MPTC to integrate UNICEF’s child rights principles in sustainability programs

MANILA: As part of its commitment to protect and promote children's rights, Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC), in partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), will conduct a series of initiatives to include child rights principles into the company's sustainability programs and reporting.

UNICEF Deputy Representative Behzad Noubary and UNICEF specialists from the Ateneo Human Rights Center presented an overview of the Children's Rights and Business Principles (CRBPs) at the kick-off event. MPTC President, CEO, and Executive Director Rodrigo Franco represented the company's senior management.

“We have come together with MPTC today to orient them on the Children’s Rights and Business Principles. The Principles provide a framework for all businesses to better understand how they can positively impact children’s well-being in the workplace, marketplace, community, and environment. We laud MPTC’s commitment to children through their support of the Child Road Safety program and by enhancing their core business practices with a child rights lens,” Noubary stated.

“The program gave our senior managers a comprehensive preliminary understanding of the importance of children and children’s rights in our business and our community. It highlighted the responsibility of businesses like ours to craft corporate policies that promote children’s rights. In our business, we see the need to protect and nurture children as they will be our future employees, customers, and future leaders of our communities, businesses, and our country,” Franco said. “The partnership with UNICEF is aligned with MPTC’s sustainability governance programs and strategic priority to build, operate, and maintain with the least environmental and social disruption.”

The CRBPs, created by UNICEF in collaboration with Save the Children and the UN Global Compact, celebrate their 10th anniversary this year. The global framework directs companies on various actions they can take to promote and protect children's rights in their operations. The CRBPs acknowledge the significant positive power of companies, big and small, to prevent and address negative impact on children's rights, as well as set policies in place to promote them.

The wider MPTC and UNICEF multi-year agreement for child road safety, which was formally signed in November 2021, includes this event and a subsequent series of CRBP trainings. This collaborative effort in child road safety will help achieve Sustainable Development Goals Targets 3.6 (to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic incidents) and 11.2 (to provide access to sustainable transportation systems for all, improving road safety and public transport, with special attention to the needs of vulnerable populations, including children). According to the National Center for Transportation Studies, around 38 children die in the Philippines every day as a result of traffic-related injuries. According to UNICEF, every child deserves to live and grow in a healthy and safe environment. It is important to reduce child traffic-related accidents, fatalities, and environmental impacts to accomplish this goal.

Photo from Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation

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