ARSO News BRIEF
NIGERIA THROUGH SON IS SET TO HOST THE 19TH ARSO GENERAL ASSEMBLY EVENTS IN LAGOS IN JUNE 2012
The Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, through the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is in its its final preparations for the hosting of the 19th ARSO General Assembly Events coming only a few months after the successful hosting of the 18th ARSO General Assembly by the Government of the Republic of Namibia in Windhoek, Namibia in November 2011.
The one week event will start from 18th and end on 22nd June 2012 and delegates are expected from all over the world including ARSO Members, Stakeholders, Donors and Technical Partners.
The ARSO Events to be carried out back to back with the Korea-Africa Standards Cooperation event include:
- Three day ARSO-KATS Seminar on Electro Magnetic Compatibility – 18th, 19th and 20th June 2012
- Open Day on AEM and ARSO-AU RASFF & PAAC Programme – 19th June 2012
- ARSO Council Committee Meetings – 18th June 2012
- ARSO Council Meeting – 20th & 22nd June 2012
- ARSO General Assembly – 21st June 2012
KENYA SUCCESSFULLY HOSTS THE 45TH ARSO COUNCIL MEETING IN NAIROBI, KENYA
Kenya through the Kenya Bureau of Standard successfully hosted the 45th ARSO Council meeting. The Meeting was officially opened by the Kenyan Assistant Minister for Industrialisation Hon. Nderitu Mureithi.
In his address, the Hon. Assistant Minister highlighted the fact that without addressing market access and standards compliance issues, African Exporters and products will be unable to take full advantage of the benefits of standardisation. Hon. Nderitu challenged the Standardisation experts to ensure that Standards add value and benefit the African citizens in all areas of their lives including Nutrition, ICTs, Electricity and power generation, Agriculture, and Knowledge, for attempts to industrialize Africa had always been impeded by lack of viable standardization criteria and systems among other management ills.
On his part, Dr. Eng. Kioko Mang’eli, President, ARSO, highlighting on the recent examples of successes demonstrated by China, Singapore, Indonesia and other Asian countries on the use of standards and standards-based regulatory systems that have tremendously improved their economies and have delivered great benefits to their citizens, called on African governments to invest on standardisation through the NSBs, RECs and ARSO and evaluate the benefits derived from the said investment by analysing the trends in export diversification and intra-industry trade emanating from supporting mechanism based on existing standards and the schemes of supervision in industrial and agricultural production by NSBs.
The ARSO Council observed that ARSO should be perceived in the light of both an organic seed and organisation catalyst placed in a position via the Abuja Treaty to hatch and implement Strategic Objective 3 under the second pillar of the AUC Strategic Plan 2009-2012 for the attainment of an integrated African trade and investment system through an effective and efficient continental standards and quality mechanism. The Council agreed that the ARSO mandate and structures is reinforced by the Abuja Treaty of 1991 and it is the basis of ARSO membership, programmes and activities.
JOB OPPORTUNITIES AT ARSO CENTRAL SECRETARIAT
DECLARATION OF VACANCY IN THE OFFICES OF:
1. SECRETARY GENERAL
2. TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
The ARSO Council in exercise of the powers vested in it by member’s invited applications from qualified persons who fit the Job profile and meet set criteria for appointment for the positions of:
1. Secretary General
2. Technical Director.
Applications were submitted to the ARSO Council Recruitment Consultant by 4th March 2012 through the following e-mail address: hr_recruitment@arso-oran.org.
The Recruitment process is on with the first round of Interviews conducted on 5th May 2012 in Nairobi Kenya
For more information on the qualifications and requirements, required, kindly click here for the Advertisements Made
Français: pour plus d’informations sur les qualifications et exigences, veuillez cliquer ici pour la publicité
JOB OPPORTUNITIES
The African Union (AU), UNEP and UNECA in cooperation with the African Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ARSCP) and African Organization for Standardization (ARSO) have launched the development of the African Eco-labelling Mechanism (AEM) funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and implemented by GIZ. The AEM aims at promoting intra-African and international trade, and enabling Africa economies to adapt and contribute to the mitigation of climate change. AEM is in the process of creating a cross-sectoral Pan African eco-label known as Eco Mark Africa (EMA) which will be awarded to organizations meeting the criteria defined in the eco-labelling standards. The AEM will define a clear set of sustainability criteria for agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism. In these sectors, EMA certified producers will have to comply with environmental, social, economic and climate relevant requirement. EMA will be based on a certifiable sustainability standard as well as a recognition system for other sustainability or eco-labeling schemes.?page_id=573″>. …Read More
The Namibian Standards Institution (NSI) on Behalf of the Namibian Government Hosts the 18th ARSO General Assembly on 21st-25th November 2011.
The Government of the Democratic Republic of Namibia through the Namibian Standards Institution successfully hosted the 18th ARSO General Assembly Events under the theme “African Integration through knowledge tooling and Standards as pillars for a green economy”
The ARSO General Assembly, which is the supreme organ of the organization, was constituted by a meeting of the delegates nominated by the Member Bodies, duly convened in accordance with the Rules of Procedure. As a general rule, the General Assembly meets at least once every year. Last year’s General Assembly was hosted by the Government of the Republic of Kenya, through KEBS, on 3rd November 2010.. …Read More
AEM at the 7th Session of the Committee on Food Security and Sustainable Development (CFSSD-7) and the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or Rio+20) Africa Regional Preparatory Meeting, 25th October, 2011, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The seventh session of the committee on Food Security and Sustainable Development (CFSSD-7) was held in conjunction with the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or Rio+20) Africa Regional Preparatory Meeting and took place from 20th to 25th October, 2011, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. ARSO Secretary General, Mr. Andrew Maiyo attended the meeting. The meeting deliberated on the themes and objectives of Rio+20 that will be held on June 4-6, 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; agreed on a consensus statement; and adopted a draft resolution on Africa’s effective participation at Rio+20. Issues that were of key focus during the discussions were: Food security in Africa; Green economy in the context of sustainable development; Institutional and strategic frameworks for sustainable development (IFSD); New and emerging challenges; International Environmental Governance (IEG); and Means of implementation.. …Read More
Action Begins on the Signed ARSO-KATS Action Plan 2011-2012 on the International Standard Infrastructure Cooperative Program.
Further to the signing of the ARSO-KATS Action Plan for 2011-2012 on 1st June 2011 at KATS, Seoul, Korea, for the implementation of the ARSO-KATS MoU 2010, the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATs) successfully carried out a fully sponsored Training dubbed the 2011 (ISCP) – ARSO training program (“Development of Standardization, Conformity Assessment and Metrology”) on 5th -15th October 2011 in Seoul Korea.
It was a good opportunity to strengthen relations between KATS and several African nations, where the following 17 participants (One Self sponsored, Nigeria) in the program were from and to share ideas about future cooperation.. …Read More
ARSO is Rooting for for the Establishment of a Pan African Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) in Africa during BTSF Regional Workshops on RASFF in Nairobi, 11-13 October 2011.
Food safety is an issue of national and international significance. It is an issue that affects all countries and has a substantial impact on both public health and economic activity. African consumers expect the highest level of safety when it comes to the food that they eat. Better Training for Safer Food is a Commission training initiative covering food and feed law, animal health and welfare and plant health rules. It trains Member State and candidate country national authority staff involved in official controls in these areas. This aims to keep participants up-to-date with EU law in these areas and should help to ensure more harmonised and efficient controls. Efficient controls are an essential factor in maintaining high levels of consumer protection, animal health and plant health. Harmonisation of controls should help to create a level playing field for food businesses.Training is also organised specifically for third, particularly developing country participants so as to familiarise them with EU requirements. This should help to ease access to the EU market for products from developing countries.
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ARSO Envisages the Establishment of a Pan African Control of Aflatoxin during the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Process in Younde, Cameroun, in August 2011.
The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) is an initiative of the AUC and NPCA to help African countries reach and sustain a higher path of economic growth through agricultural-led development. Overall, CAADP’s goal is to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty through agriculture. To do this, African governments have agreed to increase public investment in agriculture by a minimum of 10 per cent of their national budgets and to raise agricultural productivity by at least 6 per cent.CAADP is framed conceptually around four Pillars: sustainable land/water management; development of infrastructure and improved access to markets; food security; and dissemination and adoption of improved agricultural technologies and investment in agricultural research; each dealing with key issues through which the Standardisation, Conformity Assessment, Accreditation and Metrology Infrastructure will play key role. . …Read More
The Africa Standard Code of Practice for Uranium Mining Envisaged by ARSO in line with the African Union Mining Vision 2050.
The African Union Mining vision 2050 requires African states to adopt policies that minimize environmental damage and maximize mining processes. The African mining vision 2050 states that: “Transparent, equitable and optimal exploitation of mineral resources to underpin broad – based sustainable growth and socio-economic development”.
The first ordinary session of African Union Conference of Ministers Responsible for Mineral Resources Development (CAMRMRD) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in a meeting held on 16th and 17th October 2008, adopted Declaration AU/MIN/CAMRMRD/4(1) on the development and management of Africa’s Mineral Resources which formed the roadmap that will optimize the potential benefits of African mineral resources.. …Read More
The ARSO Council held its 43rd Session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia hosted by the Ethiopian Standards Agency (ESA) on behalf of the Government of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia
The Federal Republic of Ethiopia through the Ethiopian Standards Agency (ESA) successfully hosted the 43rd ARSO Council Meeting on the 23-24th June 2011. It is noted that the Ethiopian Government has played important role in supporting ARSO. Apart from the 43rd ARSO Council, Ethiopia had previously hosted the ARSO meetings where land mark resolutions have been made for the benefit of the Organisation. It is noted that the immediate past President of ARSO Mr. Mesai Girma successfully steered ARSO through a re-engineering process in which ARSO among other things revised its 1977 ARSO Constitution.
Opening the Council Meeting on behalf of the Ethiopian Hon. Minister of Science and Technology, Mr. Dessie Dalke, Madame Almaz Kahsay, the Director General of ESA reiterated the support of the Federal Government of Ethiopia to ARSO noting that Ethiopia attached a lot of importance to ARSO, the African standardisation activities and the role standards play in fair trade across nations and borders.. …Read More