Safaricom - 2021 Sustainable Business Report

71 SAFARICOM SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS REPORT 2021 / STANDING TOGETHER: GOING BEYOND / OUR MATERIAL TOPICS //// OUR STAKEHOLDERS / KPI SUMMARY HELPING WOMEN SUCCEED IN THE TECHNOLOGY SPACE Recognising that there are still barriers to women taking up a career in technology, we are committed to supporting young women and girls succeed in the technology space. Our Women in Technology (WIT) programme is comprised of passionate women from Safaricom’s technology-driven divisions dedicated to inspiring women from different backgrounds to take up STEM subjects and advance their careers from the classroom to the boardroom. Some of the initiatives under WIT include: technology internships, high school mentorship visits and Kids-Go-Tech – an initiative which teaches technology to children aged 5-13 by introducing them to the use of interactive kits/tools that simulate real world objects and robots that move, light up and make sounds. WIT also offers mentorship services to women to grow in their careers through monthly, quarterly and annual organised forums. CODE YETU INITIATIVE Kids-Go-Tech Code Yetu is a coding club that teaches children aged between 6-15 years from various children’s homes basic coding and gaming with Scratch, App and Web Development. We executed two sessions for kids in a hybrid setup between Covid- compliant physical sessions in children’s homes and online. A total of 103 kids participated and were trained on Robotics, Gaming, Web development and Making art. SAFARICOM SUSTAINABLE FUTURE SERIES Kenya, in common with many other developing countries, is lagging in the achievement of key SDGs. According to the 2020 country SDGs index rankings, Kenya emerged in position 123 out of 193 members of the UN with notable progress on only 2 out of the 17 SDGs; Climate Action and Decent Work and Economic Growth 3 . At the current pace, Kenya risks missing out achieving its key aspirations by 2030 such as achieving food security, universal health coverage and reducing the unemployment levels among the youth. To achieve the SDGs, we must take collective action by consistently engaging like-minded business partners and spurring actions geared towards achievement of the goals. To catalyse the change needed, we launched the Safaricom Sustainable Future Series in October 2020, which is a thought leadership platform for business leaders on various sustainability related issues. In the first two editions of the series we hosted over 50 business leaders for discussions on the role of businesses in building more resilient societies and support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals during the Decade of Action on SDGs. Going forward we plan to host the series every quarter. 3 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-businesses-can-become- powerful-force-sustainable-goals-ndegwa/ PARTNERING WITH UNICEF IN ADVANCING CHILDREN’S RIGHTS We are committed to upholding and protecting children’s rights in our operations, products and services as outlined in our Children’s Rights Policy. In November 2020 we renewed our partnership with UNICEF by signing an MoU which outlines our areas of collaboration in advancing the children’s rights. Through our new partnership framework, our joint efforts will focus on: • Joint advocacy on children’s rights issues: Enhance our Child Rights business policy and practice to positively impact children and to advocate for change in the private sector in Kenya. • Access to equitable and inclusive education: In line with SDG4, the partnership aims at improving the quality and equity of education in Kenya by increasing the use of digital literacy project tools to support a sustainable change in the digital learning ecosystem such as the Last Mile Connectivity Project, a Government initiative which aims to ensure everyone has access to electricity. • Communication for development: This focuses on reaching the targeted public in Kenya with key information messages on issues affecting children in order to drive behavioural change through campaigns.