Turning Standards into Vehicles for Development

The TSPN is an international network established in 2005. Our members include multilateral agencies, bilateral organizations, research institutes, providers of technical assistance, standards-setting bodies, NGOs, and other practitioner organizations. Each member brings its own experiences, skills, and developing country partners.

Our Challenge

In recent years, an increasing amount of attention has been given to managing food safety risks and addressing concerns associated with the social and environmental dimensions of food production and other rural-based industries.

These risks and concerns have given rise to more stringent official regulations as well as the emergence of voluntary standards and certification requirements related to agriculture, forestry and fisheries. For developing country stakeholders, such standards present opportunities, serving to catalyze the adoption of better and safer production practices, promote the modernization of regulatory systems and enable producers to add value and re-position their products in order to gain competitive advantage. However, standards also pose compliance challenges and in certain instances limit market access.

Within this framework, developing country governments, producers, industry actors and other stakeholders are increasingly seeking assistance to better respond to the challenges and opportunities associated with emerging standards. Donors and providers of technical assistance, on the other hand, are facing the challenge of identifying effective ways to promote changes and assist developing country actors in achieving this—on a sustainable basis.

Our Mission

Our mission is to improve the effectiveness of initiatives that support developing country capacity and participation in the development and implementation of trade-related social, environmental, and food safety standards and associated measures in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, with a focus on voluntary standards. In doing so, the TSPN seeks to foster more sustainable, competitive, and equitable developing country value chains by improving their ability to respond to different commercial, safety, social, and environmental requirements.

Our Activities

The TSPN seeks to accomplish its mission through information sharing, policy research and capacity building. As a group of practitioners we work together to serve as a community of practice in order to address the need for consistent dialogue and sharing of experiences.  This collaborative effort builds upon the strengths of our individual institutions while working as a community to achieve the shared goals. We offer participants the opportunity to explore possibilities for forging partnerships and undertaking joint projects to improve capacity for implementing standards in developing countries.

Core activities of the TSPN include:

• Deepen awareness among developing country stakeholders on the challenges, options and better practices required to respond to emerging standards and regulations.
• Build consensus on the appropriate roles of different stakeholders.
• Develop and strengthen partnerships across bi-lateral, multi-lateral, private sector, non profit, and developing countries stakeholders working in the standards field.
• Undertake joint research and development of assessment tools on selected topics
• Share experiences and insights about how the emerging evolution of social, environmental and food safety standards may affect the competitiveness of developing countries.
• Draw lessons learned from implementation experiences.
• Identify ‘good and innovative practices’ and translate these findings into strategic guidelines.
• Share knowledge through TradeStandards.org information clearinghouse, project database, and learning centre.

 Meeting notes and other outputs of the TSPN can be found in the following document.

Trade Standards Practitioners Network Official Documents | January 2007 01 Jan 2007 [pdf, 110 KB]

About Tradestandards.org

This website has been designed to serve as a resource for both TSPN members and the general public. The site allows for users to easily view where TSPN members are working across the globe and serves as a reference tool for those interested in learning more about some of the major codes of conduct and certification systems related to a broad range of sectors.

Disclaimer  

Information posted on this website does not reflect the views of the institutions associated with the TSPN and should not be attributed to any participating institutions.