Eco-Mark Africa: Thinking Sustainability in Trade and Standardisation.
ARSO Participates in the KEBS hosted World Standards Day Event in Nairobi, Kenya
ARSO Joins the International Community in Celebrating the International World Standards Day and with a reflection of the implementation of the Eco Mark Africa (currently registered with WIPO, EUIPO, UKIPO and Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) of South Africa and also recognised under the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) 2023.) Sustainability Programme.
As the World Marks the International World Standards Day today, 14th October 2025, under the theme “Shared Vision for a Better World: Spotlight on SDG 17,” and the SDGs goals in General, ARSO reflects on the SDGs 2030 goals and the transformation of world economies towards sustainable Production, Manufacturing and Trade and the evolution of the Eco Mark Africa and its sustainability Standards. The 2025 theme, “Shared Vision for a Better World: Spotlight on SDG 17,” emphasizes the role of standards in fostering global partnerships to achieve sustainable development goals with an aim to accelerate cooperation for a safer, fairer world. The standards developed by international experts from organizations like ISO, IEC, and ITU make sure that products, services, and systems work together in perfect harmony across borders, providing a boost to safety, efficiency, interoperability, and economic growth, and sustainability in general.
For the standardisation Community, it is noted that rapid shift to sustainability has been facilitated by the 2015, UN 2030 Agenda, with seventeen (17) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets which embrace three dimensions of sustainability – economic, social and environmental and with five critical dimensions: people, prosperity, planet, partnership and peace, also known as the 5Ps. In this context, for Africa, under Aspiration 1, Agenda 2063, Africa is aspiring for a Prosperous continent “Based on Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development, while ensuring that “the environment and ecosystems are healthy and preserved, and with climate resilient economies and communities” and advocating for strategies to ensure that “Africa participates in global efforts for climate change mitigation”.
The theme for the World Standards day, offers the opportunity to reflect on the fact that, in both SDGs 2030 and the Africa Agenda 2063, there is a rapid shift towards Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) patterns, which are intended to promote social and economic development within the carrying capacity of ecosystems as per the SDG 12, guidelines on Responsible consumption and production. The Challenge, therefore, for the standardisation Community is how to Make Trade and Manufacturing Sustainable, with a focus on internalising social, economic and environmental concerns in trade, Manufacturing and standardisation process. In this respect, Ssustainable trade and manufacturing occur when the production and commercial exchanges of goods and services generate social, economic and environmental benefits in accordance with the fundamental principles of sustainable development (Creation of economic value; Reduction of poverty and inequality; and Preservation and reuse of environmental resources).
In this context, it is important to note that, both the principles of sustainable Trade and Manufacturing have ushered in various policies and approaches for promoting sustainability: including (i) Incorporating specific sustainability provisions into trade agreements including declarative clauses (such as referencing GATT Article XX or GATS Article XIV) and establishing specific work programmes for priority areas; (2) Enhancing transparency and traceability across supply chainsto assist suppliers to meet their regulatory requirements related to transparency, demonstrating compliance with standards, monitoring supply chain conditions, and assessing environmental impacts associated with production.; (3) Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS)– as private standards, certification and labelling that specify requirements that producers and traders need to meet to ensure sustainable and responsible production practices.; (4) Recognising the rights and traditional practices of indigenous peoples and small-scale fishers, farmers and manufacturers to ensure that the most vulnerable benefit from the transition to greater sustainability.
As per the above, the standardisation community have witnessed the emergence of the Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) comprising eco-certification schemes, labelling programs and private standards (like Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance and Organic certification, and ARSO’s Eco Mark Africa), as being voluntary guidelines, used by producers, manufacturers, traders, retailers, and service providers to demonstrate their commitment to good environmental, social, ethical, and food safety practices, in line with the SCP patterns to serve the sustainability demand and help consumers to easily identify products that have been produced sustainably, and companies to demonstrate the performance of their organisations as per the shift towards Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) patterns.
The Celebrations of the World Standards Day on Sustainability platform, this October the 14th, 2025, therefore, gives the ARSO Fraternity the opportunity to reflect on the ARSO efforts towards the development of Sustainability Standards and Eco-certification for the African Products, while highlighting that the ARSO Ecolabelling (ECOMARK Africa, a Type I environmental labelling programme) initiative is traced back to the 2002 Johannesburg Summit held in line with the Global Marrakech SCP process, which called for the development of a 10-Year Framework of Program (10-YFP) in support of regional and national initiatives to accelerate the shift towards SCP patterns. For Africa, the African 10 Year Framework Programme (10-YFP) on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP), facilitated by UNEP and officially launched in May 2006 as a follow-up on the implementation of the Johannesburg Summit recommendations and in line with the Global Marrakech SCP process, ushered in the African ecolabelling mechanism, as per the decisions of the 12th Session of the African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN) in the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development in Africa (June 2008) which recommended for the
The Eco Mark Africa label, which was officially launched on 8th March 2019, with the award of seven companies for qualifying products, is being implemented (currently under the Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, Tourism) under the ARSO Conformity Assessment Committee (ARSO CACO Scheme D, through the ARSO Conformity Assessment Programme (ACAP), and with several Agricultural Sustainability Standards (highlighted below), in addition to three standards on sustainable Cocoa, and six African Sustainability Standards on fisheries, forestry, tourism, tilapia and the African catfish:
- ARS AES 1-2014 Agriculture -Sustainability and ecolabelling
- ARS AES 2-2014 Fisheries -Sustainability and ecolabelling
- ARS AES 3-2014 Forestry -Sustainability and ecolabelling
- ARS AES 4-2014 Tourism -Sustainability and ecolabelling
- ARS AES 5-2018 Tilapia -Sustainability and ecolabelling
- ARS AES 6-2018 African catfish -Sustainability and ecolabelling
- ARS AES 7-2020 Cocoa -Sustainability and ecolabelling
- Addition scopes: Sustainable Leather &foot ware, Textile, Fashion, Mining, natural building stone, cotton, Tourism accommodation facilities, green building.
The Standards provide requirements for the sustainable production, processing and trading of products and apply to all production, processing and trading within the operator’s sphere of influence. The Eco Mark Scheme is based on a performance maturity model and through which companies and especially SMEs can be certified, gradually over four performance levels, from a low performance level (bronze) and upgraded and certified to a higher performance level (silver, gold or platinum) as their performance improves.
Happy World Standards Day with appreciation to different stakeholders (AU, Afreximbank, AfDB, PTB-Germany, UNECA, UNIDO, WTO, ISO, ICIPE, SFA) for the collaborations in the implementation of ARSO standardisation activities.