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Standards and Voluntary Initiatives

Ensuring participatory and inclusive governance

Standards and other criteria-based voluntary initiatives set rules for production and trade. Where voluntary rules-based systems integrate sustainable development objectives, participatory, inclusive, impartial and transparent governance form a pre-requisite for effective and credible application. To date, voluntary standards have shown a great deal of flexibility and ingenuity in attempting to meet these objectives in the international context. At the same time, the diversity of different structures and systems has remained relatively opaque to most stakeholders, including public policy-makers. Moreover, the fact that many such initiatives are often born out of small groups of collaborating partners can threaten their impartiality and the ability of other stakeholders to exercise input and influence. As a form of "de facto" trade policy, voluntary standards need, above all, to ensure participatory and inclusive governance in their design. The promotion of good governance among standards initiatives forms a key priority for IISD's SMART initiative.

Good governance and design are, in part, about ensuring the appropriate distribution of obligations and responsibilities; costs and benefits. To date, however, there is very little cross-initiative information or comparisons of the impacts of different standards initiatives. As a means for promoting transparency in governance and, ultimately, maximum efficiency in the application of standards-based initiatives, the SMART initiative is promoting rigorous science-based analysis and impact assessment of such initiatives. By promoting greater clarity and credibility in the science behind supply chain approaches, IISD seeks to leverage maximum impact and benefits from voluntary initiative and complementary government policy.

Contents

• ENTWINED (Environment and Trade in a World of Interdepence)
  The ENTWINED project is a consortium initiative lead by the Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL), a think tank funded by the Mistra foundation.

• The Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA)
  The COSA project offers the first global analysis of the sustainability impacts of major sustainability initiatives operative in the coffee sector.

• State of Sustainability Initiatives (SSI)
  The State of Sustainability Initiatives (SSI) is a global initiative dedicated to improving our understanding of voluntary standards and sustainability initiatives operating in commodity markets worldwide. With groundbreaking research at its foundation, SSI reporting services aim to significantly improve access to information on the impacts, effectiveness and scope of voluntary initiatives for sustainable commodities.

• International Forum on Assessing Sustainability in Agriculture (INFASA)
  INFASA is a platform which brings together major indicator initiatives together with a view to establishing common parameters for SD indicator development in the agricultural sector.

• ISO 26000 (CSR Guidance)
  As chair of Task Group 3 of the ISO 26000 process, IISD is well positioned to promote inclusiveness and integrity within the forthcoming CSR guidance and the ISO standards development process more generally.

• ABS Management Tool Project
  Under the Bonn Guidelines on Access to Genetic Resources and Fair and Equitable Sharing of the Benefits Arising out of their Utilization, of the Convention on Biological Diversity, companies commit to sharing benefits of the use of genetic resources with host countries. Through its SECO funded Access and Benefit Sharing project, IISD has led the development of the "Access and Benefit Sharing Management Tool"—a voluntary tool for implementing the Bonn Guidelines.

• Corporate Social Responsibility: An Implementation Guide for Business
  The critical role of companies in implementing sustainable development internationally is widely recognized. Increasingly, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is being acknowledged not only as a key to risk mitigation but also as a core element for building corporate value. This guide, designed for businesses operating in the international context, provides an overview of the basic steps to, and instruments for, implementing a CSR strategy adapted specifically to your business or organizational context.