By The Movement For Community-led Development
The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) announced an expansion of its initiative for
identifying standards to help advance the SDGs. The ‘Portal on Standards for SDGs’ was initially
launched in 2018 with 1,600 standards linked to five SDGs and now includes 20,000 standards
addressing all 17 SDGs. According to UNECE, this makes it the largest repository of standards mapped to the SDGs.
The portal aims to encourage organisations that develop standards to consider them accelerators of
sustainability. In addition to the standards, the portal includes 40 case studies and 10 commentary pieces from standards experts, aiming to demonstrate how standards can help achieve the SDGs.
UNECE Executive Secretary Olga Algayerova explained that standards drive progress towards the 2030 Agenda and accelerate economic growth by establishing technical specifications and procedures and disseminating best practice techniques. This facilitates product compliance and ensures the safety of the products, services, and processes.
Finally, regarding the Declaration for Gender Responsive Standards and Standards Development signed in 2019, signing countries and international, regional and national standards bodies and organisations pledged to create and implement a gender action plan for their body or organisation and share data and information on their plan’s implementation.
Source article: https://sdg.iisd.org/news/unece-platform-holds-20000-standards-mapped-to-sdgs/