(Bloomberg) -- A non-profit organization has come up with a novel way to get the finance industry to show its commitment to preventing child abuse.
The French association, Innocence En Danger, plans to create a negative-value index worth 142.7 billion euros ($162 billion), which it says reflects the cost to society of harm done to children in Europe.
While there will be no actual listing, the group intends to collect donations it says would increase the value of the “Childhood Index Value.” The money would fund preventive initiatives and help pay for legal and psychological support for victims and their families.
Homayra Sellier, president of Innocence En Danger, said in a press release that the non-profit deliberately adopted language and codes familiar to the stock market. The group is launching the index on Friday, in time for World Children’s day on Nov. 20.
The goal is “to attract the attention of the financial world to the subject of child protection,” Sellier said. “Abandoning childhood has an economic cost, and investing in it makes financial sense.”
In France, Innocence En Danger has made a name for itself in recent years by taking an active stance against sexual abuse cases, including on behalf of the French victims affected by the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
The association puts the cost of child abuse worldwide in the trillions of dollars, or approximately 8% of the world’s gross domestic product. It says the estimate takes into account the cost to health-care systems, as well as the shortfall for society as victims of abuse often end up contributing less and having less fulfilling careers.
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