Standards are a pervasive part of our lives. They are at the conceptualization of all products around us and determine what and how is brought onto the market. Until now, very often the reference for establishing standards has been the male morphology, leaving half the population unrepresented in the development of standards for products which they likely use on a daily basis. In order to reach true sustainable development, the 2030 agenda – and more specifically SDG 5 – on gender equality need to be brought into the product lifecycle at the earliest possible time and be considered at all stages.
This one-day event shall bring forward the results of a three-year project within the Working Party on Regulatory Cooperation and Standardization Policies (WP.6) called “Enhancing usage and uptake of standards for sustainable development, gender equality and the empowerment of women”. This project was made possible by a generous contribution from the German government. It shall highlight:
- The Standards for SDG portal, mapping around twenty thousand standards of a dozen international standards development organizations
- E-learning modules on key topics relevant to standards development and their use
- The Gender-Responsive Standards Initiative of WP.6 and the progress it has been able to achieve as well as the points of view of the key stakeholders in this initiative
- A summary of the training webinars offered to standards development organizations
- A series of videos from standards development organizations
Beyond what has been accomplished and what we have learned from this work, the event will also look at what are the potential problems and next steps.
