Responsible supply chain

Our fundamental responsibility is to keep those working for us safe from harm, including our own employees, in-house contractors and our suppliers’ employees. This is aligned with internationally recognised principles and standards for responsible business conduct, such as the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Telenor has developed high standards in the areas of working conditions, anti-corruption, labour and human rights and the environment, as defined in international conventions and best practices. These standards are continually improved and strengthened and are also applied to our supply chain.

We base our standards on internationally agreed conventions and frameworks and continually look to improve on these. These standards and ways of working are outlined in our Code of Conduct and Supplier Conduct Principles. Telenor requires suppliers and partners with whom there is a direct contractual relationship to comply with Telenor’s SCP or equivalent standards. Where suppliers/partners comply with Telenor’s SCP, they are legally obliged to ensure that the requirements are met in their associated supply chain through the Agreement on Responsible Business Conduct (ABC). Telenor strives to ensure that policies and practices for governance are implemented.

Suppliers are obliged to extend the supplier requirements further down in their own supply chains. The agreement also provides Telenor with monitoring rights. Trained inspectors check compliance and carry out inspections of suppliers in accordance with written standards and best practice.

Continuous improvement is the overriding principle throughout Telenor’s responsible supply chain management activities.

Link to the Supplier Conduct Principles

Risk assessments and mitigation

Telenor carries out due diligence in the supply chain to identify, assess, avoid and mitigate human rights and other SCP risks. Given the evolving nature of Telenor’s business, business partners and legislative landscape, Telenor relies on a risk-based approach of managing and monitoring business partners based on scope of work, nature of engagement with Telenor and geography. Telenor has implemented different tools and processes to perform due diligence and monitoring activities on suppliers, with the aim to avoid, reduce and remedy any non-conformities with the SCP.

Telenor’s key risks in the supply chain continue to be health and safety issues such as road accidents, risks related to working at heights, other working condition deficits related to hours and wages, existence of underage labour, risks to business ethics and fire safety in network equipment. The majority of these risks are in Telenor’s operations in Asia.

In Asia, road-related accidents are among the leading causes of on-the-job injuries and deaths. Telenor acknowledges the responsibility it bears in prioritising workers’ safety in this area. Telenor has launched a number of road safety initiatives, including our educational video ‘Telenor Road Rules’, which is available in various languages and aims to increase road safety knowledge and minimise traffic accidents.

Use of conflict minerals is an indirect risk area for Telenor, and the company monitors that suppliers have a written policy and procedures in place to avoid knowingly acquiring conflict minerals. Through cooperation with the Joint Audit Cooperation (JAC), a mechanism to highlight issues with major suppliers of smartphones and tablets is in place.

Modern slavery is also a potential risk in Telenor’s supply chain, especially related to payment of wages and working hours. Telenor actively monitors suppliers to ensure they do not employ or use any form of forced, bonded or compulsory labour, and that they strictly prohibit any form of slavery or human trafficking.

Capacity building

Engaging with our suppliers, capacity building, training and increasing awareness are some of the ways that we raise standards throughout the supply chain.

Telenor’s initiatives involved various efforts to proactively build the local capacity of suppliers and sub-suppliers in order to drive continuous improvement in the supply chain. The activities vary from supplier to supplier depending on the overall risk picture. Typical activities include on-site briefings, awareness sessions, e-learning tools, workshops, forums, process support, etc. Key topics of the capacity building are: road safety, health and safety, anti-corruption, working conditions and other relevant sustainability requirements. Additionally, business units work in industry and cross-industry collaborations to synergise efforts in capacity-building.

Effective audits and inspections

Effective monitoring and risk mitigation of Telenor’s supply chain is paramount to the business as a whole and to the societies in which we operate. Local inspections, action plan follow-up and industry collaboration all help to improve our supply chain efforts.

Telenor carries out local inspections in all our markets to monitor compliance with Telenor’s Supplier Conduct Principles. The inspections can be announced or unannounced. The aim is to identify areas of improvements and follow-up with mitigation plans and processes to monitor them until they are closed.

Actions for risk mitigation

Monitoring our supply chain and identifying and mitigating risks are key tasks that we believe are best handled at a local level, with support from and reporting to Telenor Group. That is why each Telenor companies has people working locally on a regular basis on supply chain sustainability.

We focus on the impact of our monitoring activities, rather than the activities themselves, as this gives a better assessment of improvements made through our efforts in raising standards in the supply chain.

In addition to inspections and audits, Telenor uses supplier self-assessments as an important part of the supply chain monitoring activity. These are carried out as parts of procurement processes, an annual global process and for ad-hoc supplier risk assessments.

International cooperation

Partnerships and cooperation with suppliers are vital to achieving a responsible supply chain. Telenor is an active member of the global mobile organisation GSMA and the Joint Audit Cooperation (JAC), a cooperation of 17 mobile operators focusing on the social, ethical and environmental conditions across their supply chains.. A standard JAC audit is often conducted over two days and focuses mainly on preventive anti-corruption programmes, labour rights and working conditions, as well as health, safety and the environment.

After carrying out an audit, a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) listing all findings is agreed upon between the auditee and the auditor, and the plan is followed up until closure.

Visit the Joint Alliance for CSR website for more information.