SOTAV is committed to sustainable business principles within all our operations and projects. All the ten principles of the Global Compact are critical to our business strategy, culture, daily operations as well as our mission to engage in collaborative projects which advance the broader development goals of the United Nations, particularly the Sustainable Development Goals.
SDG 5: Gender Equality,
SDG 6: Decent Jobs and Economic Growth, and
SDG 17: Partnering the Goals. We have over 47% women representation at SOTAV, and are aiming at 50-50 ratio by 2024. We are committed to developing gender-sensitive work policies that ensure that men and women at SOTAV have equal opportunities and pay.
SOTAV’s support for gender equality has contributed to our record of zero voluntary exit by women employees. To promote our affirmative action agenda, we have ongoing partnerships with women advocacy organizations. To ensure that our commitment to gender equality and women empowerment is informed by global best practices, we have adopted the UN Women – Women’s Empowerment Principles.
For SDG 6 on decent jobs and economic growth, we are committed to providing full and productive employment, and decent work, for men and women in local communities where we operate. We are committed to recruiting young talents from deprived communities with a passion for using technology for sustainable social impact. We are an advocate for providing equal opportunities for young talents from Africa to transition to fulltime employment after completing their education.
In partnering the SDGs (SDG 17), we ensure that all projects undertaken by SOTAV positively impact the sustainable development goals, particularly leveraging technology as a transformation tool to reduce our carbon footprint across our various operations.
Aside our consultants and partners, almost half of all employees joined the company as entry-level employees and over two-thirds have grown to mid-level and senior-level employees over the period. As an Entrepreneurial Group that values sustainability, we diligently assess all projects we undertake to ensure that project outcomes contribute towards the sustainable development goals or at least does not negatively affect or aggravate the SDGs.
To ensure that our commitment to sustainable development is guided by global best practices, our processes and policies are continuously reviewed in line with the requirements of the United Nations Global Compact. We are in the process of finalizing our benchmark on communication on progress; which details the group’s efforts and achievements, and set goals in implementing the ten sustainable business principles. We support public accountability and transparency.