The majority of developing countries are unable to meaningfully participate in the profitable global trade of manufactured goods. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) aims to address this inequality by helping developing countries attract investments, develop their supply capacity, ensure compliance with market requirements and standards, and gain access to export markets, while protecting consumers and the environment. UNIDO is conscious that a country’s degree of involvement with standardization and conformity assessment (for example, number of nationally adopted standards, enterprises certified, laboratories accredited, etc.) tends to be reflected in its general level of economic and industrial development.
 
The developing world recognizes that delays in adopting processes for the harmonization of standards and for continuously improving quality, standardization, metrology and conformity assessment will hinder its potential to fully enjoy the advantages of global trade, and jeopardize its efforts towards development, employment creation and poverty reduction.
 
UNIDO thus offers support to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to comply with International Standards and regulations and overcome technical barriers to trade or sanitary and phytosanitary measures. Numerous national standards bodies (NSBs), laboratories and conformity assessment bodies in developing countries benefit from UNIDO’s capacity-building and technical assistance services.Ideally, NSBs should actively participate as full members in international standards organizations and their development work. However, they often lack the financial resources and technical experts needed for such investment – issues that UNIDO aims to address through its programmes and activities.
 
A UNIDO/ISO Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in 2003 to jointly assist developing countries and emerging economies to enhance industrial development and participate in world trade through standardization.
 
Following up, UNIDO has supported numerous NSBs in becoming ISO members, increasing their participation in international standardization activities, harmonizing national standards with ISO standards and assisting businesses, governments and consumers in implementing ISO standards. UNIDO is also committed to supporting the ISO Action Plan for Developing Countries.
 
UNIDO’s recent involvement in ISO-led activities encompassed food safety and traceability standards, social responsibility and energy management, the joint development and publication of Fast Forward – National standards bodies in developing countries and training material for food safety management (ISO 22000) – examples of how the synergy between the leading international standards development organization, ISO, and the UN agency mandate to foster sustainable industrial development is effective and vibrant.
 
ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is a global network that identifies which international standards are required by business, government and society, develops them in partnership with the sectors that will put them to use, adopts them by transparent procedures based on national, multi-stakeholder input, and delivers them to be implemented worldwide. ISO Standards distil an international consensus from the broadest possible base of stakeholder groups. Expert input comes from those closest to the needs for the standards and also to the results of implementing them. In this way, although voluntary, ISO standards are widely respected and accepted by public and private sectors internationally.