Global Child Forum

The Global Child Forum is a Swedish non-profit foundation, based in Stockholm, Sweden. The organization was founded by King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden in 2009 in order to advance children’s rights in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The focus of Global Child Forum is grounded in both the Convention on the Rights of a Child and UNICEF's Children’s Rights and Business Principles and is aimed towards giving business an understanding of how and where their business might impact children.

History
Global Child Forum was founded in 2009 as World Child and Youth Forum (WCYF). The name was then shorted to Global Child Forum in 2012. Initially, WCYF was intended to be an independent group of decision-makers with the goal of discussing children’s rights and business while using the Royal Palace as a venue. Since then, the organization has expanded to include Regional Forums and conduct its own independent research.

Forums
Global Child Forum is best known for its global and regional forums. Each Forum consists of speaker sessions, panel discussions, and breakout Action Labs. Global forums are held at the Royal Palace in Stockholm and bring together top business leaders, political leaders, academics, and civil society representatives to discuss pressing issues related to children’s rights and business. Regional forums are designed to tackle children’s rights issues faced by that particular region with regional leaders in business, politics, academics, and civil society.

Global forums
To date, five global forums have been held at the Royal Palace. Approximately 300 global leaders in business, politics, civil society and academia have attended each of the forums. Each event has its own theme on issues concerning children’s rights and business. The latest global forum was 11 April 2018 and discussed investing in every child. During the 2018 Forum, the Global Child Forum Pledge was launched to encourage action amongst participants post-Forum. Additionally, for the first time, the Forum included child participants, Indonesian child laborers from the It's Time to Talk! report on child labour.

Regional forums
The regional forum is held every year in a new location. The forums brings together approximately 300 regional leaders in business, politics, civil society and academia to discuss issues concerning children’s rights and business within the context of their region. To date, the Global Child Forum has held four regional forums: one in the Middle East and North Africa, Southern Africa, Southeast Asia and South America.

Regional Forum - Southern Africa 2015

 * Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma – head, African Union Commission
 * Bjorn Grindberg – head of social investment, Millicom
 * Driekie Havenga- group ethics officer, Nedbank
 * Benyam Dawit Mezmur – chairperson, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
 * Lindiwe Mokate – commissioner, South African Human Rights Commission
 * Geoff Rothschild – patron, Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital

Global Forum - Stockholm, Sweden 2015

 * Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen – chief executive officer, Plan International
 * Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein – UN commissioner for human rights
 * H.E Shaikha Al Maskari – chief executive, Al Maskari Holding
 * Michael Baldinger – chief executive officer, RobecoSAM
 * Irina Bokova – director-general, UNESCO
 * Winne Byanyima- executive director, Oxfam International
 * Petter Johnsen – chief investment officer, equity strategies, Norges Bank Investment Management
 * Stefan Löfven – prime minister, Sweden
 * Charlotte Petri Gornitzka – director-general, Sida
 * Seokpil Kim – executive vice president, public affairs, Samsung
 * Karl Henrik Sundström – chief executive officer, Stora Enso

Regional Forum - Southeast Asia 2016

 * YW Junardy – member, UN Global Compact
 * Dato Sri Rohani Abdul Karim – minister, Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, Malaysia
 * Simon Lord – group sustainability officer, Sime Darby
 * H.E Le Luong Minh – secretary general, ASEAN
 * Thomas Thomas – CEO, ASEAN CSR Network

Regional Forum - South America 2017

 * H.E Michel Temer – President of the Republic of Brazil
 * Clara Lopez Obregon – Minister of Labor, Colombia
 * Luis Alberto Moreno – Inter-American Development Bank
 * Mike Parra – chief executive officer of the Americas, DHL Express
 * Marta Santos Pais – representative of the UN Secretary General on Violence against Children
 * Paulo Skaf – president, Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (FIESP)

Global Forum - Stockholm, Sweden 2018

 * Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden
 * Natalie Au - global director, Girl Effect
 * Lydia Capolicchio - moderator
 * Anna Maria Corazza Bildt - member, European Parliament
 * Mikael Damberg - Minister for Enterprise and Innovation, Sweden
 * Johan Dennelind - chief executive officer, Telia Company
 * Professor Brian Ganson - head, Africa Centre for Dispute Settlement, University of Stellenbosch
 * Georg Kell - chairman, Arabesque
 * Lise Kingo - chief executive director and executive director, United Nations Global Compact
 * HRH Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands - founder, Missing Chapter Foundation
 * Fatoumata Ndiaye - deputy executive director, management, UNICEF
 * Hanna Roberts - chief executive officer, GES International
 * Nina Schefte - corporate social responsibility manager, Norsk Hydro
 * Paul Schoenmakers - head of impact, Tony's Chocolonely
 * Julie Wallace - global head, community engagement, Standard Chartered Bank
 * Carine Smith Ihenacho - chief corporate governance officer, Norges Bank Investment Management
 * Leon Wijnands - global head of sustainability, ING Bank

Research
The Global Child Forum conducts independent research and case studies. The benchmark reports, written in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group, are developed to be presented at regional forums and evaluate the top 300 publicly traded companies from regions where regional forums are to be held, and assesses their commitment to children’s rights issues. Previously, the 2016 benchmark highlighted how the Nordic region lagged below the global average on children’s rights issues. During the São Paulo Forum in 2017, Global Child Forum presented a report which revealed that South American companies are underperforming overall in addressing children's rights.

The Global Child Forum also conducts case studies on companies who have scored highly on benchmarks.

The Children’s Rights and Business Atlas is a risk assessment tool intended to help businesses identify and understand the risk of children’s rights violations and give an indication of the risks to children’s rights in different industries and countries. The Atlas covers 198 countries and territories and 10 industries and was developed in collaboration with UNICEF.