Duplication: Different ministries often tend to establish their own laboratories which put pressure on scarce human and financial resources. This practice can be exacerbated by poor coordination of development partners. Options for change: Assess country level capacity needs, merging laboratories.
Financial Sustainability: Developing economies face challenges with servicing and maintaining electronic laboratory equipment. Development partner agencies often provide different makes of equipment, instead of a standard few. Options for change: provision for simultaneous servicing to standard equipment; establishment of an agent for local servicing
Cost: Government may make a political decision to support conformity assessment at prices that are not viable for the testing laboratories or certification organisations. Options for change: Appropriate pricing should cover real costs plus a margin for servicing and maintenance.
Human capacity gaps: Assessments for certification (e.g. ISO 9000; ISO 14000) requires trained and competent auditors. Option for change: capacity strengthening intervention
High establishment costs: Initial running costs before the body achieves self-sufficiency may be high due to necessary costs in years 1-4 of developing policies and procedures, training staff, developing client base, and pursuing accreditation etc.
