Impact investment strategies aimed at driving positive outcomes for societal groups have gained major traction in recent years. Millions of pounds have been invested in companies that promote gender equity or fund minority-backed business. Yet one of the largest stakeholders in the world is being ignored.
Children make up roughly one-third of the population. Yet very few investors have chosen to focus their impact strategies on their needs and wellbeing, an approach known as child-lens investing.
This emerging strategy encourages investors to intentionally integrate child-related factors into their decision-making and ensure that investments are aligned with children’s needs and priorities.
A missed opportunity
The opportunity for impact is enormous. One billion children live in poverty, 244 million are not in school and nearly 70% of 10-year-olds are unable to read simple text. Meanwhile, around 138 million children were involved in child labour in 2024, according to the latest Sustainable Development Goals Report.
Today’s investments often overlook the risk of funding business activities that directly or indirectly harm children. Even in companies where risks to children are acknowledged, meaningful action often falls short. A survey by Global Child Forum, a Swedish non-profit, found that while 87% of firms globally had a child labour policy, only 49% used audits or supplier assessments to verify their implementation. Just 30% reported on incidents or risks of child labour.
Support grows for child-lens investing
The scale of the problem has prompted a small number of investors to refocus their impact strategies to prioritise the effect their investments have on children.
Among the first organisatiosn to do so was Save the Children Global Ventures in 2022, when it directed capital towards businesses in healthcare, nutrition, education and child protection. Among the firm’s investments is a company called Oho, which creates child safeguarding technology tools, and Inquisitive, an education company.
While the concept of child-lens investing is gaining recognition, it remains in its infancy. But that could soon change.
Investment infrastructure is being built that could bring rigour and expertise to child-lens investing. Non-profit Unicef has just launched a child-lens impact assessment approach in collaboration with a cohort of impact investors and financial services companies. It is designed to measure the impact that investments have on children across geographies, sectors and strategies and builds on Unicef’s Child-Lens Investing Framework (CLIF), which was created in 2023 to help investors consider child-related factors in their decisions.
The new child-lens impact assessment approach has now been embedded into the 2025 Microfinance Index, the world’s largest financial inclusion study. This is expected to provide further benchmarks on child wellbeing indicators, enhancing investors’ ability to identify and compare potential child-lens investments in the financial inclusion sector. Investors can then allocate more capital toward companies and projects where evidence indicates positive outcomes for children.
This all marks a significant step towards standardising how child outcomes are measured in the investment world, laying the groundwork for child-lens investing to scale more broadly.
Impact investment strategies aimed at driving positive outcomes for societal groups have gained major traction in recent years. Millions of pounds have been invested in companies that promote gender equity or fund minority-backed business. Yet one of the largest stakeholders in the world is being ignored.
Children make up roughly one-third of the population. Yet very few investors have chosen to focus their impact strategies on their needs and wellbeing, an approach known as child-lens investing.
This emerging strategy encourages investors to intentionally integrate child-related factors into their decision-making and ensure that investments are aligned with children's needs and priorities.
