Liquid Telecom

Liquid Telecom partners with the Husika Trust to train Kenyan women in data science.

Liquid Telecom’s Innovation and Digital Skills Centre (IDSC) in South Africa provides skills training to the local community.

The company commits to protecting data privacy and has international certification for its information security management.

No evidence was found of the company having leading practices in this area.

Besides its support for digital inclusivity of women and girls through its partnership with the Husika Trust, little evidence was found of Liquid Telecom’s efforts at making digital technologies widely available, affordable and accessible. There is an opportunity for the company to support and report on initiatives in this area. The company can also consider disclosing information about its programmes for people with disabilities.

Liquid Telecom has an opportunity to expand efforts in supporting skills development programmes across a range of digital skills. It can also disclose financial and participation metrics for its existing programme as well as the impact the programme has on its beneficiaries.

Liquid Telecom can disclose how responsibility for cybersecurity is managed in the company and how it monitors and reports on cybersecurity. It can also consider having a group privacy policy and commitment to child online safety.

Apart from its membership in standards organisations, Liquid Telecom can demonstrate how it supports open innovation. The company can provide support to start-ups through accelerators, incubators or innovation labs. It can also demonstrate how it promotes inclusive and ethical research and development (R&D).

While Liquid Telecom has a publicly available policy statement regarding human rights approved by the highest governance body, the text can be better formulated to clearly reflect a strong commitment to respect human rights. The company has a publicly available policy statement that expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the ILO core labour rights. Liquid Telecom indicates that it has an ethics reporting line accessible to all workers to raise complaints or concerns related to the company. However, the company does not disclose the mechanism it uses to identify its human rights risks and impacts. Additionally, it does not disclose the categories of stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities.

Liquid Telecom publicly commits to and expects its business relationships to respect workers’ health and safety. However, the company does not disclose quantitative health and safety information. Liquid Telecom also does not disclose whether it has achieved paying all its workers a living wage or report time-bound targets for this. Additionally, the company does not disclose a policy commitment stating that it does not require workers to work more than the regular and overtime hours. Also, the company does not disclose the percentage of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. Liquid Telecom has the opportunity to disclose that it commits to promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment as well as set time-bound targets on the subject. The company does not disclose the gender distribution of its overall workforce and leadership positions. Besides gender, it can also report employee numbers for other indicators of diversity, such as age group, per employee category.

Liquid Telecom has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and it includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its business relationship contracts. However, it does not disclose the mechanism it uses to identify its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. The company does not disclose whether it makes political contributions, its approach to lobbying and political engagement or its lobbying expenditures.