20 December 2020

To our stakeholders:

I am delighted to confirm that The Education Partnership (TEP) Centre reaffirms its support of the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact in the areas of Human Rights, Environment, Labour and Anti-Corruption.

In this annual Communication on Progress, we have defined some of our continuous actions to improve the integration of the Global Compact and its principles into our business culture, strategy and daily operations. We are also committing to sharing this information with our various stakeholders using our various channels of communication.

Yours Sincerely,

Modupe Adefeso - Olateju (PhD)

Managing Director

• We are an equal opportunity organization and do not discriminate against employees or applicants for employment based on an individual’s race, colour, religion, creed, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status or any other status protected by applicable law

• We ensure the office environment, facilities and work conditions are safe and favourable

• Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have protected the right to safety of our staff by adopting the blended work system where staff get to work from the office twice a week at most

• We have an “anti-harassment” policy to protect our staff from any form of harassment in the workplace

• We run an open door policy and encourage staff, volunteers and contractors to give their feedback, comments and suggestions in information/ suggestion box

• We take all new staff through the “anti-harassment” policy to protect them from and create awareness to any form of harassment in the workplace. We also conduct refresher training to old staff

• We run an induction programme for all new staff, employees and contractors where they are taken through the company’s policies and code of conduct

• Employees, volunteers and contractors are required to promptly report concerns about the safety of fellow employees, clients and other stakeholders to the necessary authorities so appropriate actions can be taken

• We actively engage in open dialogue with our partners and stakeholders regarding human right protection

• We provide all employees, volunteers and contractors with easily understood employment contracts stating the terms of reference, conditions of service and voluntary state of employment

• We comply with national law and ensure our staff are eligible to the following types of leaves: annual, maternity, paternity, sick, compassionate and examination

• We have an open-door policy and take employee concerns and problems seriously. The company values each employee and strives to provide a positive work experience. Employees are encouraged to bring any workplace concerns or problems they might have or know about to their supervisor or some other member of the management

• We abide by national and international labour laws and do not participate in, promote or encourage any form of forced or child labour

• Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have restructured the office environment to adhere to the social distancing protocols in line with the standard preventive measures

• We comply and ensure our remuneration scale is above the national set standard for minimum wage

• We consciously ensure there are adequate gender and ethnic demographic balance of mid-level management and employees

• There has been no incidence of COVID-19 infection rate in our organization because the safety of our staff is paramount to us hence we work more from the safety of our homes

• We have revised our HR practices and adopted the blended work system where we work from home three (3) days and office two (2) days weekly. There is an increased productivity level as staff get to work from home and do not spend productive man-hours commuting to and from work

• We do not take violations to the Global Compact Labour principles lightly and as such, violators are severely dealt with.

• We avoid all forms of environmental pollution/ damage by using environmentally friendly technologies to conserve and reduce the use of raw materials and by setting up recycling bins in common areas in the office

• We ensure emergency procedures to prevent and address any form of accidents affecting the environment and health of our staff

• We have indoor plants distributed around the office space to improve the quality of air

• We discourage paper waste by setting up collaboration tools and discouraging staff from printing emails and draft documents

• We mandate our employees to power down their computers and all electrical appliances and sockets before leaving the office to reduce unnecessary energy use

• We have transitioned from the paper based timesheets to the online portal of the performance sheet

• We have revised our HR practices and adopted the blended work system where we work from home three (3) days and office two (2) days weekly. This has helped the organization reduce the daily energy used up in our office space as well as carbon emitted from the use of power generating sets

• Due to our revised timesheet system, we are now more result-driven and have introduced the performance sheet to actively measure staff deliverables instead of the hours it takes in completing them.

• We train our contractors, staff, volunteers and enumerators on our “anti-bribery and corruption” policy and conduct periodic refresher training

• Employees report any cash or gift item given to them by the organisation’s clients, vendors or contemporaries; whilst carrying out their duties to the Human Resources department as soon as such gifts are received

• Employees have a responsibility to report any instance of bullying or harassment which they witness or which comes to their attention. Employees have a responsibility to act as role models, pro-actively addressing instances of bullying and harassment

• We established a ‘whistle-blowing’ policy to enable individuals to speak up against any form of corruption

• The organization’s responsibility is to set up a committee to investigate all reported cases and ensure that violators are appropriately reprimanded

• We train all staff on the grievance mechanism and how to file one

• The organization is audited internally by members of the Senior Management to ensure consistency with its anti-corruption commitment