National Platform launch

Africa prepares to mainstream Voluntary Sustainability Standards: Launch of the African Continental platform on Voluntary Sustainability Standards

On 6th April 2022, the African Organisation for standardization (ARSO), in collaboration with UNFSS, launched the African Continental platform on Voluntary Sustainability Standards. The platform will promote the development and implementation of sustainability standards, assist Small and Mid-size Enterprises (SMEs) in their implementation, and encourage the establishment of national platforms in ARSO member countries. The launch was conducted virtually and discussed the importance of an established multi-stakeholder platform for collectively assessing VSS’s impact on Africa’s sustained trade growth and sustainable development.

UNCTAD Secretary General

Launch Summary Report

The following is a summary report from the successful launch event of the UNFSS held at the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva on March 21-22, 2013. The report provides an overview of the event and the discussions held, concluding with a consolidated and approved work plan which the UNFSS will use to focus its initial activities during the following two years. UNFSS launch summary report

participants

UNFSS Launch Update

UNFSS Launch Update: April 10th, 2013 The Launching Conference of the United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards was held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on March 20-21. There were over 200 participants from a wide variety of stakeholder groups (inter alia: government, private sector, standard bodies, research institutes etc.). The conclusions were quite positive, in that they confirmed the need for and interest in the UNFSS, and that the UNFSS should be a source of credible information and analysis while

UNFSS Official Launch

  The official public launch of the UNFSS will be held in Geneva on March 21st and 22nd 2013. This will be an opportunity to learn about the goals of this new forum to address the issue of Voluntary Sustainability Standards as a sustainable development tool. As well it will provide an opportunity for participants to express their opinion on priority issues the UNFSS should address and activities it should undertake. Downloads For your reference, below is the official flyer for the UNFSS,

unfss update december 2012

UNFSS Update December 2012

The Forum has received strong interest, and we have continued to present the UNFSS in a number of events.  Most recently at : the International Conference on Sustainable Business and Consumption in Bonn, Nov. 27-28 (http://www.suscon.net/), UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Board Geneva, Sept. 24th (http://unctad.org/en/pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=69), the OECD Joint Working Group on Trade and Environment Experts (Paris, Dec. 10-11th), the WTO TBT Committee (Geneva, Nov. 11-13th), and the GIZ cocoa supply chain technical board meeting in (Amsterdam, Nov. 28-29th, giz.de/themen/en/33272.htm) We are also organizing a series of