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Enhancing NGO Participation in the Work of TC 207
By Jason Morrison, Pacific Institute
Jason Morrison is with the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, a non-profit, non-partisan policy research center based in Oakland, California. He directs the Pacific Institute's Economic Globalization and the Environment Program, where his current research focuses on the policy implications of private sector environmental initiatives and voluntary international standards. Since 1997, Mr. Morrison has been a member of the US Technical Advisory Group to ISO Technical Committee 207, as well as a US delegate to ISO/TC 207. He is a coordinating committee member of the Multi-State Working Group on EMSs, a coalition of state and federal agencies investigating the use of environmental management systems in regulatory innovation.
Meeting formally for the first time in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in July 2001, the ISO/TC 207 Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Task Group began its effort to enhance NGO participation in the ISO 14000 standards development process. The newly formed NGO Task Group currently consists of almost 50 representatives, including NGOs and TC 207 experts from 17 countries, as well as four Category A international liaison organizations - Consumers International, Ecologia, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), and International Network for Environmental Management (INEM). The Task Group is Chaired by Jason Morrison (ANSI), with John Henry (SAI) the Secretary.
TC 207 established the NGO Task Group by formal letter ballot in December 2000 (by a vote of 20 in favor, 10 against, 5 abstentions) and has charged it with addressing three main issues over its two-year lifespan. Specifically, the terms of reference for the group (contained in TC 207 N419) defines those areas as:
- Addressing resource impediments to effective NGO participation
- Deliverable:
- Advice on the development of a mechanism that obtains and sustains funding to support NGO participation in the work of ISO/TC 207 at the international and national levels. The mechanism to collect the funds will be implemented by and the funds will be administered within the NGO community, not by the ISO/TC 207 NGO Task Group or by ISO/TC 207.
- Addressing structural/procedural limitations to effective NGO participation
- Deliverable:
- Development of a paper that identifies whether the procedures and practices of ISO and/or ISO/TC 207 can enable or may limit effective NGO participation, and report back to ISO/TC 207. This paper should seek to identify best practices.
- Establishing an interface with the broader NGO community and enhancing communication, education and coordination within the NGO community (both internal and external to TC 207) on the work of TC 207
- Deliverable(s):
- An information product on the work of ISO/TC 207 with accompanying text regarding the NGO perspective and concerns about the work of ISO/TC 207. Also, outreach will take place in the form of website content and workshops/seminars targeted for an NGO audience.
Over the course of its meetings in Kuala Lumpur, activities of the NGO Task Group included, addressing N419 letter ballot comments and affirming the definition of "NGO" used by the Task Group's predecessor, the TC 207 NGO Contact Group. For purposes of the NGO Task Group, an NGO is defined as "a non-profit organization that operates independently of government or business structures and has non-commercial objectives related to environmental, consumer interest or sustainable development."
In working toward its mandate, the TG also established work plans for the three deliverables and developed timelines and assigned responsibilities for each. Two "co-leads" - an NGO and a non-NGO - were assigned to head each of the three work areas. It was decided unanimously at the outset that no changes would be made to the terms of reference or deliverables approved by TC 207 in N419, with the exception of the Task Group's sunset date which was extended to June 2003 to reflect the delayed inception of the group. The next meeting of the NGO TG will be held in June 2002 at the TC 207 plenary meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Countries Participating in the TC 207 NGO Task Group
Argentina
Australia
Brazil
Canada
Columbia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Egypt
Indonesia
Korea
Malaysia
New Zealand
Russia
South Africa
Sweden
United States
Zimbabwe
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This article first appeared in the Janaruy-February 2002 edition of ISO Management Systems which is published six times a yeear by the Central Secretariat of ISO (International Organization for Standardization) in Geneva, Switzerland. Tel. + 41 22 749 01 11; Fax + 41 22 733 34 30. E-mail central@iso.org. Web www.iso.org.
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