Meet Maria Auxiliadora Alfaro Lara, corporate social responsibility specialist at UNICEF Geneva
I work on the implementation of the Children’s Rights and Business Principles, which are the first universal set of principles looking at how companies impact children’s rights as defined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and what businesses can do to maximise their positive impact on children. I specialise in the ICT industry, meaning I focus on how telecommunication companies can protect and empower children through their online products and services.
What I enjoy at my work
Creating, inspiring and dreaming about what else the ICT industry can do for children is something I enjoy. Having such an unlimited spectrum of possibilities is what makes me happy. Success, for me, is when we make these opportunities possible, by realizing and creating new ones. It is the same feeling as when you see something for the first time – the same feeling as when you see a child for the first time, a child just born.
What my work involves
In the last year, I have participated in the development of the new business tools for ICT companies to assess their impact on children’s rights as part of their corporate social responsibility due diligence processes. I have carried out assessments in pioneering companies such as Lego and collaborated in more than 20 workshops and countries to launch the UNICEF-ITU Guidelines for Industry on Child Online Protection.
I work with colleagues from UNICEF units, such as child protection, research, fundraising, human resources, communication, innovation, finance; and UNICEF regional offices and country offices in three continents, to make all of this possible through the WeProtect project, across 17 countries. There is not success without collaboration.
How I imagine my profession in 10 year’s time
Ten years ago, I couldn’t have imagined the immense change that technologies would make on our lives or that technology would be at the heart of my work, today, in children’s rights. Each evening I always check the pending tasks in the different regions where we are working on child online protection: from Guatemala to Egypt, from India to Namibia, from Bangkok to Kenya. In ten years from now, I want to check on these same countries and see that they have the highest levels of law development, technology access, education, law enforcement capacity and children online support.
History shows that we have made great advances in these regions and countries in collaboration with companies, governments and NGOs. Therefore, I have high hopes. I know that all stakeholders involved can make even bigger changes in the next 10 years. We just have to remember that children are at the heart of everything we do today, in order to build the world of tomorrow.
The secret to successful collaboration
When it comes to child online protection, everyone has a role. Precisely because we realise that child online protection is everyone’s business, UNICEF has leveraged its success in corporate partnerships to build innovative strategies for ‘shared value creation’. Firstly through business to business corporate partnerships with industry leaders, such as LEGO and Millicom, to pilot new tools; secondly, through global industry partnerships, such as the one with GSMA, the global mobile industry association, to raise awareness; and thirdly through collaboration within multi-stakeholder platforms to bring the private sector perspective, for instance, the WeProtect project.
I have learnt that the most fruitful collaboration happens when there is capacity building and knowledge sharing linked to it. As technology evolves and the online risks and opportunities for children rise, companies have a responsibility to tell their stories and to do so in a way that benefits children and the industry as a whole. By sharing corporate good practices and policies, companies set the bar even higher for all of us. At the latest UNICEF-GSMA ICT industry event in London, for instance, we had an impressive representation from more than 30 companies, including Vodafone, Orange, Tencent, Telenor, Millicom, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, BT, Disney, LEGO, Nokia and Safaricom, sharing their experiences. That is successful collaboration.
The leading changemaker
For me, a “leading changemaker” is the one developing new technology which is safe, affordable and accessible to all children. No child left behind, as we promise in the CRC. I will say this though, probably most important leading change maker for children in the world is actually the parents.
I have read and learnt a lot in the last year, for instance, from the new Global EU Kids Online, but I have also learnt from observing my own nephews. I have learnt that children live, play and participate online as if they were offline. They do homework online, they play online, they keep in contact with friends online. Therefore, children need the same resilience, the same education and the same interest from their parents as they already show in their offline world.
It’s common to ask children questions about their day and what they have learnt in class. However, we never ask them about what they played online or who they met online, or what they are reading online. Why? Lack of literacy skills and fear to the unknown are some of the reasons.
Apps for parents and children
I would like to see new innovative apps being developed for parents and children to interact online and to help them mutually understand the online world and its risks and opportunities.
I strongly believe that all the different sub-sectors (hardware, software and social media platforms) within the ICT industry need to work together in order to develop apps and technology which go beyond individual company products and services so that online environments as a whole fulfil children’s rights. I encourage companies to review our guidelines and to see examples of how to do so, because protecting children online is everyone’s business.
Content on this page is paid for and provided by UNICEF, sponsor of the business and child rights hub.
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