Telenor’s report is also candid about the discovery of several instances of child labour in tower construction, either through spot checks or from reports from a contractor. Child labour is prevalent in Myanmar, where the majority of children are lucky if they complete primary school. Working at age 13 is legal in some contexts. But Telenor wants to uphold its own standards. Being transparent raises awareness about the issue; helps stakeholders improve processes for identifying and resolving instances of child labour; and ultimately strengthens prevention mechanisms. Companies should also reveal the remedial and corrective steps they are taking, bearing in mind that in many cases the children who work come from desperately poor families with limited sources of income. They should consider solutions that involve employment opportunities for adults in those families.
Myanmar is recovering from decades of internal armed conflict, and in many regions ethnic minority armed groups have signed cease-fire agreements with the central government but still control territory. This makes the issue of access to these regions difficult for companies as they negotiate site acquisition. Telenor has in place a network of local liaison officers across the country in order to engage with remote and ethnic minority populations and negotiate access to land. Once the towers are built (the “passive” infrastructure), the companies building networks and providing “active” infrastructure (which will be placed on the towers) will also need help to negotiate access into these areas to ensure their staff can safely do their jobs. At the same time, all companies involved in the rollout and maintenance of the network should be aware of exposure to the risk of being complicit in the acts of armed groups, if their negotiations involve armed groups.