UNICEF at WRF2021: Public and private partnerships to tackle human and children’s rights issues
As Programme Partner of the World Resources Forum 2021, UNICEF will organise and host the online workshop “Public and private partnerships to tackle human and children’s rights issues”, as part of the primary resources conference track. In this short article, the workshop organisers tell us more about the context behind the session, what the workshop will be about and why you should attend it. Don’t miss it on the second day of WRF2021, October 13th, 14.30 – 15.20 CET!
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UNICEF is an organisation that needs no introduction, however its relation to the mining industry is less known. What have been your key activities and objectives in this area?
UNICEF is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. UNICEF engages actors in the private sector to encourage and support the use of their tremendous influence to scale, accelerate and sustain the achievement of UNICEF’s Goal Areas and deliver results for all children.
UNICEF’s overall vision in relation to children’s rights and the mining sector is an industry that recognizes children as distinct stakeholders and which takes steps to identify its impact on children. It is an industry that uses its presence in the community including its wider socio economic impacts as a positive force for children’s development. Finally, it is an industry that uses its position to advocate for the rights of the children
In 2017, UNICEF released practical guidance for mining companies that want to take concrete steps in addressing their potential positive or negative child rights impacts and at country level such as in RDC continue work to implement transformative public private partnership to ensure no child is left behind.
What will your workshop be about? What stakeholders will be engaged and what goals does it have?
Building on successful best practice implemented by UNICEF in Burkina Faso and in RDC and based on the experience from key representatives from the extractive sector in Ghana such as the Ghana Mineral Development Fund, Ghana Extractive Transparency Initiative and the World University Services of Canada, the workshop will focus the discussion on the existing governance of natural resources in Ghana and which kind of improvements are needed to ensure extractive revenues contribute to an equitable and the sustainable development of the country.
What excites you about being a program partner of WRF2021?
This workshop an interesting opportunity to discuss how royalties form the extractive sector can contribute to design a more equitable and participative budget at local level inclusive of the need of children and youth.
Finally, let’s conclude with a call for participation. Why should participants attend your workshop and for whom would it be particularly interesting to attend?
This workshop represents an interesting opportunity to:
- explore successful model of Public and Private partnerships in the extractive sector implemented in the WCA regions
- better understand the critical role of UNICEF in supporting Public and Private partnership
- identify the critical gaps in the distribution of mineral royalties in Ghana and the action needed to overpass the barriers
Useful links
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The World Resources Forum 2021 (WRF2021), under the theme of “A Green Deal for Sustainable Resources” will take place on October 12-14 in an innovative hybrid format: three days of online sessions and two small scale-events in Accra (Ghana) and Zürich (Switzerland). All the workshops, such as the one organised by UNICEF, together with all scientific sessions and plenary sessions will take place online, in a dedicated virtual event platform. WRF2021 is co-hosted by the Ghanaian Ministry for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) and the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN/BAFU).
Don’t miss the opportunity to be part of this exciting session and learn from all the participants.
