Workshops for ASEAN and the Philippines 24-25 Oct

UNFSS workshops for ASEAN and for the Philippines, jointly organized by UNFSS and the Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Product Standards, Department of Agriculture of the Philippines, will take place on October 24th and October 25th in Dau, the Philippines.

The workshops are targeted at key decision-makers and stakeholders from government, the private sector, civil society and academia. High-level speakers and panelists comprise officials from the Department of Agriculture (DA) of the Philippines, the UNFSS and collaborating UN agencies, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Thai Board of Trade, producer and exporter associations in addition to other national and international standards’ experts. They will have the opportunity to exchange their views and share with participants their experiences related to voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) from national and regional perspectives. The aim of the meeting is to explore options for public and private sector collaboration and coordinated as well as strategic approaches to achieve sustainable development goals and facilitate market access, at national levels and in the ASEAN region.

The thematic focus of the workshops will be on Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) and organic standards as well as the contribution UNFSS can make to the national and regional management of VSS. In particular, the coexistence of and modular approaches between GAP programmes and commercial GAP standards to serve different domestic and international market segments and the challenges and opportunities arising from the development of an ASEAN organic standards scheme will be discussed.

Besides, participants will obtain first hand information on the objectives, added value and priority activities of the UNFSS for 2014-2015 and can give feedback on issues of interest and concern related to VSS of relevance for ASEAN and for the Philippines, which they feel UNFSS should take up as priority activities in its future work.

Downloads

Agenda UNFSS Regional Briefing ASEAN 24 Oct

Agenda UNFSS briefing Philippines 25 Oct

The United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS) is a joint initiative of 5 UN Agencies (FAO, ITC, UNCTAD, UN Environment and UNIDO) that seeks to address these challenges. It is a demand-driven forum for intergovernmental actors to communicate among each other and engage with key target groups (producers, traders, consumers, standard-setters, certification-bodies, trade diplomats, relevant NGOs and researchers) to address their information needs and influence concerned stakeholders. It aims to provide impartial information, analysis, and discussions on VSS and their potential contribution to facilitate market access, strengthen public goods and achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Most importantly, the UNFSS focuses on potential trade or development obstacles VSS may create, with particular emphasis on their impact on SMEs and less developed countries.

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