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As a global telecommunications group with operations in 13 countries in Latin America and Africa, Millicom is in a powerful position to be a force for good. We believe that telecommunication is a powerful tool for economic development, playing a great role in addressing the digital divide. Our global CSR program 'Tigo Together' delivers high impact, measurable benefits to the people in the countries in which we operate.
See what we're doing across our key focus areas…
Our aim is to both become and be recognized as the most responsible telecommunications company in our operating areas. In order to achieve this we focus on three key areas where we can have the most positive impact. These are: education, environment and wellbeing. We encourage each of our local operating companies to interpret these global themes in a way that is most appropriate to its local community. Wherever possible, our programs involve employee engagement and customer interaction.
Read about our strategy
Here you can read about the approach we take to ensure we deliver and focus our efforts on our three global themes.
Global framework Local action Personal commitment Tigo Hour PartnershipsThe responsibility for setting a global framework to guide all activity related to our CSR program sits at group level. The objective of this framework is to set the parameters of our CSR program and to ensure our resources are distributed in a way that maximizes the beneficial impact we can have across our three areas of focus. We have set a series of KPIs that will measure our performance in these areas and provide a clear picture of the effectiveness of our activity.
We recognise that various human rights violations exist in almost every country where Millicom operates. As a guideline to our activities, we base our framework on the United Nations Global Compact, and its ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. We also work to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Our global framework provides an outline for each operating company to deliver on a local level. It is flexible, allowing each company to interpret the three global themes in a way that meets the individual needs of each market. Our Supplier Code of Conduct ensures each operating company and their suppliers also act in accordance with the UNGC principles.
Our global initiative, 'Tigo Hour', is a platform for raising awareness of, and funds for, a given local cause. During Tigo Hour, employees engage in a series of high-profile promotional events to encourage customers to recharge their airtime to support the local cause. The value of all the airtime sold during the Tigo Hour is then donated to the cause in question. The initiative also allows for regular provision of power, or a charging point, for local schools and health centers via our base stations for one hour at a time at no charge.
We encourage each of our operating companies to interpret our three global themes in a way that is appropriate to the needs of their local communities. Our aim is for the activities and initiatives put in place at a local level to be as relevant to local circumstances as possible. Therefore dialogue with key local stakeholders plays an essential role in assessing local needs prior to an initiative commencing. KPIs are set at group level so that we can assess the effectiveness and impact of each of these activities. You can read about some of our current activities across our areas of focus in what we're doing.
Our people are the driving force behind delivering across our key focus areas, and engaging with our employees is the cornerstone of Tigo Together. Not only does this promote development of individuals' skills and team building – but we think it provides a valuable contribution to the communities around us as well. Initiatives may include mentoring programmes in schools or volunteering schemes to transform schools. We also encourage our people to develop their own initiatives, such as 'Book Drive' in Latin America.
Activity and performance is tracked through one of our global KPIs. For example, in El Salvador alone, over 300 employees participated in more than ten projects, contributing to improvements in the conditions for over 5,000 children. By the end of 2011, 50% of Tigo employees will be involved in some form of CSR activity.
Working in a collaborative way is an essential part of our Tigo Together approach. We see our role as a key driver of economic development and strive to have a long-lasting positive impact on the communities around us. Current strategic partnerships include the UN in Guatemala, where we are developing schools as part of the Millennium Schools program; VSLA in Africa, where we are putting in place self-managed savings and loans schemes in villages; and the 'One laptop per child' initiative in Rwanda.
Through our global framework we are setting a series of KPIs across our three key areas of focus. We assess our performance across these areas to ensure we are maximizing the positive impact and effectiveness of the activities which are carried out by our operating companies at local level. This allows us to track how our global themes are being interpreted to meet the needs of our local markets and to what extent we are engaging employees and supporting our brand.
We are now starting to measure the effectiveness of our policies and programs through the tracking of a range of KPIs which are relevant either to one of our three focus areas or to our strategy of employee engagement and raising funds through airtime sales. We will report on these KPIs for the first time in the 2010 CSR report.
Wellbeing
Education
Environment
Other
Some highlights from the past year:
Look out for our Corporate Social Responsibility report, launching in the first quarter of 2011. The report will set out our KPIs, how we performed in 2010 and what our longer term targets are.
At Millicom, Corporate Social Responsibility is led by executive management. Our objective is for CSR to become ingrained into how we operate day-to-day. Our corporate governance and the position papers provided here are essential to guiding this process.
The experience of phone usage has brought up new issues for society, highlighting the greater need for a responsible use of mobile phones. Millicom wants to sell mobile telephony services in a way that preserves social harmony, road safety and child protection.
Responsible useMobile phones improve communications all over the world and significantly contribute to sustainable economic development by providing access to services and jobs in remote areas. However concerns have been raised over health risks related to the radio frequency (RF) fields emitted by mobile phones and base stations. This is an issue we take very seriously.
RF fieldsChild labor exists in almost every country where Millicom operates. We are therefore mindful of the risk of child labor in our supply chain and distribution network.
Child laborMillicom operates in emerging markets where energy supply is often scarce and irregular. We also recognize our own responsibility to reduce energy consumption in all sectors of our activity.
Energy and climate changeWe comply with regulations on a local level, to recycle wherever the appropriate infrastructures are in place, or to ensure proper disposal of all electronic waste (e-waste) we produce, such as handsets and batteries. This includes e-waste collected by our subcontractors.
E-wasteOur CSR strategy and global framework is managed by our Head of Corporate Social Responsibility and approved by the Board of Directors, represented by the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee.
We have a Code of Ethics which is applicable to all employees at both global and local level and our Supplier Code of Conduct ensures that our suppliers also share Millicom's commitment to responsible business practices.
Supplier Code of Conduct Code of EthicsFind out more about Millicom, what we do, and our global operations.
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