Nokia

Nokia partners with ‘greenlight for girls’ to introduce STEM concepts and technology to girls in various cities around the world. The company has been working with UNICEF in Kenya, contributing to Accessible Digital Textbooks for All, an initiative aiming to make specially designed tablet computers available to children with hearing, visual or intellectual disabilities. Nokia discloses its economic value distribution among stakeholders.

Nokia is one of the few digital companies to have programmes across the various dimensions of skills. Nokia is working with several partners to enhance digital literacy in rural villages in India, using an innovative toolkit that teaches people how to browse, download, search and communicate over the internet. The company also partners on an initiative teaching artisans and weavers in India to use digital technologies to enhance their livelihoods. In Ethiopia and Uganda, Nokia supports innovation centres teaching coding skills. In China, Nokia’s Internet Classrooms Against Poverty has connected more than 20,000 children and teachers since 2011. As part of the programme, it refurbishes old company computers and provides them to rural schools. Staff members have also demonstrated their commitment to school connectivity by volunteering the equivalent of more than two years of their time.

The company shows high-level responsibility for cybersecurity and is transparent about its security practices. Operationally, the company has a security incident response team and information security management certification. It is a founding member of the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, which partners on initiatives that improve security, stability and resilience.

Nokia demonstrates leadership in open innovation through its participation in several regional and international standards bodies. The company sponsors innovative academic research on AI, 6G and other topics. It supports the tech innovation ecosystem through a venture capital fund, a network linking start-ups to companies and assistance to social entrepreneurs. The company also has a diversified research network, carrying out R&D in a number of countries. Nokia has helped create guidelines for the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on AI and has established an AI Ethics and Governance Advisory Board to support the development of responsible and trustworthy AI.

Nokia has an opportunity to widen access to digital technologies for vulnerable groups outside school settings. The company could consider carrying out a third-party assessment of its programmes that support digital technologies for girls.

The company uses third parties to assess its programmes for enhancing digital skills. But it could demonstrate greater leadership in this area by providing more details about the impacts of these programmes.

Nokia demonstrates a strong commitment to cybersecurity, but it could take more steps to achieve best practice. This includes making a high-level commitment for online safety for children and making its information security management certificate publicly available.

The company has several initiatives promoting tech skills for women and girls, but it does not disclose the number of women it employs in R&D. Making this information publicly available creates greater transparency for promoting gender equality in tech roles.