To our stakeholders:
I am pleased to confirm that Africa Biosystems Limited reaffirms its support of the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact in the areas of Human Rights, Labor, Environment and Anti-Corruption.

In this annual Communication on Progress, we describe our actions to continually improve the integration of the Global Compact and its principles into our business strategy, culture and daily operations. We also commit to share this information with our stakeholders using our primary channels of communication.
Sincerely yours,
Yasmin Verjee
Managing Director

Human Rights are critical for a company to succeed both internally and externally.
Internally: Our team at Africa Biosystems Limited (ABL) relies on talented human capital to drive sales for cutting edge life sciences equipment in the region. We also build capacity on the continent by investing in education and training of local talent to enhance specialized skill sets. Our talent is key in achieving business success and we support all 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, recognizing the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.
Keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, ABL strives to teach and to promote respect for these rights and freedoms.
Externally: Our core purpose is to drive transformational change in Eastern Africa, using cutting edge life science technology to empower human health and create the basis for peace, security and human dignity through the use of DNA forensics.

Internally: Protecting human rights are a core value for our business. Human Rights protection falls under the responsibility of our Director of Finance & Operations, Janmohamed Verjee.
Externally: In Kenya, many human rights violations occur. In fact, statistics from Kenya indicate that 300 rape cases are reported every week, and the total could be 10 times this when including unreported cases.
In 2018, ABL placed the 48 Capillary 3730SR DNA Analyzer (Gold Standard) valued at US$.50,000.00 at The University of Nairobi, for the purpose of HIV-DR Genetic sequencing and other approved applications e.g. Microbial Genotype & HID. Once the equipment was placed ABL undertook and provided all the technical and application training for the equipment at no additional cost.
In 2019, ABL also donated an amount of Shs.176,300/= towards school fees for two under privileged children to enable them further their education. Further to this, ABL also helped a customer with UGX.1,000,000/= (US$.300.00) towards medical assistance for their relative who was unable to raise enough funds for the medical bill. ABL also sponsored a football team “Muthiga Football Club” for one of their soccer games to the tune of Shs.26,500/= (US$.265.00) ABL also donated an amount of Tshs.480,000/= (US$.210.00) towards funeral expenses of one of our customers in Tanzania.
In 2020, Africa Biosystems Limited made a donation to Pankaj Shah towards food items for those affected by loss of jobs due to the pandemic. The Company also made funeral expense Contribution of Shs.50,000/= towards the staff of a father who passed on and Shs.75,000/= towards hospital bill of a staffs father.

Internally, our Director of Finance & Operations ensures that all grievances are addressed fairly and in line with the UN Global compact principles and in accordance with the laws of the countries we operate in. Externally, we aim to support at least one event per year to highlight how technology can be used to secure our Human Rights.

ABL commits to the UN Global Compact principles for Labor Rights. In addition, ABL support the eight fundamental ILO Core Conventions on prohibition of forced labor, child labor, the right to organize in a trade union, and suffer no discrimination. Our company is mid-sized, and has a highly collaborative culture where employees can express any labor issues openly. All our offer letters to our employees highlight employee rights, responsibilities, compensation, and benefits.

ABL’s collaborative culture ensures high level of employee engagement so any grievances can be discussed. Our Director of Finance & Operations is responsible for all labor policy and ensuring labor rights.
We ensure that we compensate our staff at fair market rate, and continue to test the market and adjust compensation accordingly based on budget and market drivers.

We measure the number of labor related violations in accordance with Global Compact Labor principles (e.g. compulsory labor, child labor, discrimination) and are pleased to report none to date. In addition, from a diversity perspective, we have increased the number of women staff in our company for gender balance and equality, and are pleased to report that 50% of our staff is female, which includes Yasmin Verjee, our Managing Director.

ABL support the UN Global Compact Principles on Environment. ABL promotes environmental responsibility by driving DNA technology to enable environment preservation.

For example, ABL will be supporting the transformative $40 million project to revitalize Africa’s orphaned crops. Orphan crops' are African food crops and tree species that have been neglected by researchers and industry because they are not economically important on the global market. The 100 targeted crops are the 'back garden' crops of rural Africa, home to 600 million people. So improving them will greatly improve the diets of Africa's children, helping to eliminate hunger and malnutrition, which causes stunting. Stunting - short stature for age and incomplete neurological development - is rife among the children of rural Africa.
http://www.nepad.org/fr/foodsecurity/news/3206/centre-improve-orphan-crops-opens-nairobi
http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10021
In addition, we are continuously looking to reduce our environmental footprint in other ways, from using recycled content and reducing unnecessary travel. We are actively focusing on reducing our footprint by printing less paper and communicating more electronically.
Description of concrete actions to implement environmental policies, reduce environmental risks
ABL has assisted companies in East Africa to offer In-Vitro fertilization technology. In addition, it will help them in the mid-term for cancer diagnosis and STEM cells. ABL also extended training Africa Crop Consortium on genome typing of the orphan crops. We did this with partners Life Technologies, at the internal center for Agro Forestry. NEPAD project. Managing Director Yasmin Verjee says "this technology will improve the nutrition and productivity of important crops in Africa and will ultimately reduce malnutrition and stunting that millions of children suffer."
ABL sponsored the 3rd Medical and Veterinary Virus Research symposium, Nairobi, Kenya 16-17 October 2014. We donated KES 100,000/ to promote research and local knowledge. The money went into prizes for the best poster and best oral presentation during the symposium and funding the travel of a few needy investigators who will be coming from outside of Nairobi.

ABL continues to strive towards driving environmental awareness both internally within the company and externally. Our Senior Management reviews our environment impact on a quarterly basis, assessing ways to improve internally and looking for opportunities to contribute externally that leverages our knowledge, people and technology.

ABL and our employees are committed to achieving a high standard of ethical behavior in everything that we do. Ethics and Integrity are a key part of the company’s core values. Our tag line is “Ready, Reliable, and Ethical.”

All our employees sign a professional code of conduct where our principle of Teamwork, Mutual Respect, Collaboration are included in addition our core focus on Ethics and Integrity. We are all responsible to ensure Ethics and Integrity in our everyday work.

Corruption is not tolerated in our business. And we turn down any business opportunities if any such incidents arise. Senior Management reviews all the deals on a weekly basis with the sales team to ensure that the deals are transparent and in line with our professional code of conduct.
Going forward, we aim to develop a code of conduct that our employees will review and sign up to on a yearly basis.