The manager of Norway’s NOK18trn (€1.53trn) sovereign wealth fund said it is working with UNICEF to see more clearly how companies impact children’s rights in the online world, and is creating a set of corporate disclosures to boost transparency around that.
Carine Smith Ihenacho, chief governance and compliance officer at Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), said: “As a global investor in almost 9,000 companies, corporate reporting on sustainability efforts is key to our ability to gauge sustainability risks in our portfolio.
“This initiative will hopefully enable us as an investor to better understand the efforts companies are making to respect children’s rights in the digital sphere and address negative impacts,” she said in an announcement.
An increasing number of activities were now taking place in the digital space, including media consumption, education, online gaming as well as buying products and creating content, said the manager of the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG).
“Companies have a responsibility to ensure that they respect the rights of children, online as well as offline,” said NBIM in the statement.
It acknowledged that while children could come across a variety of risks online, “meaningful access to digital technologies” could also bring many positive opportunities.
“The fund aims to create financial wealth for future generations, which is why respect for children’s rights is important for us,” said Smith Ihenacho.
The Oslo-based SWF manager – a division of the Norwegian central bank – said the work with the UN charity would focus on children’s rights in the digital environment by producing a set of disclosures to increase transparency around the effect firms were having in that regard.
Because of the increased importance of digital technology across most industries, the aim was for the reporting points to be relevant for all companies, across sectors and markets, it said.
NBIM said it hoped the work would “foster discussion and raise the bar on transparency by producing a comprehensive set of child rights-based disclosures in relation to digital technologies that companies can lean on to support their reporting efforts”.
UNICEF and NBIM would “take a collaborative approach” and consult with a wide range of stakeholders, including companies, academia and civil society organisations, to understand current market practices and identify gaps that may exist, it said.
“We expect to finalise and publish the set of disclosures in 2025,” NBIM added.
NBIM said this was the third phase of its collaboration with the UN charity UNICEF, following projects on food retailers and the footwear and garment industry.
Separately, Finnish pensions insurance company Varma revealed it has joined two new joint investor initiatives relating to ESG issues.
One is a joint initiative by the United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), initiated by Sycomore Asset Management and AXA Investment Managers, which aims to prevent the possible negative impacts of social media and smart device use, while the other is a joint initiative by investors on combating antibiotic overuse and resistance.
Varma said the international institutional investors involved in the PRI project, believed that smart device use could have harmful effects on mental health.
According to the initiative’s website, studies show that screen overuse, particularly at too early an age, can lead to concentration and behavioural disorders.
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