The International

Organization for
Standardization (ISO)
Agenda
[Link] ISO
[Link] and governance of ISO
[Link] and management of the technical work
[Link] are ISO standards developed?
About ISO
About us
• Founded in 1947
• Independent
• Non-governmental organization
• Global network of national standards bodies
• 1 member per country
• Languages: English, French, Russian
• ISO membership comes with
rights, benefits, obligations and good practice
164 22000+
members International Standards

300+ 100
technical committees new standards each month
The ISO system

Represent ISO
in their country

Write the
standards

Coordinates
system
What experts do
• Write the standards
• Nominated by members
but can also come from
partner organizations like
the United Nations and
other key players
What members do
• Represent ISO in their country
• Approve standards by voting
• Enable national experts and
stakeholders to participate in
standards development
• Propose new standards
What ISO/CS does
• Facilitates participation in
standardization
• Provides a neutral platform for
the experts to get together and
achieve consensus
• Coordinates the standards
development process
Structure and governance
of ISO
ISO Governance Structure
Advisory

Reporting
General
Council Standing Assembly
Committees

Policy Development
Committees Council
COPOLCO

DEVCO President’s
CASCO
Committee
TMB

Technical ISO Central

Committees Secretariat
ISO Central Secretariat

Secretary General
148 staff

• Process coordination
• Day to day operations
• International Standards Publication
• Secretariat for the governing bodies
Technical Management Board
• 15 members from Member Bodies
• Elected for 3-year terms
• Represents the ISO’s community
interest
• Meets 3 times a year
• Overall management of technical work
• Sets the rules for quality and efficiency
• Contributes to decisions on strategic
issues
• Reports to the Council
ISO Strategic Plan
Six strategic directions

1. ISO standards used everywhere

2. Develop high quality standards through
ISO’s global membership
3. Engage stakeholders and partners
4. People and organization development
5. Use of technology
6. Communication
ISO Members
“One country, 119 Member bodies

one vote”
39 Correspondent members
3 Subscriber members
Full Members

Participation in any policy or technical

body
Voting & commenting rights
Adoption of ISO standards
May sell ISO Publications
Correspondent
Members
Participation in any policy or technical
body as observers
No voting nor commenting rights
Adoption of ISO standards
May sell ISO Publications
Subscriber
Members
Observer status at the General
Assembly
No voting nor commenting rights
Can't adopt ISO standards
Can't sell ISO Publications
Capacity building for increased
participation: Twinning
Twinning arrangements
Training
Guidance
Sharing experience
P-member
Convenor
Secretariat
Vice-Chairs

Capacity building
Structure and management
of the technical work
Committees
The technical work is carried out in
committees:

• ISO/TCs, Technical committees

• ISO/SCs, Subcommittees of TCs
• ISO/PCs, Projects Committees
developing only one standard that does
not fit within the scope of an existing
committee
Technical committee structure
TMB

Technical Technical
Committee Committee

Sub-committee Sub-committee Working Group

Working Group
 ISO members holding committee secretariats
140
130

120

101
100

80
71 70

60
50

40

25 24
22
19 19
20 15
13 12
9
7
5 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
0
Leadership
Committee secretariat – allocated to
an ISO member
• Secretary – project management
• Chair – strategy, lead meetings,
build consensus, sector knowledge
• Convenor (Working groups) – lead
project development, build
consensus, technical expertise
Participating
members
Active role
Voting obligation
Identify experts
Provide national delegations
Stakeholder engagement
Observing members
Those who wish to follow
No voting rights at committee level
Can make contribution
But do not want to commit
Open to Member Bodies
Recently created committees
Technical Committees Secretariat Committee Date
Collaborative business relationship management (converted from PC) BSI (UK) ISO/TC 286 February 2017

Excellence in service DIN (Germany) ISO/TC 312 September 2017

Packaging machinery UNI (Italy) ISO/TC 313 November 2017
Ageing societies BSI (United Kingdom) ISO/TC 314 November 2017
Occupational health and safety management BSI (United Kingdom) ISO/TC 283 April 2018

Karst SAC (China) ISO/TC 319 June 2018

Project Committees Secretariat Committee Date

Vulnerable consumers BSI (UK) ISO/PC 311 June 2017
Indirect, temperature-controlled refrigerated delivery services - Land JISC (Japan) ISO/PC 315 January 2018
transport of parcels with intermediate transfer

Water efficient products - Banding SA (Australia) ISO/PC 316 February 2018

Consumer protection: privacy by design for consumer goods and BSI (United Kingdom) ISO/PC 317 March 2018
services
Community scale resource oriented sanitation treatment systems ANSI (United States) ISO/PC 318 March 2018
How are ISO standards
developed?
Types of ISO deliverable
ISO International
Standards

ISO Guides ISO/PAS Publicly Available

Specifications

IWA International ISO/TS Technical

Workshop Agreements Specifications

ISO/TR Technical
Reports
ISO Standards (1)
• Represent global consensus on a solution
to a particular issue
• Embody universally agreed procedure or
practice
• Provide requirements, specifications,
guidelines or characteristics to consistently
ensure that materials, products, processes
and services are fit for their purpose
• Voluntary
ISO Standards (2)
Do NOT:
• Seek to establish, drive or motivate public
policy or regulations, social or political
agendas

• Set performance thresholds (these are set

by policy makers/regulators according to
their requirements)
The Six Principles for the Development
of International Standards
 Transparency
 Openness
 Impartiality and consensus
 Effectiveness and relevance
 Coherence
 Development dimension

ISO complies with all of these

34
 Additional ISO emphasis
 Due process

 National implementation / adoption of ISO

standards
 Stakeholder engagement

35
ISO Standards & SDGs
• Dedicated website ([Link]/sdgs)
Mapping tool – over 600 standards listed
• Awareness materials (brochure, video,
articles..)
• Guidance for standards writers
• Engagement with user community
Stages of standards development
Optional stage

Mandatory stage

Stakeholder need – Open to all ISO

proposal for a solution, members (national
New Project (NP) submitted public enquiries) –
to the committee National position
12 weeks by default 8-week translation
8 weeks possible 12-week ballot

NP DIS Publication

WD CD FDIS

Project 1st circulation to Open to all ISO members

developed in WG committee members – (editorial review) –
– expert input National position National position
8 weeks by default 8-week ballot
12 or 16 weeks
possible
National level
• What is the role of the ISO members at
national level?
• Stakeholder engagement

NSBs provide the platform to:

• Facilitate/manage standards development
• Distribute/maintain standards
• Receive requests for new projects
• Identify stakeholders
• Coordinate the input from stakeholders
NSBs – The organizational basis of ISO
ISO Technical
Committees
Information technology

National Food products

Stakeholders
Automotive
- Industry
(incl. SMEs) NSBs ISO Environmental
management
- Consumers
Oil and gas
- Academia
- Regulators Occupational health and
- Others safety mgmt

Building construction

NSBs are governmental or non-governmental (private) bodies. They are Energy management
recognized as “national” bodies responsible for standardization in their
country (through national standardization laws, MoUs or other ………
agreements between the government and the NSB)
National level - NMCs
Chairman • ISO members have national
committees that ‘mirror’ the
Secretariat work of ISO TCs
• ‘National Mirror Committees’
Academia Labour • NMC comments (CD) and
votes (DIS and FDIS) on
Members NGOs
proposals from ISO
Government
• Nominates national delegation
Consumers
Standards to ISO/TC (and experts to WG)
application
• Forwards proposals to national
interested parties & collects
comments
Industry
Questions?