"Effective good governance and accountability begins at home : in one's own organisation, no matter how large or small"
This means :
Ensuring that the appropriate processes and structures are in place to direct and manage an organization's operations and activities, and to ensure that they function well. The ultimate goal of good governance is to ensure financial transperency, the effectiveness, credibility and viability of the organisation.
Despite the fact that USL is an NPO / PBO - the management team of the organbisation are publicly accountable bodies, responsible to their stakeholders for the effective management of public funds, donations and services entrusted to them and of staff in their employment. USL conducts its affairs, and the means by which it ensures the resources at its disposal are put to the best use, to the way in which it informs its clients and stakeholders of its activities and achievements. USL has a set of principles and practices adopted by a Board of Directors - that assure its key stakeholders that the organisation is being managed effectively and with appropriate probity. It provides the structure through which the objectives of the organisation are set, and the means to obtaining those objectives and monitoring performance are determined. The corporate governance framework ensures strategic guidance to USL by emphasising the effective monitoring of the NPO's management by the Board, and the Board's accountability to its stakeholders - its clients, the government as well as the private sector (as a source of funds) and the community.

The Management team of USL believes in the following principles of conduct :

• Duty of care and responsibility
• Duty of loyalty and fairness
• Duty of obedience and transperency

as well as abiding by the processes allowing to carry out stewardship functions such as Accountability, Financial control, Compliance, Policy & procedures, Public reporting and Risk management.
USL is against principles and actions of Self-dealing, Usurpation of corporate entity and Mismanagement and non-management.

In the business community there is awareness of the benefits of governance reform, and ULS is continously working on improving the quality of their corporate governance. The application of sound governance management techniques has brought many benefits for an organisation like USL. Abiding to processes of good gorvenance is not "rocket science" way of achieving :

• a more confident and rigorous basis for decision-making and planning;
• better identification of opportunities and threats;
• gaining value from uncertainty and variability;
• pro-active rather than re-active management;
• more effective allocation and use of resources;
• improved incident management and reduction in loss and the cost of risk, including commercial insurance premiums;
• improved stakeholder confidence and trust;
• improved compliance with relevant legislation

We at USL look forward to continued cooperation with South African and Global companies, market participants, government authorities, and other stakeholders in advancing ongoing corporate governance reforms. A concerted effort can move governance debate from theory to practice, helping USL in its progress toward a better business and economic environment.

Sustainable Development

Acknowledging that NPO / BPO is not a sustainable source of employment, USL makes every effort to build local capacity in the communities within which it operates. Conscious emphasis is placed on local recruitment of the niche market as identified by USL, thereby providing education, skills development and training opportunities that might not otherwise have been accessible to residents of these communities.

Safety, Health, Environment, Quality (SHEQ)

uSizo Lwanamuhla Community HIV and AIDS Consultation's Safety, Health, Environmental and Quality (SHEQ) objectives and programmes are driven by the organisation's commitment to its goals of :
Zero Harm; Zero Discrimination and Zero Stigmatization.
Our SHEQ management standards approach iniachieving the above includes, inter-alia, the following initiatives:

• An integrated approach to SHEQ management in all aspects of our business.
• Compliance assurance with relevant SHE legislation.
• Pro-actively preventing harm to the environment, the community and our employees.
• Promoting SHEQ awareness among our employees and the community.
• Adopting a continuous improvement approach to waste matter, resource consumption and waste generation.
• Reducing the risk of HIV/AIDS, STD's/STI's and TB up and including other contagious diseases among our employees and the local community by promoting awareness.
• Maintaining open relations with all stakeholders.
• Satisfy customer needs and expectations
• SHEQ is 100% of our behaviour, 100% of the time.

Systematic efforts are made to address all health and safety issues throughout the life cycle stages of our services provided to our clients, including interventions to protect the health and safety of those involved in using or delivering the same.

USL aims to improve the health and wellness of its employees, their dependants and community by managing their health risks while simultaneously providing access in form of quality referrals to comprehensive occupational, preventative and curative healthcare facilities. USL has responded proactively to the HIV/AIDS epidemic as well as STD's/STI's and TB by implementing a number of programmes to minimise the incidence of such infections within the organisation and the communities in which it operates; as well as promoting comprehensive care and treatment for those individuals who are infected with the viruses and bacterias in form of quality referrals.

At USL we continously teach traditional health practitioners on the processes that may have a direct impact on the environment in which they operate. It is therefore incumbent on the THP to anticipate, prevent as far as possible and mitigate the effects of any actions that may harm the environment. Three critical areas in this regard are air, water and land management. All personnel at USL uphold USL's SHEQ Policy, which provides the framework for best practice.

The key commitments of the SHEQ Policy are:

• compliance with all applicable laws, regulations and standards
• pro-actively identifying, eliminate or minimise potential sources of harm or risk arising from all our activities
• continuously improve our performance to achieve our objectives
• provide training, standards, equipment and support to ensure compliance with this policy
• maintain open communication with our local communities and stakeholders
• pollution prevention; and
• continual improvement in environmental performance

This policy is a key part of USL overall strategy and is reviewed on a regular basis by USL management board. At USL we use the acronym SHEQ, as this is the term used by the majority of our clients and funders. The content of the policy remains the same.