Corporate Social Responsibility and Child-Centred Climate Resilience in Zimbabwe’s Mining and Manufacturing Sectors
摘要
Climate change poses unprecedented threats to children’s rights in Zimbabwe, where 6.5 million children face heightened vulnerabilities from droughts, floods, and extreme weather events. While corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in the mining and manufacturing sectors have traditionally focused on education, healthcare, and infrastructure development, they have largely overlooked the climate-children’s rights nexus. This chapter examines how CSR can advance children’s rights within Zimbabwe’s climate-vulnerable context, specifically analysing the mining and manufacturing sectors’ potential to bridge critical gaps in climate-responsive programming. Using an explanatory-sequential mixed-method approach that combines systematic literature review and document analysis, the chapter reveals significant deficiencies in climate-responsive CSR that directly affect children’s survival, development, health, and education rights enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Zimbabwe’s resource-endowed mining and manufacturing sectors possess a substantial yet underutilised capacity to advance child-centred climate resilience through strategic CSR investments aligned with national climate priorities and children’s rights legislation. The chapter demonstrates how innovative financial mechanisms, including green bonds, climate risk insurance, and preferential terms for climate-smart investments, can mobilise private-sector resources for child protection amid escalating climate challenges, offering an Africa-centric model for integrating child rights perspectives into corporate climate action.