Promoting partnerships for sustainability – UNIDO continues to support the United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards

Voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) are creating greater export opportunities for developing countries. In 2013, the United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS) was created to support developing countries to better understand, address and potentially benefit from standards-based sustainability programmes. The UNFSS is an international platform of five UN bodies: the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Trade Centre (ITC), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment), and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

UNFSS is the only neutral dialogue forum to provide information, analysis and discussions on VSS at the intergovernmental level. UNIDO continues to contribute to the work on VSS in its project countries, such as its Safe+ quality programme for the cosmetics sector in Colombia and the SMART-Fish Indonesia programme, and by forming partnerships with key players in VSS. A strategic alliance with ISEAL has resulted in promoting sustainability standards through major global events such as in Colombia in 2016 and in Indonesia in 2017.

For more information, please refer to online article or contact: Ms. Dominika Dor (D.Dor [at] unido.org)