UNIDO celebrates World Metrology Day 2020

On the occasion of World Metrology Day, marked on 20 May, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has published insights on the relevance of “Quality, standards and testing in the fight against COVID-19”.

Quality control, standards and metrology play a particularly important role in mitigating the negative effects of the global pandemic. The insight document is the result of a virtual panel discussion UNIDO convened within a series of webinars with international experts from counterpart organizations in order to discuss the challenges thrown up by the COVID-19 pandemic for Quality Infrastructure, and what measures will need to be taken in the future in order to meet new challenges.

“The standards are important and the testing is important, but behind them is the metrology. If you are not getting the right answers in this kind of a crisis, you have an absolute disaster beyond the immediate disaster”, says Andy Henson, Director of the International Liaison and Communication Department at the International Bureau of Weights and Measurements (BIPM).

Reliability of test results, accreditation, metrology, certification and standards are vital to ensure that health services can combat the novel coronavirus, to maintain the continuity of vital supply chains during the lockdown, the development of new technologies that are being created to address the crisis, to ensure occupational health and safety and organizational resilience, inter alia, in the post-crisis period.

The World Metrology Day project is realized jointly by the BIPM and the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML).

Download the publication here.

Download the technical outcome document here.