Tackling Child Labour: A Guide for Financial Institutions

In June 2023, following concern from member banks over the persistent scourge of child labour in global value chains and recent reports of the alarming increase in child labour - particularly migrant child labour - in the United States, Shift held a peer-learning session of its Financial Institutions Practitioners Circle (‘FIs Circle’) on the topic. The session explored how banks and financial institutions can strengthen their efforts to respect children’s rights, particularly in the context of child labour. As a report by UNICEF, Save the Children and the UN Global Compact noted, children are still too often invisible in ESG reporting; and the financial sector can play an important role in changing this. 

This resource is a joint publication by Shift, The Centre for Child Rights and Business (The Centre), and UNICEF. It captures some of the key take-aways from this session, and draws on the experience of the three organisations working with real-economy companies and financial institutions. 

Please read and download the report below.