27th December, 2013

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, Labour, 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 the company to succeed both internally and externally.
Internally: Our team at Africa Biosystems relies on talented human capital to drive sales for cutting edge life sciences equipment in the region. Our talent is our strength to achieve 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 for to empower human health and create the basis for peace, security and human dignity through the use for DNA forensics.

Internally: Protecting human rights are a core value for our business. Human Rights protection falls under the responsibility of our Director of Operations, Johnny Verjee.
Externally: In Kenya, many human rights violations occur. In fact, statistics from Kenya indicate that 300 rape cases are reported very week, and the total could be 10 times this when including unreported cases.
Recently, Gang Rape of a 16 year old girl in Kenya highlighted how severe the issue is.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/28/kenya-gang-rape-petition_n_4171283.html
Africa Biosystems stepped up to support the fight against human rights by donating DNA kits that can be used to being the perpetrators to justice.
http://mobile.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/government-receives-DNA-kits-to-help-fight-rape/-/1950774/2062710/-/format/xhtml/-/11ti33lz/-/index.html

Internally, our Director of Operations ensures that all grievances are addressed fairly and in line with the UN Global compact principles.
Externally, we aim to support at least one external event to highlight how technology can be used to secure our Human Rights, as per the article highlighted above.

ABL commits to the UN Global Compact principles for Labour Rights. In addition, ABL support the eight fundamental ILO Core Conventions on prohibition of forced labour, child labour, the right to organise in a trade union, and suffer no discrimination.
Our company is small, and has a highly collaborative culture where employees can express any labour 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. Oour Director of Operations is responsible for all Labour policy and ensuring Labour 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 that number of labour related violations of the Global Compact Labour principles (e.g. compulsory labour, child labour, discrimination) and are pleased to report none to date.
In addition, from a diversity perspective, we have 33% female staff, 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 announced. 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.
Description of concrete actions to implement environmental policies, reduce environmental risks and respond to
http://www.africabiosystems.com/index.php?option=com_news&task=events
AFRICA BIOSYSTEMS LIMITED AND LIFE TECHNOLOGIES TO IMPROVE FOOD SECURITY IN AFRICA THROUGH IMPROVING ORPHAN CROP
Life Technologies is donating 4 protons and 4 ion chefs / one touch2 to help the sequencing of 100 orphan crops in Africa. The novel/de-novo sequencing will be done with the help of BGI (Beijing Genomics- China) and the re-sequencing studies will be carried out by ICRAF where the protons will be placed in a dedicated sequencing lab. Africa Biosystems Limited is representing Life technologies in Eastern Africa and is helping build capacity. ABL is the first line of contact for any service or application queries.
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." A presentation ceremony had taken place at ICRAF.

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 are 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.

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.