Lauren Schuivens, Research Master student in International Development Studies.
Many studies on children’s rights emphasise the need to see children as stakeholders. In a comprehensive approach to children’s rights studies, however, both the rights-holders and the duty-bearers should be included. Given the under-researched area of business people as dutybearers to respect and support children’s rights, UNICEF, UN Global Compact and Save the Children created the Children’s Rights and Business Principles (CRBP) initiative. Launched in March 2012, this initiative is meant to serve as inspiration and guidance for all types of businesses in their interactions with children. This research focuses on Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, and aims at understanding how business people’s perceptions and motivations regarding child-focused Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) relate to their child-focused CSR practices and to the CRBP. Since NGOs are currently pushing businesses to implement these Principles in their policies and operations, this research also aims to explore what role NGOs can play in facilitating the implementation of child-focused CSR and the CRBP.