Children’s rights when financing development through multilateral development banks

Subtitle:mapping the field and looking forward

Children and their rights are increasingly recognised as an integral part of the global development agenda as set out by the 2030 Agenda and the accompanying SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). UN Human Rights Council Resolution 34/16 calls for a child rights-based approach to implementing these goals. Aspirations aside, children’s rights are largely invisible when the debates shift to how development is financed. Consequently, a children’s rights-based inquiry into the governance of institutions that finance development, is largely absent. This article seeks to overcome the relative scarcity of critical academic reflection on how and to what extent children’s rights feature in how development projects are financed by multilateral development banks (MDBs). The article first identifies common strands in norms MDBs use to govern themselves, their clients and borrowers. It then proceeds to situate how children’s rights fit into these administrative governance frameworks and goes on to address future perspectives of engagement to address shortcomings.

Publication year:2021

Keywords:A1 Journal article

BOF-keylabel:yes

Accessibility:Open