INNI

NGO Proposals to Improve Stakeholder Participation in ISO’s Environmental Management Committee Slammed Down After Five Years of Negotiations [02/02/09]

A ten-year process aimed at more balanced stakeholder participation and decision-making in ISO’s Environmental Management Committee (TC 207) met an abrupt end at the committee’s plenary meeting in Bogotá, Colombia in June 2008. At the meeting, the NGO-CAG Task Force, a joint group consisting of eight representatives split evenly among NGOs and the committee’s governing body (Chair’s Advisory Group), presented two operating procedures to improve civil society involvement in the committee’s standard development work. However, these operating procedures were met with sustained opposition from a number of national standards bodies, and particularly from representatives of the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, which ultimately led to the rejection of the procedures by the committee’s governing body (CAG). The controversial CAG decision precluded all members of the technical committee from considering the operational procedures - an injustice deemed significant enough for the NGO representatives of the NGO-CAG Task Force to withdraw. As a result, the Task Force was disbanded and the committee leadership proposed the creation of an NGO Contact Group tasked with advising the TC 207 Chair on NGO matters. Although TC 207 approved this proposal, a number of the prominent NGOs in the committee have declined participation in it, and as a result, it is not clear if and how the effort to improve NGO involvement in TC 207 will proceed.

Two NGOs participating in the Task Force developed a communiqué to explain and express their disappointment and disapproval of the outcomes of the Bogota meeting and to call upon the ISO leadership to take action to ensure balanced stakeholder participation in the organization’s standards development and policy decision-making. The communiqué was acknowledged by ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden and discussed at the meeting of ISO’s senior management body, the Technical Management Board (TMB). In response, the TMB established the Process Evaluation Group, which had originally been tasked with evaluating ISO’s standard development processes more generally, including experiences and lessons to date from the experimental, stakeholder-based Working Group on Social Responsibility. As part of its undertaking, the Process Evaluation Group will consider the concerns raised by the NGOs participating in TC 207. (Click here to access the TMB resolution.)

Background
Both consumer and environmental NGOs have long struggled with the issues of business dominance and marginalization of public interests in standardization. The basic principles of international standardization work – consensus-building based on national positions – suggest that standards are based on broad support by all parties concerned. However, NGOs’ minority positions at the national level (if present at all) are often filtered out by the system. At the international level, their direct participation is possible as “liaison organizations”, but such liaison groups have few rights and thus the practical impacts remains negligible.

Activities in TC 207 to improve the underrepresentation of NGOs and public interest organizations have a long history. It started in 1998 with the creation of NGO Contact Group and had made slow but steady progress since then. The two operating procedures – one addressing the role and participation of liaison organizations and the other facilitating more balanced stakeholder participation and decision-making in standards development – were the culmination of numerous years of work and were the most significant output of the NGO-CAG Task Force. The proposals were based loosely on procedures being utilized in ISO’s Working Group on Social Responsibility (ISO WG SR), and if adopted by TC 207 would have improved the rights and position of NGOs and other minorities. (Detailed information about the procedures are provided in the Communiqué (xxinsert link) submitted by NGO representatives in the Task Force.)

NGOs in TC 207 saw the rejection of the operating procedures by the CAG as a significant injustice, partly because the procedures were unilaterally rejected by the CAG without allowing the TC 207 members to review the documents. The Task Force was explicitly charged by the TC membership with developing the operating procedures by a formal letter ballot that was approved by over 80 percent of the national members. Many felt that the full committee should have been given a chance to debate the outcome of the Task Force’s efforts and the procedures should have been progressed to a formal voting after the meeting. Secondly, the contents of the proposed procedures were deemed by the ISO Central Secretariat to be in conformity with ISO Directives, since they were consistent with ISO-approved procedures pertaining to Social Responsibility standard development. Lastly, the CAG’s rejection of the procedures did not seem to be based on the contents of the procedures, but rather from the fundamental resistance to the idea of multi-stakeholder involvement in standards development. It was evident that a significant number of the CAG representatives did not thoroughly read the proposed procedures. The effort to revise and further dilute the procedures to accommodate the comments did not help either. At the end, those who had opposed this process from the very onset were vigorously fighting the committee’s adoption of the procedures.

Conclusion
The outcome of the Bogotá meeting demonstrated tangibly that when it comes to actual standards development, ISO is not fulfilling its strategic commitment to ensure broad and meaningful public-interest participation in advancing its goal of developing standards for a sustainable world. Until and unless ISO takes more meaningful steps to implement this commitment, it is questionable whether ISO is the appropriate forum to develop international standards in support of broader public policies.

International NGOs Endorse Accountability Principles [01/25/07]

In June 2006, a group of international NGOs launched the first international cross-sector accountability standard for the non-profit sector. The International NGOs Accountability Charter sets out core values and operational principles for international NGOs including good governance and management, ethical fundraising, stakeholder engagement, and transparency/reporting. The Accountability Charter is currently endorsed by 11 leading international NGOs, including Amnesty International, Greenpeace International, Friends of the Earth International, and the World YWCA.

Two NGOs Develop Stakeholder Engagement Guidance Documents [10/17/05]

Two NGO groups recently published guidance documents focusing on two vastly different aspects of stakeholder involvement. The ISEAL Alliance released "Stakeholder Consultation Practices in Standards Development," which builds on its work to promote good practices in social and environmental standard setting. The paper presents a summary of stakeholder consultation issues to be considered in the standard-setting process, both conceptually and practically. AccountAbility, a developer of assurance and accountability management tools and standards, also recently released its draft Stakeholder Engagement Standard. The standard, which is part of the group's AA 1000 series, aims to provide a generally applicable framework for organizations to design, implement, assess, communicate, and assure the quality of their stakeholder engagement efforts. The draft version of the standard has been publicly circulated to users for review and comment, and AccountAbility plans to revise and publish the final version in late 2006.

ISO/TC 207 Approves Workplan to Improve NGO Participation [01/18/05]

In recognition that the committee must bring more NGOs into the fold, the national member bodies of TC 207, ISO's environmental management committee, voted in December 2004 to support Phase I of a workplan that seeks to enhance NGO involvement in the forum. Key elements of the workplan include establishing attendance metrics, beginning to track participation at TC 207 meetings according to stakeholder groups, and compiling examples of successful efforts at the national level to incorporate the views of NGOs. The workplan, developed by a task group consisting of NGOs and representatives of TC 207's leadership, will be implemented over the course of 2005.

Pacific Institute Releases Report That Surveys ISO’s International Standards Development Process [10/14/04]

As international standards move into new areas that affect environmental and social issues, the question of who creates them becomes much more important. New research by the Pacific Institute shows that developed nations, and especially Western Europe, continue to dominate standards development within the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) – one of the oldest and largest standards setting bodies. Other findings, however, on the make-up of stakeholder groups contain some surprises. The report, Who Develops ISO Standards? A Survey of Participation in ISO’s International Standards Development Processes, written by Mari Morikawa and Jason Morrison, uses empirical data on ISO’s membership and participation at international meetings to draw these and other conclusions about representation in ISO’s standards setting activities.

Membership Established for Joint Group of NGOs and ISO/TC 207 Leadership [11/24/03]

By the end of October, the four NGO representatives (elected by the NGOs participating in TC 207) and four representatives of the TC 207 leadership (chosen by the technical committee's chair) were selected to serve on the TC 207 NGO-Chairman's Advisory Group (CAG) Task Force.

Created by TC 207 at its annual meeting in June 2003, the joint group will review the NGO-produced report, "Increasing the Effectiveness of NGO Participation in TC 207" (also known as TC 207 N590), and will provide recommendations to the technical committee on how best to address the report's specific recommendations. The task force will deliver its recommendations to TC 207 through the development of an action plan, which will be produced in close cooperation with national and international NGOs. The first meeting of the NGO-CAG Task Force is scheduled for December 2003 in Montreal. Members of the group are:

CAG Members
Dorothy Bowers, USA
John Henry, Australia (Secretary)
Dick Hortensius, Netherlands
Haroldo Mattos de Lemos, Brazil

NGO Members
Franz Fiala, European Association for Consumer Participation in
Standardization (ANEC)
Deni Greene, Consumers' Federation of Australia
Heather McGray, Ecologia
Jason Morrison, Pacific Institute (Chair)

Ken Ogilvie of Pollution Probe (NGO alternate)

NGOs Negotiate Future Work in TC 207 [8/5/03]

At its annual meeting in Bali, ISO/TC 207 received the report of the NGO Task Group, "Increasing the Effectiveness of NGO Participation in TC 207" (also known as TC 207 N590). The use of the term "receive" in the final TC 207 resolution, rather than "accept," the term typically used for such reports, reflects a notable discomfort among a number of influential national member bodies with some of the report's findings and recommendations.

And after thanking the NGO Task Group for completing the report, TC 207 resolved to disband the group on the basis that it had completed its two-year mandate. In its stead, TC 207 created a joint group of NGOs and representatives of the TC 207 leadership to review the N590 report, and to provide recommendations to TC 207 on how to address the specific recommendations within the report. Dubbed the NGO-Chairman's Advisory Group (CAG) Task Force, the body will consist of eight members (4 CAG representatives and 4 NGO representatives). The chair of the new joint group will be an NGO, who will be chosen by the NGOs within TC 207. The NGO-CAG Task Force will deliver its recommendations to TC 207 through the development of an action plan, which will be produced in close cooperation with national and international NGOs.

At its Bali meeting, TC 207 also resolved to welcome an initiative of the NGO participants in TC 207 to establish an NGO Forum (NGOF). The purpose of the NGO Forum is to organize NGO input into the NGO-CAG Task Force, and to address other issues that NGOs consider important.

NGO Asked to Join TC 207 Leadership Body [4/29/03]

In December 2003, Jason Morrison, the Chair of TC 207 NGO Task Group was invited by TC 207 Chair, Daniel Gagnier, to serve on the Chairman's Advisory Group (CAG). Given that NGOs within the committee first began advocating for representation on the CAG in 1999, this recent development can be seen as a milestone for NGOs participating in ISO standards development - Morrison attended his first meeting as a member of the TC 207 CAG in January 2003 in Washington, D.C.

Improving NGO Involvement in ISO/TC 207[4/29/03]

In March 2003, TC 207 NGO Task Group released a draft discussion paper, entitled "Increasing the Effectiveness of NGO Participation in TC 207." The draft document, which includes recommendations for addressing obstacles to effective NGO participation within the committee, is currently out for review and comment by TC 207 member bodies by April 31st. A revised version of the document will be presented for approval by the full membership of the committee at its plenary meeting in July 2003 in Bali.

New Publication on NGO Role in International Environmental Cooperation [4/29/03]

A new report on participation of NGOs in international environmental governance has been jointly commissioned by the German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA) and two research institutes, the Institute for International and European Environmental Research (Ecologic) and the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD). The report includes a case study on ISO, and specifically TC 207.

Reference: Participation of Non-Governmental Organisations in International Environmental Governance

Background: Why ISO Needs Broader Participation [10/30/02]

Historically, ISO has focused on the development of technical standards, including, for example, technical measures pertaining to the height of car bumpers, film sensitivity, and screw size. ISO's movement toward the standardization of "management systems" in the 1980s (first quality, then environmental in the 1990s) is notable because it marks a shift in the organization's focus from technical engineering standards to standards that have greater implications for society and public policy. For example, while local communities may have little interest in the thread width of a screw used in a company's product, they are likely to be profoundly concerned about the methods by which an organization manages its environmental risks, given the potential impact on the community's welfare. In this sense, unlike ISO's technical standards of the past, which primarily affect their users (and customers), the ISO 14000 series standards have direct effects on a much larger set of stakeholders. These stakeholders often carry the burden of environmental "externalities," such as the costs of resource consumption and pollution, while industry stands to enhance profits by "externalizing" environmental impacts.

Likewise, because the ISO 14000 standards aim to tackle issues relating to the environmental performance of companies and sustainable development more generally, they enter realms that are of interest to regulatory authorities, policymakers, and the public. However, given ISO's 50-year history of developing technical standards almost exclusively of interest to industry, the institution remains heavily influenced by the private sector. Thus, while ISO's scope of standardization work is substantially expanding to encompass activities that may have significant societal impacts, there has not been a corresponding increase in representation of public stakeholders.

To date, the development of ISO 14000 standards has been largely influenced by multi-national corporations from industrialized nations, with insufficient representation from southern-hemisphere countries, government agencies, small and medium-sized enterprises, and NGOs. In a majority of national member bodies within TC 207, industry wields comparatively more influence than government and environmental groups. Poor representation of these stakeholder groups means that their perspectives and concerns are not adequately captured in the standards development process or, consequently, in the standards themselves. If, indeed, future standards within ISO are to play a meaningful role in sustainable industrial development, they must more equitably reflect the views of all stakeholder groups affected by ISO's work.
Within ISO/TC 207, some have recognized that the lack of NGO participation is a problem, and in 2000, an NGO Task Group was established to begin investigating the issue of NGO under representation.

About the ISO/TC 207 NGO Task Group [10/30/03]

NGO Task Group: Purpose, Background, and Membership
The purpose of the TC 207 NGO Task Group, officially formed in 2001 by letter ballot, was to recommend ways to expand and enhance NGO participation in ISO 14000 standards development. The NGO Task Group was formed on the recommendation of an NGO Contact Group, convened by TC 207 from 1998 to 2000.

The Contact Group developed, and the Task Group affirmed, the definition of "NGO" as "a non-profit organization that operates independently of government or business structures and has non-commercial objectives related to environmental, consumer interest or sustainable development."
Almost 50 representatives from 17 countries, including NGOs, country representatives, and Category A international liaison organizations participated in the Task Group over its lifespan.

Work Plan
The work of the Task Group took place over a two-year span and was completed by mid-2003. Two "co-leads" - an NGO and a country representative - headed each of the following three work areas:

· Work Area 1. Resource impediments: This sub-group researched resource impediments to NGO participation. The effort focused on identifying alternative methods for national member bodies to address resource constraints on NGO participation in both national-level standards development activity and at the international level as part of member's delegation to TC 207 meetings.

· Work Area 2. Structural/procedural limitations: This sub-group developed a paper (TC 207 N590) that identifies limitations to NGO involvement in ISO 14000 standards development. The discussion paper, "Increasing the Effectiveness of NGO Participation in ISO/TC 207," aims to identify useful strategies that both TC 207 and its members might consider, in order to promote NGO participation.

· Work Area 3. Interface with the broader NGO community: This sub-group served to help the NGO community (both internal and external to TC 207) communicate and discuss their perspectives and concerns about the work of ISO/TC 207. Its activities included developing a guide to the ISO process and Directives, along with any special procedures adopted by TC 207.

For more information on the NGOs currently participating in Technical Committee 207, go to: http://www.ecologia.org/iso14000/initiative/NGOTG-reps.html