Source: United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Background
Standards shape the products that surround us. They also help facilitate trade. It is important to ensure that all human beings are properly represented in the processes that develop the standards that affect them, especially women and that this gender mainstreaming remains constant throughout the quality infrastructure for trade.
Building upon work within the UNECE Working Party on Regulatory Cooperation and Standardization Policies (WP.6), this project will raise awareness and build capacity on gender mainstreaming in standards development bodies and the government agencies involved in the quality infrastructure for trade.
The work undertaken so far revealed that the main challenge for standards development organizations is to develop a workable gender action plan and to roll this out. The UNECE Guidelines on the topic provide a clear way forward to increase inclusiveness and ensure a gender lens to standards development. This project aims to tackle some of the remaining challenges:
- building the consensus and buy-in;
- making sure that the gender action plan is not just words on paper but actionable targets;
- verifying that the results are effective;
- developing recommendations on the best way forward…
Objective
This launch event will mark the start of this project in Georgia. It will bring together the main actors in the quality infrastructure for trade and outline the work which has already been achieved internationally in relation to gender-responsive standards. It will then explore how this can be rolled out to other bodies involved in the quality infrastructure for trade.
The first day shall be a conference open to a wide audience laying down the basic principles of gender mainstreaming in standards development and in the processes linked to quality infrastructure for trade.
The second day shall be a closed workshop for a targeted group of experts from each of the relevant quality infrastructure bodies who will be directly working on this project over the next two years.
Target audience
Target institutions include agencies with a remit on metrology, market surveillance, conformity assessment, accreditation, standardization, laboratory testing and all other stakeholders involved in the quality infrastructure for trade.
Draft agenda
20 February 2025, workshop aimed at enabling the team who will work on this project meet the objectives
21 February 2025, conference
- Opening and welcome remarks
- Ariel Ivanier, Chief, Market Access Section, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) [Bio & PPT]
-
Erik Andermo, Economist, Office of the UN Resident Coordinator (RCO) [Bio & PPT]
- Mariam Gabunia, Head of the Foreign Trade Policy Department, Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development
- Davit Tkemaldze, Director General, Georgian National Agency for Standards and Metrology (GeoSTM) [Bio & PPT]
- Giorgi Chitadze, Deputy Director General, Georgian Accreditation Center [Bio & PPT]
- Keynote speech
- Nino Elizbarashvili, Association Women in Business
- Case study
- Karin Lindmark, Head of Technical Policies and Standardization Services, Swedish Institute for Standards (SIS) [Bio & PPT]
- Why quality infrastructure?
- Why gender mainstreaming?
Lunch break
- Basics of gender
- Rachel Miller, ISO
- Karin Lindmark, SIS
- Nino Elizbarashvili, Association Women in Business
- Ketevan Shubashvili, UN Women
- Gender perspectives in trade policy and standards
- Ariel Ivanier, UNECE
- Nino Manvelidze
- Lessons learned from gender-responsive standards
- Lance Thompson, UNECE [PPT3]
- Rachel Miller, ISO
- Barriers and enablers for gender mainstreaming in quality infrastructure
- Rachel Miller, ISO