About This Report

Our Approach to Corporate Responsibility Reporting

Millicom’s environmental, social, governance (ESG) and fiscal reporting practices are vital in creating long-term business value. We strive to communicate effectively about our business performance and the sustainable value we create for our key stakeholders: investors, customers, employees and communities.

We ground our approach in the most widely accepted principles and practices while allowing flexibility to respond to emerging issues and risks, and the social and environmental challenges we face. This not only enables us to achieve year-on-year consistency but also allows us to adapt as our strategy, capabilities and operating context evolve.

Through our “shape and lead” approach, we seek to:

  • More fully align Millicom’s CR reporting to the company’s strategic priorities
  • More effectively use various reporting standards, frameworks and guidelines
  • Identify improvements that may take longer than one reporting cycle to introduce

In 2019, we reinstated an index that maps our disclosures to applicable GRI standards and relevant United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Although we do not report in accordance with GRI standards at this time, we recognize their relevance in shaping sustainability disclosures. For that reason, and in light of our contributions to numerous SDGs, we want to help our stakeholders more easily cross-reference our reporting with these tools.

We will continue to enhance our reporting practices and welcome your feedback. Please contact us at cr@millicom.com with comments and questions about how we report our CR and ESG performance.

How we identify material issues

Our stakeholders help us identify our most material environmental and social impacts. We use their feedback to inform our CR Framework and our annual report content. In 2018, we commissioned Business for Social Responsibility to conduct a materiality assessment that included broad and deep engagements with stakeholders. From that process, we developed a list of material topics that we used to create our CR Framework and to set new five-year goals and targets. All of the above helps us prioritize content for this report.

Stakeholder Engagement

We strive to operate a business that creates shared value for the four key groups that are critical to our business success: investors, customers. employees, and communities. We communicate regularly with these and other stakeholders, at both the global and country levels, through multiple channels such as in-person meetings, surveys, phone calls and other electronic communication. We also analyze yearly questionnaires and assessments from ESG rating agencies and share the results among our business units. This helps us monitor our performance and address gaps in our reporting.

Below are some specific examples of our key stakeholder interactions:

  • Investors: Our CEO and other executives participate in regular “road shows” to meet with investors on topics such as Millicom’s risk management framework and the company’s financial and non-financial performance. Also, in 2019, we met with Nordic investors to discuss our inaugural Sustainability Bond, which included programs for reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions as well as efforts to increase digital and financial inclusion through our Responsible Leadership in Action programs.
  • Customers: We conduct global and country-level surveys of Millicom customers to help enhance our customer service platform.
  • Employees: We engage employees through surveys, town hall meetings and our Sangre Tigo workshops. These interactions provide insights on topics such as organizational culture, values, and diversity and inclusion.
  • Communities: Through the Global Network Initiative and significant ESG events, we actively engage with NGOs, think tanks, academia and other experts. We also gather input from community partners in our Responsible Leadership in Action programs to help advance our work on child online protection and education, women’s empowerment and inclusion, and other issues. Our CR team regularly visits each country where we operate to solicit feedback on our programs from partners, including government entities, as well as from beneficiaries.

We value the diverse perspectives of these and other stakeholders. Their feedback will continue to inform our corporate responsibility (CR) efforts, including the elements of our CR Framework and Five-Year CR plan against which we are reporting this year.