Two girls hugging and smiling

Child-lens Investing

UNICEF USA’s Impact Fund for Children, in collaboration with the UNICEF Innovation Hub, and impact investment consultant, Tideline, present the Child Lens – a new way to frame investment strategies and direct capital toward advancing positive child outcomes and minimizing child harm.

Students at Ecole Primaire Ilako in Mbandaka, DR Congo, stand outside their classroom after washing their hands. UNICEF has installed handwashing stations at the school to help students protect themselves from Ebola.

Improving the World for Children

If it takes a village to raise a child, then supporting a child’s well-being uplifts the entire village. While children make up a third of our world and all of our future, half of the world’s children are unable to access basic needs like safe water and nutritious foods. Directing capital toward positive child outcomes and integrating children into investment strategies can secure our future and drive us toward a more sustainable and equitable world.

Child-lens Investing Framework

The Child-lens Investing Framework serves as a central guiding document that investors, asset owners, regulators, standard setters, and other stakeholders may use as a starting point in learning about the child lens.

The paper includes a full framework describing the core principles of the child lens, the case for investment, an analysis of the global market landscape in context of the child lens, and a description of the current and continuously evolving child-lens investment ecosystem.

This Executive Summary is excerpted from the Discussion Paper and can serve as a starting point or quick reference document for the Child-lens Investment Framework.

Child-Lens Investing Framework | Private Equity and Debt Investor Toolkit

Along with the Investor Toolkit, UNICEF and the Impact Fund for Children have developed a Due Diligence Questionnaire and a Child-Lens Metrics Bank to help investors implement the Child Lens.

Engage With Us

If you would like more information on Child-Lens Investing or have questions on how to engage further please reach out to:

Cristina Shapiro, IF4C President, at cshapiro@unicefusa.org
Erin Egan, IF4C Managing Director, Operations, at eegan@unicefusa.org