Over 4 million people die each year from exposure to cookstove smoke, making household air pollution the fourth biggest health risk in the world ^[1]. It is also highly toxic for the environment. ISO has developed a number of international standards to support new technologies and solutions for cleaner methods of cooking. The latest in the range, ISO 19869, Clean cookstoves and clean cooking solutions — Field testing methods for cookstoves, evaluates existing methods for the testing of cookstoves and provides guidance on developing new ones.

The guidance covers field testing methods that evaluate all aspects of cookstove performance including cooking power, efficiency, safety, indoor air quality, device usability and more.

Dr Ranyee Chiang, chair of the ISO technical committee that developed the standard said testing of cookstoves in real situations is essential to assess the impact on both users and the environment, thus allowing for improvements to be made.

“There are various testing protocols already in existence to assess things like fuel consumption, emissions, air pollution and durability amongst other things. However, these are mostly done for specific projects by individual groups,” she said.

Where common protocols exist such as the Controlled Cooking Test (CCT) and the Kitchen Performance Test (KPT), she explained, they have few indicators other than fuel consumption.

“Until now there is no formal international guidance on field testing protocols that address a broad range of factors. ISO 19869 is therefore designed to fill that gap.”

ISO 19869 joins other ISO documents by the same committee, namely ISO 19867-1, Clean cookstoves and clean cooking solutions — Harmonized laboratory test protocols, Part 1: Standard test sequence for emissions and performance, safety and durability, and ISO/TR 19867-3, Clean cookstoves and clean cooking solutions — Harmonized laboratory test protocols, Part 3: Voluntary performance targets for cookstoves based on laboratory testing, as well as ISO/TR 21276, Clean cookstoves and clean cooking solutions — Vocabulary.

The standards support the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 3: Good health and wellbeing as well as UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 7: Affordable and clean energy and contribute to the Clean Cooking Alliance’s mission to ensure universal adoption of clean cooking solutions.

They were developed by ISO technical committee ISO/TC 285, Clean cookstoves and clean cooking solutions, the secretariat for which is held by KEBS, ISO’s member for Kenya.

1. Clean Cooking Alliance Factsheet

ISO has just released its September/October 2019 issue of ISOfocus. Aptly entitled “Trade, today and tomorrow”, it provides a blend of in-depth commentary and analysis of the key issues shaping the trade arena. In addition, it affords valuable insights into the role of standards for fostering productivity and competitiveness, and thus their relevance in international trade.

ISO Secretary-General Sergio Mujica writes in his introductory remark: “It is clear that there has never been a greater or more pressing need for international standards. Transparency, accountability, harmonization and trust are just some of the benefits – for society and business alike,” he says.

This edition offers coverage of key issues ranging from harmonization of technical regulations to the alleviation of poverty and inclusive development. It also provides an overview of the most interesting, important and complete conformity assessment issues, particularly useful in today’s trade matters.

What we unpack in this issue is the contribution of ISO standards to solving many of today’s trade-related challenges, including greater access to higher-quality goods. Santiago Fernández de Córdoba, Senior Economist at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Coordinator of the United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS), explains in his ISOfocus interview: “International trade is usually recognized as a powerful instrument to stimulate economic progress and alleviate poverty. Standards are an important component of international trade. Within global value chains, standards provide assurances to consumers that traded products are safe as well as socially and environmentally sustainable.”

Need to keep pace with the trends in trade? The latest ISOfocus is a must-read to stay abreast of critical standards issues and trade trends, today and tomorrow.  

Take the tasty mango for example. Importing it into the EU is duty-free for all countries, but it needs to comply with a wide range of measures, known as non-tariff measures or NTMs, for which the exporter must provide adequate proof. Add to that any extra requirements by the buyer, such as evidence that the product is organic or fair trade, and the exporter has quite some work to do.

But with internationally recognized tests, inspections and certificates, backed up by a system of accreditation, businesses can not only reduce the costs of meeting these requirements but also increase trade opportunities.

Research done by Accredia, the Italian Accreditation Body, showed that businesses with accredited certification saw productivity gains of 30 % to 60 % through entering global value chains. It also stated that “the development of common standards, supported by mutual recognition of accredited test results, inspection reports and certificates provide simplification and reductions in the cost of commerce”.

But what is accreditation and how does the system work? The journey starts with conformity assessment.

Introducing conformity assessment

Conformity assessment is the collective term for the processes that show a product meets the requirements of something, such as a standard, that is needed in order to meet a regulation or customer expectations. It not only gives the product the necessary “papers” to get across the border, it gives consumers and regulators confidence that certain regulations are met. The organizations that carry out conformity assessment procedures are known as conformity assessment bodies (CABs).

Accreditation is the independent evaluation of CABs against recognized standards to ensure their results are credible and trusted. Accreditation is performed by accreditation bodies. Those accreditation bodies that have been evaluated by peers as competent can sign arrangements amongst themselves that then increase the acceptance of products and services that are traded internationally, saving exporters the trouble of different tests for different countries.

The International Accreditation Forum (IAF) manages these arrangements if they are in the field of management systems, products, services, personnel and related conformity assessment programmes. The International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) is responsible when it comes to laboratory and inspection accreditation.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is aware, however, that all this testing and assessing can incur costs for the exporter, which can be a barrier to trade. To deal with these difficulties, all WTO members are signatories to the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement). The Agreement strongly encourages members to use international standards as a means to facilitate trade because they harmonize the requirements across countries, reducing duplication and providing transparency.

The TBT Agreement states that “verified compliance, for instance through accreditation, with relevant guides or recommendations issued by international standardizing bodies shall be taken into account as an indication of [the CAB’s] adequate technical competence”.

Confidence counts

So what standards ensure a CAB is competent and trusted? ISO has a range of standards designed precisely for the accreditation of CABs, developed by ISO’s committee on conformity assessment (CASCO). Many of them are published jointly by ISO and ISO’s standardization partner, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Together, these standards make up the “CASCO Toolbox”.

The toolbox is developed with stakeholders from all over the world and includes the contribution of the IAF and the ILAC, key ISO partners.

The most widely used example is ISO/IEC 17025, General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, which is the international reference for testing and calibration laboratories wishing to demonstrate they deliver trusted results.

The range also includes ISO/IEC 17020, Conformity assessment – Requirements for the operation of various types of bodies performing inspection; the ISO/IEC 17021 series, Conformity assessment – Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems; and ISO/IEC 17065, Conformity assessment – Requirements for bodies certifying products, processes and services.

Building trust and trade

An example of how this works in practice is Energy Star, which is one of the world’s best-recognized labels of energy efficiency. Launched as a voluntary labelling scheme by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1992, it expanded rapidly to become a common benchmark for nearly every household in the US. However, an audit conducted by the US Government Accountability Office reported that while no fraud was discovered, it was largely a self-certification programme and thus open to abuse.

To remove this potential vulnerability, the EPA implemented a conformity assessment regime in 2011, meaning that in order to carry the Energy Star label, products must be tested in an EPA laboratory and be reviewed by an EPA-recognized certification body. To become EPA-recognized, laboratories need to be accredited to ISO/IEC 17025, the international reference for testing laboratories. Certification bodies need to be accredited to ISO/IEC 17065.

A further condition was that those bodies providing accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO/IEC 17065 needed to be a signatory to the relevant ILAC Mutual Recognition Agreement or the IAF’s Multilateral Recognition Arrangement. And to do that, the accrediting body needed to be peer-evaluated to ISO/IEC 17011, Conformity assessment – Requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies.

Thanks to the international acceptance of these standards, the EPA was able to establish its own partnership arrangements with countries such as Canada, Japan, the EU, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand, resulting in greater acceptance of Energy Star-labelled products globally and thus greater sales.

Brahim Houla, IAF Communication and Marketing Committee Chair, said that with regulators, industries and consumers adopting an increasingly global outlook, the need for compatibility of conformity assessment regimes between international economies is a crucial aspect of trade.

“Without this, the unnecessary duplication of already satisfactorily completed testing could result in unnecessary delays at the point of entry – a potential deal breaker for time-critical services and perishable goods,” he said.

Jon Murthy, the ILAC Marketing and Communications Committee Chair, added that internationally recognized agreements provide assurance that CABs in different economies are operating to the same internationally accepted standards.

“The system of mutual recognition of conformity assessment through the IAF and ILAC agreements promotes the system of ʻonce tested to an international standard, the results are accepted everywhereʼ.”

When regulations rule industry

Food and agricultural producers are another area where conformity assessment plays a crucial role in facilitating international trade. Being a highly regulated industry, having credible certification that their products meet national or international regulations is not only mandatory but also a significant business cost.

According to a recent survey by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), 79 % of companies view food safety certification as a great advantage and a “passport to trade” in business. Improved ability to comply with regulations (86 %) is the highest-rated benefit of certification, with improved food safety and food quality coming in second.

The GFSI is an internationally operating non-profit organization that aims to advance food safety worldwide to build consumer trust and increase efficiency across the industry. It has a system of recognizing certification programmes against its benchmarking requirements. A certification programme owner wishing to be recognized must work with certification bodies accredited to ISO/IEC 17065 or ISO/IEC 17021.

Including the big and the small

While getting certified or accredited by recognized programmes and bodies might be feasible for large organizations, the reality is that many internationally traded products, such as fruit and vegetables, are produced by smallholder farms in developing countries. Meeting what are often rigorous requirements on the international market is no easy task.

Thankfully, a number of schemes are in place to help them make the jump. One such scheme is the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF), a WTO-led global partnership that helps developing countries access international markets by tackling sanitary and phytosanitary gaps. One of those ways is through helping them implement relevant international standards.

The results speak for themselves. Working with small-scale fruit and vegetable producers, processors and traders in Thailand and Vietnam, they helped a Vietnamese exporter gain certification to ISO 22000 for food safety management systems.

“Being part of the STDF project was a game changer for my company,” said the exporter. “It was the springboard to get HACCP [an international food safety standard] and ISO 22000 certification. This enabled us to export fruit and vegetables to the EU, Japan and the US.”

Cutting costs, growing GDP

Referencing international standards in non-tariff measures, then, can lower costs for producers by removing the need to duplicate testing and certification procedures to meet the different requirements of the domestic and foreign markets.

What’s more, accreditation and conformity assessment has been proven to improve economies through facilitating trade and instilling confidence in products and services. This has certainly been the case for New Zealand, for example, where research has been conducted by NZIER, a specialist consulting firm, which shows that accreditation facilitates over 56 % of total goods exports, with a value of 27.6&nbspbillion New Zealand dollars.

From enjoying tasty mangoes in Iceland to boosting national economies, the benefits of conformity assessment in international trade are clear. Testing of goods is done correctly, and everyone trusts the results. And everyone gets to enjoy mangoes. Every day.

Goal 1 of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to end poverty in all its forms everywhere. There has been some progress – global poverty rates have been cut by more than half since 2000 and most regions have seen a decline in poverty. However, according to the UN, 783 million people still live below USD 1.90 a day and there are millions more who don’t make much more than this. Despite global growth forecasts, the goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 looks unattainable.

Progress has also been uneven and is sputtering in smaller developing countries. And many of these countries are more vulnerable to threats from climate change as well as from inequality, not to mention the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Countries and companies that are not ready to embrace or do not have the skills to leverage the new technologies of the digital age will get left behind.

Obstacles to progress

According to the World Bank Group and the World Trade Organization (WTO), trade can help reduce poverty in developing countries and indeed has been a significant contributor. A recent report by the two organizations, Trade and Poverty Reduction: New Evidence of Impacts in Developing Countries, presents case studies that demonstrate how trade has helped to reduce poverty and highlights the obstacles to progress, such as working in the informal sector and gender inequality, among others.

Khemraj Ramful, a senior adviser on export quality management at the International Trade Centre (ITC), acknowledges that while several developing countries have over the past few decades successfully tapped into global markets and used trade to drive rapid growth, increased value addition and poverty reduction, many other countries have not. “These countries remain relatively marginal actors in international trade, supplying raw materials, if anything, to international markets. Faster growth and poverty reduction in these countries will be essential to eliminating extreme poverty and achieving the SDGs.”

There is no doubt that all countries engaged in trade stand to gain, although – in an era of geopolitical uncertainty, trade imbalances and complex supply chains – these gains are not distributed evenly. Take the small island developing states of the Caribbean, which have a long history of trying to overcome a number of institutionalized obstacles and challenges when it comes to trade.

Combating constraints

Deryck Omar is Chief Executive Officer at CROSQ, the regional organization in the Caribbean for standards and quality. He points out that the region is facing an uphill battle in tackling some of the technical barriers to trade head-on. These difficulties are caused by constraints such as “high energy prices, lessened fiscal space and increasing transport costs among many of the islands, vulnerability to natural disasters, and a quality infrastructure that understandably develops at a slower pace to most of the developed world”.

Of course, every country develops at its own pace and this is where international standards can play a vital role. In each of the 15 CARICOM (Caribbean Community) member states there is at least one national body or authority that oversees the development of national quality procedures and systems designed to assist and enhance the country’s ability to trade.

Most of the region’s exports in goods are to the United States, the European Union and other CARICOM countries. In recent years, Omar says there has been a move to strengthen these relationships by ensuring goods and services can adhere to the relevant standards and regulations required for trade. “Increasingly, the economic operators of trade within the Caribbean and extra-regionally are demanding that imported goods be certified to international or national standards before entry is allowed, as a means of adhering to WTO rules, as well as safeguarding the health and safety of the region’s consumers,” he says.

Forming networks

The regionalization of international standards to better fit the context of developing countries is not new to CARICOM countries. CROSQ has been forming networks with international organizations such as ISO, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the International Code Council (ICC) and others.

This trend is continuing elsewhere. In Africa, for instance, the anniversary of the signing of the AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Agreement), the biggest regional trade agreement, was celebrated in March this year. Barely a month later, on 29 April, the AfCFTA secured the threshold number of 22 ratifications allowing for its entry into force by end of May. Eve Gadzikwa, Director-General of the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) and President of the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO), says that coupled with the ratification by, currently, 24 of the potential 55 countries, this signifies a new era for Africa. “Celebrating this milestone marks the realization of a number of trends and challenges which present enormous trade opportunities for the continent. International standards will form the basis on which trade will be facilitated under the CFTA,” she says.

These challenges range from a deeper understanding of quality and safety standards under AfCFTA, to national trade policies as they relate to global trends and quality infrastructure gaps to support conformity assessment of traded goods. Gadzikwa says emerging trends to meet these challenges and improve trade include the digitalization of cross-border trade, promoting intra-African trade to meet the needs of Africa’s 1.6 billion population, and enhancing partnerships between national standardization bodies, business membership organizations and regional economic communities.

Export opportunities

Africa is endowed with many resources, which represent many export opportunities to the global market. As in other regions of the world, Gadzikwa points out that within the continent, all 55 countries are at different stages of development. She emphasizes that “standards are the means by which a level playing field can be achieved and maintained under a single market to promote intra-African and global trade”. She further observes that, “small to medium-sized organizations also stand to gain from a more inclusive approach to standardization to ensure that they contribute to economic growth on the continent”.

According to Khemraj Ramful, of ITC, the lack of harmonization of technical regulations across African countries could impede businesses’ ability to tap the maximum benefits of the continental free trade agreement. He says: “This is where ARSO and national standards bodies can play a more prominent role, by promoting the use of harmonized standards as the basis for technical regulations.”

For Gadzikwa, many benefits from adopting international standards would include removing unnecessary duplication of efforts, joint harmonization on sector-based priorities, and harmonized standards under the AfCFTA. The mutual recognition of standards, licensing and certification of service suppliers will make it easier for businesses and individuals to satisfy the regulatory requirements of operating in each other’s markets. “Promotion of sustainability standards under the EcoMark Certification Scheme of the African Organisation for Standardisation is gaining traction as a means of eco-labelling and branding agricultural, tourism, fisheries and forestry products destined for the international market,” Gadzikwa says.

Regional value chains

She adds that the easing of trade between African countries is a priority. Intra-African trade will facilitate the establishment of regional value chains in which inputs are sourced from different countries to add value. These products can then be exported externally or circulated in the African market. The benefits of digitalization are also becoming more obvious and “trade in Africa under AfCFTA is waking to the realization of the increased trend towards digitalization”.

The private sector is also important and Gadzikwa says that entrepreneurs, such as the owners of MSMEs (micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) and founders of big companies, as well as providers of services that will be trading across borders must adapt quickly to the new digital conditions or face extinction.

As in Africa, there has been an increasing focus in the Caribbean region on intra-regional trading relationships. This is particularly the case with regional bodies like the Forum of the Caribbean Group of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (CARIFORUM), which includes all the CARICOM member states and the Dominican Republic. Omar says: “These relationships with CARIFORUM are seeing more opportunities for training, trading and information exchanges across countries, as well as efforts at equivalence for standards and conformity assessment systems in mutual areas of interest which could benefit the countries involved.”

Quality infrastructure

According to both Omar and Latoya Burnham, CROSQ’s Technical Officer for Communication and Information, recognizing also that trade and investment opportunities are arising to expand into non-traditional service areas, businesses are increasingly looking for certification and accreditation of services and their processes.

International standards are critical, Burnham says, to ensure that processes, products and services are fit for purpose, interchangeable, compatible, allow for better utilization of resources and create better communication across borders and in numerous settings.

Changing mindsets can be key to successful take-up. Burnham adds: “Standards, while good for trade, often prove challenging to implement to allow locally produced products access to markets beyond their own. In this vein, education about and access to quality services becomes critical, even while it is acknowledged that this same access can at times be difficult.” The region is now concentrating on good regulatory practices through a funded TradeCom II programme targeting members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) “to educate and train regulatory officials as well as the private sector in the importance of this approach to smoothing the way for how businesses operate with the overall aim of accessing greater markets”.

The just-released CROSQ Regional Quality Policy, commonly called the RQP, is a perfect example, Omar says, of how these concepts can be married with quality to produce the kind of multi-sectoral approach needed with an orientation towards increasing trade for developing countries of the Caribbean.

Harmonized approach

The harmonized approach, he says, that has been perfected in the development of international standards is a process from which the developing countries of the region can learn “as we attempt to harmonize many of our procedures and processes, while still attempting to adhere to the guidelines that govern trade”. He goes on to say that harmonization and equivalency are key steps as countries recognize that their small size dictates that there is power in operating cohesively rather than separately.

Ramful agrees that compliance with international standards is a factor in the ability of businesses to tap into international markets. “Business surveys conducted by the ITC in developing countries reveal that more than 50 %, and in some countries as much as 70 %, of the difficulties enterprises face while exporting are due to the technical requirements of the destination market,” he says. These requirements include the need to comply with health and safety standards as well as the associated conformity assessment procedures. In this context, many of ITC’s projects in developing countries include both a component for institutional support in the field of standardization as well as assistance to enterprises for compliance with market-relevant standards.

Joseph Wozniak, who manages the ITC’s Trade for Sustainable Development Programme, says standards also present an opportunity. “Compliance and certification can open the door to new markets and to valuable price premiums under the right conditions. ITC has developed free online tools such as the Sustainability Map that allows enterprises worldwide to compare and contrast 250 voluntary or private standards demanded by private-sector buyers, and to complete self-assessments against these standards.”

Ramful cites three ways for developing countries to tap the full benefits of international standards in promoting trade:

• Developing countries should play a more active role in the development of international standards. These standards should take into consideration the views of the stakeholders in developing countries.
• International standards should be more accessible to enterprises, especially the MSMEs that account for the vast majority of jobs in developing countries as in developed ones.
• Well-designed standards will not by themselves create a level playing field. National members of the international standards bodies must accompany work on standards development with efforts to promote standards to domestic stakeholders while minimizing compliance burdens.

He concludes by saying: “At ITC, we have seen that enterprises supported for compliance with standards have improved their access to foreign markets. Not only has this led to higher revenues for these firms, it has motivated other companies to follow suit.” The knock-on effect for society is obvious. The World Poverty Clock ^[1] is ticking, but international standards can help to ensure that time does not run out for many. 

1. Created by the World Data Lab, an NGO headquartered in Vienna, Austria, the World Poverty Clock provides real-time poverty estimates until 2030 of almost every country in the world.

Diving is attractive for many reasons and it is no wonder that millions of people enjoy exploring life beneath water each year. The Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI), the biggest training agency for divers, has issued some 27 million diver certifications since 1967, and the trend is not waning ^[1].

This inevitably has an impact on aquatic life, putting an onus on the diving community to see how the underwater environment is faring – and how they are impacting it. Now two new International Standards have just been published, designed to increase diver environmental awareness and reduce negative impacts.

ISO 21416, Recreational diving services — Requirements and guidance on environmentally sustainable practices in recreational diving, provides information on how the diving community can optimize their ability to observe the condition of the aquatic environment and undertake activities to improve it.

ISO 21417, Recreational diving services — Requirements for training on environmental awareness for recreational divers, provides guidance for training programmes aimed at educating divers in environmental awareness and sustainable practices in recreational diving activities. This covers both theory and practical sessions.

Mr Manuel Otero, Chair of the ISO technical committee (TC) responsible for the standards said divers see what we above water cannot see, and therefore have an eye on the environmental condition of aquatic life. “They also have a responsibility to be aware of their impact on it.”

“These two standards give guidance and practical examples of best practice, such as those related to operating boats or interacting with aquatic life, which will benefit everyone. After all, tourists are more likely to return to waters that are clean and intact, rather than those that have suffered from poor environmental practices.”

Mr Martin Denison, Convenor of the TC’s working group that developed the standards, said they will benefit not only divers, diving instructors, centres and clubs, but tour operators offering diving holidays, diving boat operators and governments and any other organizations looking for information on diving and the aquatic environment. “They also contribute directly to the UN Sustainable Development Goal, SDG 14, which is about the sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources.”

ISO 21416 and ISO 21417 were developed by ISO technical committee ISO/TC 228, Tourism and related services, the secretariat for which is held jointly by UNE, ISO’s member for Spain, and INNORPI, ISO’s member for Tunisia.

They are available from your national ISO member or the ISO Store.

1. PADI 2019 Worldwide Statistics [PDF]