Technical support to Mauritius Standards Board

In 2010 I had an assignment for the SADC-SQAM project coaching the management of MSB. One task was to facilitate  a workshop on strategy management which was reflected in the MSB website 

Worth remembering from the CITD-training on "Standards and how these support technical regulations"

The topics identified worth remembering during the concluding reflection on the training on 23rd of November in New Delhi were:

• The definitions of "standards" and "technical regulations
• The difference between "mandatory standars" (=technical regulations) and "voluntary standards"
• The concept "presumption of conformity"
• What is required for the elaboration of technical regulations
• The method of transposing harmonised European standards (EN/HD) into national standards
• The lack of specification by the WTO TBT-committee which standards organisations are international standards organisations
• The CEN/CENELEC process to developed standards to be regarded as Hamonised standards by the European Commission publishing indicative references to them in the Official Journal of the EU
• The legal aspects of standards and technical regulations
• The New Approach Directives
• The need for regulators to consider any other measures (like voluntary standards) available before the elaboration  of  a technical regulation

Africa to launch Continental Free Trade Agreement negotiations (CFTA)

The CFTA will be a main topic at the 25th AU Summit scheduled for June 14-15 in Johannesburg, according to news from the Forum on China-Africa cooperation (FOCAC)

Welcome Mongolia to Europe

An increased interest in trade between Mongolia and Europe is manifested by a 3-year cooperation project "Support to the Modernisation of the Mongolia´s Standardisation System". An introductory training on the EU harmonisation system took place 17-21 November 2014. 80 staff members of Mongolian Agency for Standardization and Metrology (MASM) were trained by Folke Hermansson Snickars and Richard Lawson, who also took part in a business seminar at the Mongolian Chamber of Commerce and Industry on "Export to Europe-Transformation of requirements into opportunities" with more than 100 participants.

Pan-African Quality Infrastructure

The cryptic abbreviation MSTQ, SQAM, or SMCA have gradually been substituted by the  "quality infrastructure"-concept.  During a long time ARSO, the African Organization for Standardization, founded in 1977, attempted to cover all of the components of a quality infrastructure. From 2007 on new African organizations have been created:

• AFRIMETS The Intra-Africa Metrology System, founded 2007
• AFSEC The African Electrotechnical Standardization Commission, founded 2008
• AFRAC The African Accrediatation Cooperation, founded 2010

In August 2013 the four African organizations have established the Pan-African Quality Infrastructure, PAQI. On its web site the PAQI states that a well coordinated and integrated Pan-African Quality Infrastructure will boost both intra-African and Global trade, which could foster the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

A PAQI Joint Committee Secretariat is hosted at the ARSO Central Secretariat in Nairobi, Kenya. PAQI Joint Committee Chairperson is Dr. Hermogène Nsengimana, ARSO Secretary General.

Mobilizing chinese participants in international standardisation

Chinese participants in the 5-day course on Participation in international standardisation  were invited to a follow-up training focusing on their skills as trainers. The instructors were Hay Eggen (training expert) and Folke Hermansson Snickars (standardisation expert).

Going international - an e-Learning course on Participation in international standardisation

As a follow-up of the EUCTP II-training course on Participation in international standardisation for the Standardization Administration of China (SAC) there was wish to elaborate a distance learning material. The training material for the 5-day training course consisted of slide presentations and instructions for group exercises. This material became the basis for establishing an e-Learning course: Going international. As the Subject Matter Expert we developed a content in the MyUdutu authoring tool. The course content is then planned to be transferred to the LMS MOODLE. During a Training the trainer-course September 2012 the e-Learning course was presented and evaluated. 

Moodle presentation from Folke Hermansson Snickars