IFAN Strategies for 2006-2010
As approved by the IFAN Members' Assembly held in Bejing (China) on 24 October 2006IFAN vision
To be recognized as the international voice of standards users and to play its part in the development of a global economy through the removal of technical barriers to trade and the wider use of international standards.
Strategic objectives
1 Promoting the development and use of international standards
1.1 Encourage global cooperation and coordination between international, regional and national standards organizations in order to avoid a waste of resources in standards development and the existence of multiple standards for the same products or services.
1.2 Encourage direct or identical (in accordance with ISO/IEC Guide 21:1999) application of international standards.
1.3 Avoid duplication of efforts in the development of standards and, to this end, to call upon national standardizing bodies:
- as a rule, to develop international standards rather than national standards;
- to coordinate their standardization programmes with those of international standards organizations;
- to participate directly or indirectly in the development of international standards.
1.4 Encourage the acceptance of the WTO(1) TBT2) Code of Good Practice for the Preparation, Adoption and Application of Standards by standardizing bodies.
1.5 Encourage non-proliferation of regional standards and, to this end, promote the direct implementation of international standards or the adoption of international standards as regional standards or, where international standards do not exist, develop them in international organizations.
2 Promoting reference to international standards in regulations
2.1 Encourage transparency in the development and accessibility of regulations.
2.2 Encourage the use of standards wherever possible in preference to regulations.
2.3 Where regulations are needed, encourage reference to international standards for technical content wherever possible.
2.4 Promote information on regulations that makes reference to, or uses, international standards.
2.5 Cooperate with the UN3), WTO, OECD4) and other governmental organizations and to promote among them the use of references to international standards or to their national adoptions in regulations.
3 Influencing the international standardization process
3.1 Represent the view of users in ISO5), IEC6) and ITU7).
3.2 Promote the participation of IFAN representatives in policy committees in international and regional standards organizations.
3.3 Encourage the continuing improvement of international standards in order to ensure their global relevance (i.e. relevance to standards end users throughout the world).
4 Promoting the principle that conformity assessment structures, schemes and procedures respond to standards users' needs
4.1 Taking into account the restrictive effect on trade of multiple testing and conformity assessment procedures, promote implementation of open international and regional systems for conformity assessment.
4.2 Promote the development of systems which effectively assure the competence of conformity assessment bodies in general and third party certification bodies in particular with a view to raising credibility and confidence in their assessment results.
4.3 Contribute to the development of international standards and guides on conformity assessment through ISO/CASCO8)and IEC/CAB9)and to provide feedback from the users on the application and market relevance of those standards and guides.
4.4 Promote the harmonization of working methods, procedures and criteria related to conformity assessment via the preparation, implementation and systematic review of relevant international standards and guides.
4.5 Encourage the existence of all conformity assessment systems including the supplier's declaration of conformity, provided it is based on competent technical work (testing, inspection, quality control, etc.) and when used in appropriate circumstances.
4.6 Promote the development and improvement of effective market surveillance activities as a necessary means of ensuring confidence in conformity assessment results independent of the conformity assessment body.
5 Encouraging openness, transparency and awareness in conformity assessment structures, procedures and results
5.1 Encourage the activities of IAF10) and ILAC11) in order to assure that conformity assessment international standards and guides are consistently applied in all countries.
5.2 Support the principle that all certification systems shall be based on international standards, open to worldwide participation and transparent in their activities.
6 Supporting education and training related to standardization
6.1 Support preparation of materials for education and training in standardization and encourage educational establishments to include standardization in their education and training programmes.
6.2 Promote the use of e-learning methods in education and training on standardization.
6.3 Encourage standards developing organizations to provide students and educational establishments with easy access to standards and standards products.
7 Facilitating the distribution of information on standards, standards development and conformity assessment
7.1 Encourage the transparency of technical work programmes.
7.2 Promote the creation of a central index on standards and work items of technical programmes of standardizing bodies.
7.3 Encourage the use of electronic tools and electronic methods in the development of standards and the availability of standards electronically.
7.4 Encourage standards bodies to make standards available to users in an effective way and via multiple distribution channels which provide up-to-date information. These channels should include distribution via the headquarters of international and regional organizations, national standards bodies and third party commercial organizations in both hard copy and electronic form.
8 Developing IFAN
8.1 Promote IFAN to attract potential members from both developed and developing economies.
8.2 Promote events organized by IFAN members.
8.3 Support the interests in standardization of all enterprises including SMEs12).
1) WTO – World Trade Organization
2) TBT – Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade
3) UN – United Nations
4) OECD – Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
5) ISO – International Organization for Standardization
6) IEC – International Electrotechnical Commission
7) ITU – International Telecommunication Union
8) CASCO – Committee on conformity assessment
9) CAB– Conformity Assessment Board
10) IAF – International Accreditation Forum
11) ILAC – International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation
12) SME – small and medium enterprises