Sonatel

Sonatel advances access to digital technologies in the markets where it operates in several ways, such as offering reduced tariffs to young users. Its Digital Houses initiative trains and supports women in Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Senegal in financial management and entrepreneurship. The company reports the number of employees with disabilities. It also discloses its employment and the taxes it pays in the markets where it operates, and it calculates its indirect economic impact.

Sonatel has workshops to train children in coding. The company’s FabLab programme gives school dropouts and women who are looking for employment, access to digital manufacturing tools. Sonatel Academy is a coding school, which provides training to young people through a combination of online and face-to-face sessions. In addition to these programmes, Sonatel has partnered with the Orange Foundation’s Digital Schools programme in Mali to construct 35 new public schools, in addition to the 85 existing schools, thereby connecting over 45,000 students to education.

The company considers data privacy a key topic in its materiality analysis.

Sonatel supports the tech innovation ecosystem in Senegal by partnering with the General Delegation for Rapid Entrepreneurship for Women and Youth to organise a boot camp for start-ups. It also partners with Orange to support, train and connect women entrepreneurs.

While Sonatel has several programmes supporting access to digital technologies for vulnerable groups, little evidence was found regarding its financial and in-kind contributions to these programmes. Providing more detailed reporting on its programmes and assessing their impact can help the company better understand and demonstrate its contribution. Furthermore, the company can more clearly show how it supports the development of accessible digital products.

The company should consider carrying out a third-party assessment of the impact of its existing programmes on advancing digital skills. It can also report its financial and in-kind contribution to these programmes.

Limited evidence was found regarding Sonatel’s operations to make digital technologies safe and secure. The company can more clearly demonstrate how it assigns senior-level oversight of and accountability for cybersecurity, and how it monitors, remedies and reports on security incidents. It should also implement a group privacy policy and make a high-level commitment to child online safety.

Little evidence was found of the company’s activities relating to open, inclusive and ethical innovation. Sonatel has an opportunity to support and report on initiatives in this area. It can further enhance transparency by disclosing how it considers ethics and human rights in its research and development (R&D) activities.

Sonatel discloses that it has an Ethics Charter, but this document is not published in English. No company disclosures regarding respect for human rights were found in the public domain in English.

Sonatel states in its annual report that it promotes a ‘health and safety risk reduction approach’. The company also provides a breakdown of employees in different employee categories by gender. However, no other company disclosures relevant to providing and promoting decent work were found in the public domain in English.

Sonatel discloses the country-by-country taxes it pays and how it identifies bribery and corruption. No other company disclosures relevant to this area were found in the public domain in English.