A regional approach to support ISO members and their stakeholders

The institutional capacity of ISO members in the Middle East and North Africa was strengthened and the use of sustainable development standards promoted through the five-year MENA STAR project (2015-2018) with the following results: 

  • Specific ISO standards were implemented to advance the SDGs: a pool of 94 national trainers were trained up in energy management and environmental management.
  • Life-cycle assessment and water footprinting are now available in the region.
  • Six ISO members are in the process of implementing ISO 37001 on anti-bribery management systems within their organizations.
  • The implementation of good standardization practices resulted in optimizing national standards development processes, developing national standardization strategies, setting guidelines on managing participation in international standardization, and developing marketing and communication plans.
  • The implementation of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) was supported by strengthening the national TBT enquiry points and enhancing awareness among regulators on the importance of implementing good regulatory practices and the use of standards as a basis for technical regulations.

Beneficiary countries: Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, State of Palestine, Syria, Tunisia
Donor: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)

 

“Building sustainable businesses with ISO standards” – Selected case studies from the MENA STAR project

Improve your environmental performance with this family of standards.
Manage the risks that could jeopardize your company’s performance with this ISO standard.
Prevent, detect and address bribery.
Reduce workplace risks and make sure that everyone gets home safely with ISO 45001.
ISO’s standard for helping organizations manage their energy performance.

Projects

Applying good standardization practices to help ISO members better serve the standardization needs of their countries.
Identify and prioritize the needs of your country that can be addressed through standardization.
Enhancing the collaboration between standardizers and policy makers in support of good regulatory practices.
Efficient participation of developing countries in international standardization enables a better integration in the global market.
Applying ISO standards reduces technical barriers to trade and increases developing countries’ trade opportunities.
Promoting and disseminating clean cooking standards by working in synergy with key partners.
The institutional capacity of national standards bodies in the Middle East and North Africa was strengthened and the use of sustainable development standards promoted.
Applying ISO 26000 on social responsibility in the MENA region contributed to sustainable development.