Before winning the license and launching operations in 2014, Telenor had conducted comprehensive studies on current and emerging challenges with operating in Myanmar. The challenges identified were presented to civil society organizations and media and were reported on annually. This provided an arena for external stakeholders to follow the impact of the operation, challenge the choices made by the administration, and adjust priorities for the time ahead.

See Telenor Myanmar’s annual Sustainability Briefings for more information. (link to section)

Supply Chain Sustainability

Telenor Myanmar was committed to contributing to raising standards in Myanmar through its own supply chain. Extensive screening, due diligence and background checks were required for any contracting partners in the pre-selection process. All suppliers were required to sign an Agreement on Responsible Business Conduct (ABC) to ensure adherence to Telenor's Supplier Conduct Principles (SCP) which are based on internationally recognized standards, and requirements on human rights, health and safety, labour rights, the environment and anti-corruption.

Telenor Group’s approach to Supply Chain Sustainability

Telenor Myanmar's suppliers were trained on Supplier Conduct Principles (SCP) requirements and compliance was monitored through extensive site inspections and management audits. Site inspections started as early as 2014 and followed the nationwide network rollout. From 2014 until the end of 2021, Telenor Myanmar had conducted over 15,000 risk-based inspections and SCP audits within its supply chain, where the number of and type of inspections each year was linked to the risk inherent in the operations in that year.

Further details on Telenor Myanmar’s Supply Chain Sustainability here.

Corporate responsibility

Telenor Myanmar was also committed to providing innovative connectivity to create shared value enabling social and economic growth. This is aligned to Telenor Group’s purpose of Empowering Societies, and was realized through the company’s core connectivity services and way of work, as well as through corporate responsibility projects which were selected and managed to:

• build on Telenor’s connectivity and related services and the partners ability to develop and scale digital and physical services that boost the positive impact of their work for the Myanmar society

• encourage partners to implement digital services to scale social impact, and

• serve as an industry and regional model of mobile connectivity-driven innovation and scalability in delivering social impact.

In this section, we summarize the impact of the key corporate responsibility projects run by Telenor Myanmar? during its years of operations in Myanmar.