Looking Forward

Download Chapter

The 2024 Sustainability Report, entitled The New Paradigm Shift, highlights Zain’s position in creating value for its stakeholders in an inclusive manner. For Zain, 2024 was a year of transition, as the company started to shift certain aspects of the business to align to context, trends, and stakeholder feedback. To remain responsive to the various market pressures and challenges and be able to thrive, Zain has increased efficiencies, accessed new technologies, and ensured it is generating value for its operating communities.

Throughout the year, Zain reiterated its 4WARD and Corporate Sustainability strategies, which will be further evolved in 2025, building on the tangible achievements to date. The company continued to embed sustainability across all aspects of the business, positioning value creation and integrated thinking principles at the heart of the decision-making processes. This ensures that Zain adopts a holistic approach, avoiding any blind spots and making sure decisions take into consideration the associated trade-offs. The company also embedded its business plan, operational review and sustainability tracker decks into its standardized processes, making sure it considers the short, medium, and long-term aspects of its initiatives across the board.

The company recognizes that its senior leadership plays a role in guiding their teams to continue to embed sustainability as a key business priority. To affirm its commitment to sustainability, Zain conducted its due diligence in 2024 on linking sustainability KPIs to its annual incentives for Zain Group C-Suite demonstrating the company’s structured and collaborative approach in addressing its sustainability strategic objectives.
The table below highlights Zain’s sustainability plans for 2025:

Corporate Sustainability Target

Set strategic targets to address climate change, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and conserve nature and biodiversity by addressing risks, unlocking new market opportunities, and improving resource efficiency

Comments

  • Continued to align across all Group functions, operations, and subsidiaries to ensure full adoption of the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi) approved emission reduction targets.
  • Ensure further commitment from suppliers on net-zero alignment.
    Track progression on the implementation of waste management compliance framework across operations, subsidiaries and supply chain.
  • Monitor value created on all biodiversity-related initiatives across each market operation and supply chain.
    Collaborate with stakeholders including regulators on policy reform for climate-related regulations and policies.

Corporate Sustainability Target

Aiming to bridge the divides that exist in our operating markets, focusing on marginalized segments

Comments

  • Implement action plans based on accessibility audits conducted for Zain’s branches and other customer touchpoints such as social media channels.
  • Track, monitor, and assess the implementation of Zain’s Responsible Marketing and Communications Standards.
  • Engage with the elderly community to evolve existing services and campaigns that are geared towards them.
  • Continue to scale Women in Tech program to reach targets set in the Corporate Sustainability strategy and conduct assessments of the program over the past five years.

Corporate Sustainability Target

Ensuring a responsible supply chain across Zain business practices

Comments

  • Leverage engagement channels with suppliers to embed feedback on future training programs on various sustainability topics.
  • Develop automation mechanism for supplier assessment on sustainability risks for self-assessment questionnaire and physical audits.
  • Develop climate-related awareness and alignment for suppliers through training.
  • Continue to address biodiversity and nature within Zain’s supply chain.

Corporate Sustainability Target

Committing to safeguard and empower 16 million youth across Zain’s footprint, enabling them to reach their full potential

Comments

  • Continuously evaluate challenges, gaps, and opportunities concerning children’s rights throughout all business operations.
  • Continue the progression and achievement of KPIs set in the MoUs with national child helplines.
  • Work towards achieving the commitments set in the GSMA Mobile Alliance to combat Digital Child Sexual Exploitation.
  • Continue to drive advocacy on children’s rights across Zain’s value chain.
  • Enhance partnerships with local and international NGOs to develop and implement community-based programs focused on the protection and empowerment of children in vulnerable regions.
  • Implement ZYxGreenSkills program across all operating markets to advance youth’s skills to address climate change.

Corporate Sustainability Target

Building human capital within the organization

Comments

  • Continue to scale the human rights training and ethical standards to cover all full-time, part-time employees, and contractors.
  • Work towards equal gender ratio for employee training.
  • Prioritize the Workforce of the Future pillar focusing on training employees in the following areas: analytics, digital enablement, innovation and creativity, leadership, and customer experience.

Corporate Sustainability Target

Expand and improve Zain’s stakeholder engagement strategy across all functions

Comments

  • The company remains dedicated to enhancing its stakeholder engagement practices through open, effective, and regular communication with key stakeholders. For further information on
  • Zain’s stakeholder engagement, please refer to the ‘Stakeholder Engagement’ section.

Corporate Sustainability Target

Continue to improve governance policies and practices to maintain compliance with Kuwait’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA) regulations

Comments

  • Zain adheres to CMA regulations in Kuwait regarding transparency and governance and is actively working to enhance its compliance in line with global best practices.

Corporate Sustainability Target

Continue to optimize the company’s risk management policies and practices

Comments

  • Zain’s Risk Management and Internal Audit functions work closely with the Board Risk and Audit committees to enhance the organization’s ability to identify and address risks and internal audit findings effectively.

Corporate Sustainability Target

Expand and broaden the organization’s Innovation agenda

Comments

  • Continue to develop the innovation agenda through subsidiaries such as Dizlee (API platform), ZainTECH, Zain Esports, and Zain Fintech entities, amongst others.
  • Contribute to national innovation by establishing innovation centers, ZINC in Kuwait, Iraq, and Jordan.
  • Aim to further enhance the intrapreneurship ecosystem within the company through the ZAINIAC program.

Corporate Sustainability Target

Continue to take steps to address and improve gender and disability disparity and encourage greater inclusivity within the organization

Comments

  • Pioneering the Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (IDE) agenda across the board, to further the targets set in each of the IDE focus areas:
    • WE – tackling gender gaps within the company
    • WEABLE – supporting people with disabilities in the workplace
    • ZAINIAC – internal innovation
    • BEWELL – promoting mental health and well-being
    • ZY – empowering young Zain employees through skills development, including ZYxGreenSkills
    • IDEU – Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity University

We look forward to receiving your thoughts and feedback on this report. Kindly send comments and/or questions to group.sustainability@zain.com.