global supply chains. #ChildLabour #ChildLabor #WDACL2024 #EnergyTransition #JustTransition #Data #ChildRights #BizHumanRights #HumanRights #SupplyChains #ResponsibleInvestment #WorldDayAgainstChildLabour Eleanor Harry Elizabeth Burroughs Chris Turpin Paul Innella

Tomorrow, 12th June, marks the World Day Against Child Labour 2024. This year’s World Day will focus on celebrating the 25th anniversary of the adoption of ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (1999), which, in 2020, was the first ILO Convention to be universally ratified. There has been increasing investor engagement on critical sustainability issues within supply chains, such as climate change and biodiversity. As supply chains come under more scrutiny due increased demand for commodities critical to the energy transition, a spotlight is being shone on systematic and precarious Child Labour issues within these commodities. As customer demand increases for environmentally sustainable energy products, these supply chains are under further pressure, exacerbating existing Child Labour issues. Growing consumer desire to tackle climate change means companies, manufacturers, and suppliers are applying pressure in their supply chain, to drive down production time and costs in order to make the market accessible for the average customer. However, this is likely to increase a supply chain's exposure to Child Labour, through decreasing the quality of working conditions for vulnerable workers, as well as pushing more children into Child Labour and precarious working conditions. HACE will be publishing our 2-page brief: "Sustainable Energy, Unsustainable Practices: Child Labour in the Energy Transition" tomorrow, to mark this momentous day. #ChildLabour #ChildLabor #WDACL2024 #EnergyTransition #JustTransition #Data #ChildRights #BizHumanRights #HumanRights #SupplyChains #ResponsibleInvestment https://lnkd.in/gi5BkZij

Thank you to the Bureau of International Labor Affairs for inviting me to speak on this year's World Day Against Child Labor Panel on the intersectionality between Child Labour and Climate Change, and the role the investment sector can play in addressing these issues simultaneously through direct and collaborative engagement. A special thanks to the broader ILAB team for meeting with me and Chris Turpin ASIP CAIA to discuss the importance of recognising Child Labour in supply chains as a material investment and social risk, driving active engagement with companies for more responsible management of their supply chains. It was fantastic to also celebrate Marcia Eugenio's incredible career, work and dedication to eradicating Child Labor globally. Watch the recorded event here 🎥: https://lnkd.in/gX9xeM8e #childlabor #childlabour

Children as young as 5 years old have been identified by the BBC as working in Hazardous Child Labour, in the supply chains of brands owned by L'Oréal and Estée Lauder. Jasmine pickers in Egypt have been facing increasing top-down pressure to harvest higher yields of jasmine, for the production of luxury perfumes by L'Oréal-owned Lancôme and Estée Lauder-owned Aerin Beauty. Children have been found to work picking jasmine from 03:00 at multiple locations. When children work overnight between 19:00 and 07:00, it is classified by the International Labour Organization's R190 as Hazardous Working Conditions, one of the Worst Forms of Child Labour. 79 million children are estimated to be in Hazardous Working Conditions globally, equating to around 1 in 20 children in the world. Additionally, it is illegal for children under the age of 15 to work in Egypt between the hours of 19:00 and 07:00. There were no reported incidences of Forced Labour in the jasmine picking supply chain in Egypt, highlighting the increasing need to address Child Labour as a standalone risk aside from Modern Slavery. Human rights issues, especially Child Labour, are often latent upstream in supply chains. Growing scrutiny on the global supply chains of large companies will serve to shine a new spotlight on these issues. https://lnkd.in/eEG8M3KH #childlabour #childlabor #childrights #bizhumanrights #humanrights #supplychains #esg #socialsustainability

We spent a fantastic evening last week at the Manchester Cathedral celebrating the Northern Tech Awards, as finalists in the Northern Stars category 🌃 Congratulations to all those shortlisted and the winners across all categories on the night! We're continually inspired by the thriving tech scene in the North and especially in Manchester, and are honoured to be part of it🌟 Thank you to GP Bullhound Evgeny Yakovlev for hosting such a great night #northerntechawards #northernstars #manchester #manchestertech

Grain of Truth: exploring the unseen child labour risk in rice farming The USDoL has proven that rice is farmed using child labour in at least 12 countries globally. In comparison, forced labour was identified to be used to farm rice in 3 countries. Rice paddies are estimated to contribute 8% of total human-caused methane emissions. With the ongoing focus on global warming and greenhouse gas emissions, sources of methane in supply chains, such as rice paddies, will subsequently be under increasing scrutiny. Companies may face shareholder and regulatory pressure to mitigate these emissions, with monitoring and implementation of anti-methanogenic approaches such as crop and fertiliser management. One of the 12 countries proven to use child labour in rice production is Ghana, where an estimated 19,124 children under 14 years old are involved in the growing of rice. Children working in these fields are exposed to hazardous conditions, including extended time out in the sun, burns from the parboiling process, drowning risks and water-borne infections from harvesting in the rice paddies. Working hours are particularly long as the crops must be protected from birds at all times, which is a task commonly completed by children. This highlights an opportunity for companies sourcing rice to monitor areas of their supply chain where there are multiple sustainability issues, and remain ahead of the curve on emerging business and investment risks such as child labour. Further, investors must be aware of commodity- and good-level child labour risk and meaningfully engage with portfolio companies on commodities such as rice and its multi-faceted sustainability issues. #childlabour #childlabor #data #childrights #bizhumanrights #humanrights #technology #startups #ai #innovation #supplychains #responsibleinvestment #greenhousegases #ghgemissions