KUWAIT: Zain Group, a leading provider of innovative technologies and digital lifestyle communications operating in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, commemorates World Children’s Day with its recent ranking as a regional leader for the second consecutive year in the final scores of Global Child Forum’s ‘The State of Children’s Rights and Business 2024’ benchmark report.

Amongst 3,000 of the largest companies globally, Zain scored higher than the sector and industry averages and tripled the ranking of many regional corporates in key children’s rights categories. In the benchmarking rankings, Zain scored 8.4/10 overall against a sector average of 5.6/10 and a regional average of just 2.8/10. The average of all companies benchmarked stood at 4.3/10.

Founded in 2009 by the Swedish Royal Family, Global Child Forum is a leading forum for children’s rights and business, dedicated to innovative thinking, knowledge-sharing, and networking. The report, conducted in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group, assessed how companies implement children’s rights, and sustainability governance using publicly available data. This global study covered nine sectors and assessed companies against 25 indicators.

As a leader, Zain was described in the report as a company that “has developed and implemented several policies and practices that address your organization’s impact on children’s rights across several important areas. Your company has taken concrete steps to move beyond policies and has embedded children’s rights into company practice, following-up through monitoring, transparent reporting, and programs to create action for children’s rights.”

Jennifer Suleiman, Zain Group’s Chief Sustainability Officer commented: “This ranking that coincides with World’s Child Day on November 20 reaffirms Zain’s commitment to protect and empower children’s rights across our markets. Our children are our future and at Zain, we understand that protecting children is not just a responsibility but a moral obligation, and we are dedicated to ensuring that children’s rights and online safety are safeguarded through our core business practices. With the expansion and growth of Zain’s activities across the region, we are fully committed to addressing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 16.2, calling on ending all forms of violence against children by 2030.”

The scoring categories

Zain scored perfect marks in several categories in the benchmarking exercise, including standards & frameworks; grievance mechanisms; collaboration with or donations to NGOs; minimum age of employment; decent working conditions & family friendly policies; materiality assessment; supplier assessment; product responsibility; resource use and damage to the environment; and community impacts, cementing its position as a leading proponent of corporate governance, sustainability, inclusion, diversity and equity, children’s rights, and sound business practices.

Zain has organized several child awareness-focused campaigns. With the aim to raise awareness on children’s rights and online safety, Zain expanded its partnerships with child and family helplines across its operating markets. The partnerships aim to enhance collaboration between the helplines, Zain, and key child protection stakeholders; work together to launch new technologies and software to enhance the helplines; create awareness campaigns; and expand services to include instant messaging and social media.

Zain has been actively working on implementing child sexual abuse material blocking mechanisms across its operations. The company is a part of the GSMA Mobile Alliance against Digital Child Sexual Exploitation. The Mobile Alliance focuses on taking proactive steps to fight technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation, adopting a multi-stakeholder approach, and engaging with key international stakeholders to ensure a well-coordinated response in countering digitally facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse.

As an advocate for children’s rights and in alignment with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 16.2, which aims to end all forms of violence against children by 2030, Zain continued to support the cause by introducing a powerful campaign in response to the rising global violence that is impacting children disproportionately. This initiative followed the escalating crises and conflicts worldwide, where children are bearing the brunt of severe hardships and violence, affecting their physical and mental health.

The campaign, titled #EveryChildHasRights, was designed to highlight the critical threats faced by children in conflict-affected regions and support for their protection. It included a compelling video underscoring the urgent need to safeguard children’s rights, engaging audiences in meaningful and emotional dialog. Through this campaign, Zain aimed to create a global call to action and foster a deeper understanding of the pressing issues at hand. In 2024, the campaign successfully garnered 16.5 million impressions across Zain’s footprint, amplifying its message and driving significant awareness on this crucial issue.

Global Child Forum bases its benchmark scores on a company’s publicly available information, systematically assessing a corporate’s response to impacts on children’s rights. Scores are not a measure of actual compliance with policies, outcomes of policies and/or programs, nor should scores be construed as investment advice.