African Continental Platform on Voluntary Sustainability Standards

The African Continental platform will be coordinated by the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO), an Intergovernmental Organisation established by the former Organization of African Unity (OAU, currently African Union (AU)) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in 1977 whose mandate is to promote standardization in Africa to boost intra Africa and global trade. This includes; develop and/or harmonize African standards for all products of interest to intra- African trade and operate a regional certification marking scheme with a view to certifying the quality of and promoting African products. ARSO is a membership organization of African countries through their National Standards Bodies and or Departments dealing with standards and Trade. It represents Africa in international Bodies like ISO, IEC, ITU, CODEX and supports member states in harmonization of standards. ARSO with the engagement of stakeholders has developed six sustainability standards in agriculture fishery, forestry, tourism and aquaculture (African cat fish and Tilapia).

The Continental platform for Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) will serve as a mechanism to strengthen the capacities of public and private entities in Africa in terms of sustainability, being an initiative that will contribute to the African Strategy for the promotion of sustainable consumption and production of goods and services as well as implementation of the SDGs.

The launch of the African platform will take place in 2021.