Sustainability standards

March 23, 2020

Leveraging public procurement as a political vehicle to promote the SDGs

Governments’ pledges for sustainable development are flourishing, most notably as they signed up to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. But how can they translate such pledges into practice? Voluntary Sustainability Standards, or VSS, have been recognised as potentially transformative tools for sustainable trade, and they offer great potential for governments to realise their sustainability commitments through two main avenues. First, public procurement represents, on average, 12 percent of GDP in OECD countries, and up to 30 percent of GDP in

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September 17, 2018

Launch of the 3rd Flagship Report: Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS), Trade and Sustainable Development

3rd UNFSS Flagship Report: Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS), Trade and Sustainable Development   The relationship between Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS), trade and sustainable development are among the most pronounced concepts sought-after the realm of green global value chains. We typically see the benefits of imposing sustainability standards as a positive advantage contributing to the environment, social and the economy. The VSS system has in fact influence the export landscape to either facilitate market access or become an obstacle to trade, especially for importing countries that have turned to

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March 15, 2016

Launch of the Indian National Platform on Private Sustainable Standards, 18 March 2016, New Delhi, India.

  On 18 March the Government of India launched a national platform on private sustainability standards. The platform was supported by UNFSS, a joint initiative of five UN Agencies (FAO, ITC, UNCTAD, UNEP and UNIDO). The Quality Council of India (QCI) and UNFSS have agreed to collaborate on setting up a National Platform on PSS in India. The Quality Council of India (QCI) is the national quality facilitation and accreditation body, set up by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government

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August 4, 2015

New UNFSS Discussion Papers

We are happy to announce the addition of 3 new Discussion Papers to the UNFSS Discussion Paper Series: UNFSS Discussion Paper #4 Public-Private Collaboration on Policy, Standards, Regulations and Trade Facilitation for Organic Agriculture, by Diane Bowen, in collaboration with Ulrich Hoffmann UNFSS Discussion Paper #5 Plurilateral Regulatory Cooperation on Organic Agriculture and Trade, by Diane Bowen, in collaboration with Ulrich Hoffmann UNFSS Discussion Paper #6 Assuring Coherence between the Market-access and Livelihood Impact of Private

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