Zain joins UN Global Compact initiative for responsible business practices

•    Bader Al-Kharafi: “Zain is committed to creating the world we all want by embedding the UN Global Compact and its 10 principles part of our day-to-day operations”

•    Commitments relate to areas of human rights, labor, environment, anti-corruption

•    Zain a strong advocate for programs that address the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

Zain Group announces that it has joined the United Nations (UN) Global Compact initiative — a voluntary leadership platform for the development, implementation, and disclosure of responsible business practices.

With this announcement, Zain is proud to join thousands of other companies globally, and a select few telcos from the Middle East region, in making this commitment to taking responsible business action to create the world we all want.

The UN Global Compact is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption, and to take action in support of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  

Launched in 2000, the UN Global Compact is the largest corporate sustainability initiative in the world, with more than 15,000 companies and 3,000 non-business signatories based in over 160 countries, and more than 70 local networks.

Commenting on Zain becoming a participant of the UN Global Compact, Bader Al-Kharafi, Zain Vice-Chairman and Group CEO said, “Zain is committed to creating the world we all want by embedding the UN Global Compact and its 10 principles as part of the overarching strategy, culture, and day-to-day operations.”

Al-Kharafi continued, “In our own capacity to establish a ‘wonderful world’, through its business practices Zain is already addressing climate change; upholding human rights; protecting children in the digital and physical realms; and clamping down on corruption, which are all elements that will be further amplified through our entry into the UN Global Compact and its mission.”

Through joining the UN Compact, Zain is recommitting to supporting and respecting human rights and reassuring all company stakeholders are protected. This is already reflected in Zain’s code of conduct, HR policy and supplier code of conduct policy, ensuring that across Zain’s value chain, the business respects its employees and treats them all equally without any form of discrimination. 

The company is fully committed in playing an active role towards climate change and biodiversity loss, where it recently published its 11th annual Sustainability Report entitled, “A Resilient Journey” disclosing its ESG indicators as well as its annual thought leadership report entitled, “The Climate Crisis - Achieving Net-Zero for a Sustainable Future” that explores various important topics related to working towards a Net-Zero economy. Climate change is a pressing global issue, and Zain is committed to bringing about systemic change by adopting energy efficient solutions and reducing its carbon footprint.

Zain is committed to disclosing in a transparent manner its alignment and implementation progress of the UN Global Compact Principles across its markets. Progress on the Corporate Sustainability strategy and The Principles will be publicly available at: https://zain.com/en/sustainability 

We encourage readers to visit the UN Global Compact website - https://www.unglobalcompact.org/ - and learn more about the entity’s sustainability efforts being undertaken.

####

About Zain Group: Zain is a leading telecommunications operator across the Middle East and Africa providing mobile voice and data services to over 51.7 million active customers as of June 30, 2022. With a commercial presence in 7 countries, Zain operates in: Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and South Sudan. In Morocco, Zain has a 15.5% stake in ‘INWI’, through a joint venture. Zain is listed on Boursa Kuwait (stock ticker: ZAIN). We recommend the Investor Community download the “Zain Group Investor Relations” Mobile App. For more information please email info@zain.com