Our Goals
We are the only forum to provide information, analysis and discussions on Voluntary Sustainability Standards at the intergovernmental level.
We aim to promote proactive and strategic dialogue about national policies and experiences, as well as on meta-governance issues of VSS.
The forum is designed to become the backbone for the development of a coherent programme of public policy and private initiatives ––at both standard-setting and implementation stage.
This can make Voluntary Sustainability Standards work for:
Achieving the specific sustainability objectives of developing countries like reducing poverty, using natural resources sustainably and protecting ecosystems;
Opening foreign markets;
Lowering potential hurdles to development and access to markets;
Averting the costs of compliance.
For this, and taking the scale of the issue in account, key United Nations bodies working in the area of sustainability standards, commodity sector development and sustainable agriculture are working together.
They include:
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
The International Trade Centre
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
The United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment)
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
These organizations are backed up by many other institutions and stakeholder groups linked to the forum. They provide or help bring about the analytical and empirical support we need to be an effective platform for policy dialogue.
