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* Atleast Project Title is Required.
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Project No. |
SCSC 06 2019A
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Project Title |
Understanding the Role and Impact of Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) to Trade in the APEC Region
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Project Status |
Completed Project
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Publication (if any) |
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Fund Account |
APEC Support Fund
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Sub-fund |
ASF: Economic Development in Remote Areas (EDRA)
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Project Year |
2019
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Project Session |
Session 1
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APEC Funding |
130,000
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Co-funding Amount |
10,200
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Total Project Value |
140,200
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Sponsoring Forum |
Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance (SCSC)
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Topics |
Conformance; Standards
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Committee |
Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI)
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Other Fora Involved |
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Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved |
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Proposing Economy(ies) |
Malaysia
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Co-Sponsoring Economies |
China; Japan; Philippines; United States
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Expected Start Date |
01/06/2019
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Expected Completion Date |
31/12/2020
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Project Proponent Name 1 |
Hussalmizzar Hussain
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Job Title 1 |
Director of Accreditation
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Organization 1 |
Department of Standards Malaysia, Ministry of International Trade and Industry
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Postal Address 1 |
Century Square, Level 1 and 2, Block 2300, Jalan Usahawan, 63,000, Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia
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Telephone 1 |
(60-3) 83198989
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Fax 1 |
Not Applicable
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Email 1 |
mizzar@jsm.gov.my; pac@jsm.gov.my
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Project Proponent Name 2 |
Not Applicable
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Job Title 2 |
Not Applicable
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Organization 2 |
Not Applicable
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Postal Address 2 |
Not Applicable
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Telephone 2 |
Not Applicable
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Fax 2 |
Not Applicable
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Email 2 |
Not Applicable
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Declaration |
Hussalmizzar Hussain
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Project Summary |
Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) have emerged as tools to address key sustainability challenges such as biodiversity, climate change and human rights. They are used in global supply chains in various sectors, industries and geographies such as agriculture, mining, forestry and fisheries. Although VSS could be an enabler of sustainably-sourced products, the proliferation of some VSS has created an overlap in areas of focus. While this overlap promotes healthy competition by providing choices for selection, an abundance of VSS creates confusion of selection to the SMEs, often lacks local context, causes difficulty of access by small producers in remote areas, and generates high cost of compliance. All these factors limits market access and could become potential barriers to trade. This project aims to provide policy makers with a platform for sharing of information on the various VSS available in each member economy and sharing of best practices of how the government can assist related industries in complying with the various VSS through a 2-day workshop to be held in August 2020 in Malaysia. |
Relevance |
Relevance – Region: Voluntary Sustainability Standards, or VSS are standards specifying requirements about a product or a process that producers, traders or retailers need to meet in relation to sustainability indicators. VSS are developed at local, national or international level by organizations from the public and private sectors. Compliance with these standards by producers and other market players is normally carried out through third-party certification. VSS are mostly used in economic sectors such as agriculture, forestry, fishery and commodities like coffee, cocoa, cotton and palm oil. Compliance to VSS is usually voluntary (market driven factors). Due to proliferation of VSS systems, many issues are being faced such as overlapping scopes of different VSS systems within the same industry sector; lack of relevance of the VSS to local context; lack of stakeholder involvement from developing economies notably in remote areas; perceived lack of transparency and inaccessibility of some VSS to small producers especially from the developing economies; confusion to the SMEs on which VSS system to comply with; high costs associated with compliance and certification, which limits market access of small producers; and the interplay between VSS and government regulation. Therefore, this project aims to provide a platform to share information and initiate discussion on VSS among the APEC member economies so that each member can gain understanding on the various VSS implemented in certain industry sectors in APEC, share best practices in implementing VSS, and discuss issues related to VSS that could be shared by member economies that are already applying VSS. This discourse could possibly lead to the initial step of a new public-private governance interactions on VSS within the APEC region. This proposed work will be the first APEC-level project to address sustainability and integration into global value chains through VSS, aside from work of other international organizations such as UNCTAD, FAO and ITC. Through this project, APEC member economies who have not implemented VSS will be able to implement VSS in their sectors of interest and achieve all the projected benefits from it. This project seeks the participation of policy makers related to trade, agriculture and commodities. Due to the increasing awareness in environmental and social issues, VSS is increasingly utilized with the objective to address issues related to sustainability. This is most apparent in the agriculture and commodities sector, which is why these industries are selected to discuss about voluntary sustainability standards. Relevance – Eligibility and Fund Priorities: The project supports APEC’s strategic objective of supporting balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative, and secure growth, through the understanding of VSS. It is an initiative to provide support for APEC economies to improve the participation of small producers in remote communities to participate in the global value chain of selected industry sectors in order to advance their economic development. The project will also build the capacity of APEC policymakers governing implementation of sustainability, such as trade officials/regulators that could employ VSS as a method of enhancing production and marketability of their local sustainably-sourced products to be accepted by international markets. This project also aims to increase participation in economic activity by remote communities, including improving enabling environments for trade and investment, promoting access to markets, strengthening human resources, enhancing connectivity and empowering economically marginalised communities. Relevance – Capacity Building: This project aims to provide the initial step to assist in particular APEC developing member economies of which their produce are of high sustainability concerns. As a start, this project provides a platform for discussion to provide an understanding of VSS in particular, their sustainability concerns and their mechanism for implementation. This project also aims to address standards and conformance issues related to trade focusing on voluntary sustainability standards which include development of VSS which are mostly driven by developed economies, the buyers of produce, with little contribution by developing economies of which their produce is of sustainability concern. Multiple certification (preferred mechanism for determining compliance to VSS) for the various VSS is also a concern for economies of which their produce are affected as they will need to determine the most suitable VSS for export and where importing economies requirements differ for the same produce, will become costly to the producing economy as multiple certification will need to be applied. Through this platform, it is hoped that APEC member economies, through policymakers can make more informed decisions in supporting their industry such as equipping the industry with the necessary capability to meet VSS requirements or negotiating between member economies on the acceptance of a common VSS. In the long run, it will help build APEC member economies’ (especially small producers of developing economies’) capacity in achieving sustainable growth, equitable economic development, and participate in the global economy through implementation of VSS in selected economic sectors. |
Objectives |
The objective of this project is to build the capacity of APEC member economies, especially developing economies on Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS). With the end goal of facilitating trade, this project shall provide information to policymakers regarding the different types and applications of VSS for them to assist their industry players. Further, this project will be able to aid in mitigating sustainability issues in the region through the application of VSS. This work will be the first discussion on VSS in the APEC region and set the precedence for future discussions on sustainability standards in APEC. |
Alignment |
Alignment - APEC: This project supports the APEC Economic Leaders’ Economic Vision Statement at Blake Island, Seattle, USA in November 1993, which has provided the mandate for APEC’s work on sustainable development. This project will contribute to sustainable trade practices that help conserve the environment and protect the livelihood of small producers in remote areas within the APEC region. This project is aligned to CTI’s initiative of SMEs integration into Global Value Chains (GVCs), where it facilitates understanding and uptake of VSS among SMEs in selected industry sectors, which would provide them with market access at a regional and international level. In addition, this project supports two APEC Chile 2019 host priorities, namely Women, SMEs and Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Growth. VSS to a large extent focuses on sourcing of produce in a sustainable manner, an industry which is mainly dominated by SMEs. Therefore, ensuring VSS is accessible to SMEs, instead of becoming a trade barrier is key to this project. Alignment – Forum: This project overall aligns with APEC SCSC’s initiatives, namely cooperation on technical infrastructure development, enhancing the information exchange and knowledge on matters related to standards and conformance, further increasing the transparency and access to information across the APEC region, and encouraging business awareness and involvement in the whole process. This project also aligns with the Osaka Action Agenda on the Implementation of the Bogor Declaration for Standards and Conformance to among others achieve recognition of conformity assessment including mutual recognition arrangements in regulated and voluntary sectors as well as to promote cooperation for technical infrastructure development to facilitate broad participation in mutual recognition arrangements in both regulated and voluntary sectors. Besides that, this project also promotes technical cooperation in specific areas identified under the Bogor Declaration such as the agriculture technical cooperation, fisheries, human resource development, small and medium enterprises as well as trade promotion. Under the agriculture technical cooperation, this project supports its priority on sustainable agriculture and related environmental issues. With regards to fisheries, this project supports the strengthening of economic and technical cooperation in the management of the production base of the fisheries and aquaculture sector. This is achieved through the promotion of conservation and sustainable use of fisheries resources domestically and regionally. Human resources development is also key to this project by supporting its priority on liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment in the region. This is made possible by ensuring the quality and availability of skilled and trained human resources that can establish and implement effective standards and conformance systems in the region. As the bulk of the implementors of VSS are small and medium enterprises, this project supports the Bogor Declaration, which seeks for a free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, the declaration also outlines the importance of economic and technical cooperation towards achieving sustainable growth in the region. This project also promotes trade by promoting intra-regional trade by providing expanded trade opportunities through VSS. |
TILF/ASF Justification |
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Beneficiaries and Outputs |
Outputs: The outputs of this project are: 1) Pre-workshop survey through an online questionnaire will be circulated to APEC member economies. This questionnaire will include the APEC member economies familiarity with VSS, and issues, if any, in dealing with VSS. This will provide preliminary data enabling the gauge of knowledge and understanding of member economies on VSS prior to the workshop as well as to determine the sectors to be focused on during the 2-day workshop. 2) A 2-day workshop to disseminate information and share experience of VSS implemented in APEC member economies. This is conducted through presentations and panel discussion forums. The targeted participants are policymakers of APEC member economies, especially developing APEC member economies from the sectors identified in the pre-workshop survey. Speakers from international organizations that have studied VSS, VSS that utilize the IAF/ILAC conformity assessment infrastructure as well as non-IAF/ILAC conformity assessment infrastructure and APEC member economies that widely use VSS will be invited to present as well as become discussion panel members. The proposed topics to be discussed are such as (but not limited to) introduction to VSS, use of conformity assessment tools in VSS, if available and examples of best practices. 3) Post-workshop survey that will be disseminated after the workshop to gauge the awareness and understanding of information by the workshop participants. The survey could also capture recommendations on future work that could be done on VSS as a continuation of this workshop. 4) Compendium of information of relevant VSS based on sectors identified. This compendium will highlight VSS used in sectors identified, their current market share, information on the scheme owner, administration of the scheme as well as challenges of implementing the VSS. The compendium will also include examples of best practices of implementation of VSS. This document shall serve as a reference material for APEC member economies, policy makers in particular that aim to assist their industry through the implementation of VSS. This compendium will be made available online on the APEC Publications Database. We would expect the Compendium to be approximately 40 pages. Outcomes: The expected impacts, changes or benefits that the project is expected to deliver is as follows: 1) Greater awareness as well as knowledge and understanding on the various VSS (E.g Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), Internationally Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC), GlobalGAP etc) available in the APEC region. 2) By building their capacity in VSS, policy makers especially in developing member economies, can make more informed decisions to improve participation of remote communities, including women in mainstream economic activities. 3) Policy makers especially in developing member economies are better informed on how to facilitate the industry in complying to VSS to provide access to market and strengthen human resources. 4) Policy makers can promote economic growth of developing economies through utilization of VSS by remote communities, which would then enable them to participate in economic activities. 5) Increasing the acceptance of VSS as a trade facilitation tool by addressing barriers to participation in economic activities by remote communities including improving enabling environments for trade and investment. 6) Providing relevant information on types of VSS available according to sector’s chosen as an outcome of the pre-workshop survey results. 7) Providing reference material in the form of a compendium consisting of information of relevant VSS based on sectors identified and examples of best practices of implementation of VSS. Beneficiaries: Beneficiaries of this project include policy makers, accreditation bodies, certification bodies and industry players especially SMEs who are mostly producers located in remote areas of the region. APEC member economies of which they may be of interest of include People’s Republic of China, Chile, Peru, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, The Philippines, Viet Nam, Indonesia and Mexico (This assumption is based on APEC member economies having agricultural land of more than 25% based on data from the World Bank and/or developing economies with a dependence on commodities based on data from UNCTAD). This project focuses on policymakers at this initial stage as project participants. Policy makers, which include those involved in trade facilitation, agriculture and commodity, are expected to benefit from this project. Through better understanding of VSS, policymakers will be able to better assist all levels involved in the supply chain. Industry players especially SMEs who are mostly producers located in remote areas of the region will also be impacted from this project. As VSS mainly targets produce where a majority are SMEs in developing economies and located in remote areas, policy makers will be able to equip industry players with proper knowledge and understanding, as well as enhance their capacity to meet market needs. Where VSS utilizes the conformity assessment infrastructure, policymakers can better prepare local accreditation bodies and certification bodies to certify the industry. The above are only direct beneficiaries. Indirectly, this project benefits billions of consumers that consume produce under VSS. |
Dissemination |
The number, form and content of any publications: The outputs of the project will be disseminated through electronic copies of the workshop materials (i.e. the various workshop presentations and best practice examples) to the participants via email and on the online platforms such as APEC Project Database and PO’s website (www.jsm.gov.my). In addition to these, the participants are also expected to disseminate the workshop information and materials to the stakeholders within their economies. The materials will also be available on the APEC and Standards Malaysia’s websites as online references. The Compendium will be published as an APEC publication and will be made available on APEC Publications Database as appropriate in keeping with the APEC Project Guidelines. The target audience: The target audience would include public policy makers, standards and accreditation bodies, as well as industry stakeholders. Any intention to sell outputs arising from this project: There is no intention to sell the outputs arising from this project. Member economies will be encouraged to disseminate results of the project with their respective agencies and business communities through their websites. |
Gender |
This project addresses the pillar on skills and capacity building (Refer Appendix G of APEC Guidebook Edition 13). In the area of sustainability, women are represented at all levels, whether they are the policy makers developing the policy, accreditation or certification bodies as well as industry players. Participation in this project is not limited to any specific gender, and consideration will be given to gender balance when the workshop is being drawn up. The project objectives and benefits target both women and men. Preparation of this project (including decision making processes) has been carried out by women. This includes women being key members of the project overseeing team. In addition, women experts from relevant bodies will be consulted during the development of the project. We strongly encourage participation of women in the workshop. This project aims to have a minimum 30% as the presenters/speakers during the workshop and have 30% of the participants shall be women. PO is committed to collecting sex disaggregated data for all speakers and participants (not only the APEC funded) at the project event. This data will be included when submitting a Completion Report to the Secretariat at the completion of the project as well as giving future POs guidance on their own gender parity targets. |
Work Plan |
| Time | Tasks | Deliverables | | July 2019 | Submission to APEC Secretariat for review and approval | QA and amended Project Proposal | | August 2019 | Submission to APEC Fora for review and endorsement | QA and amended Project Proposal | | September 2019 | Preparation of RfP | RfP | | October –December 2019 | Sourcing of contractor | Appointment of contractor | | January 2020 | Preparation and circulation of pre-workshop survey to APEC member economies | Pre-workshop survey | | February 2020 | Data collection and analysis | Pre-workshop survey data and results | | April 2020 | Submission of monitoring report | Monitoring report | | March - May 2020 | Formation of the programme; Venue and administration arrangement; Preparation of agenda and identification of resource persons | Tentative agenda | | May - July 2020 | Send out invitations; Accommodation and flight arrangements; and Collation of papers | Workshop invitation | | August 2020 | Conduct a workshop to gather information and share experience of VSS implemented in APEC member economies | Workshop | | August 2020 | Circulation of post-workshop survey to APEC member economies | Post workshop survey | | September 2020 | Data collection and analysis | Post workshop survey data and results | | October – November 2020 | Develop a compendium of best practices of implementation of VSS | Compendium | | December 2020 | Submission of compendium to APEC Secretariat | Compendium | | December 2020 | Submission of compendium for comments and endorsement to APEC fora | Compendium | | January 2021 | Publication of compendium | Compendium | | Feb 2021 | Submission of completion report to APEC Secretariat | Completion report | | Feb 2021 | Submission of completion report for comments and endorsement to APEC fora | Completion report | | June 2021 | Participation in Long Term Evaluation of APEC Projects | Evaluation report | |
Risks |
The following risk and risk management plans have been identified for this project: 1. Lack of planning of surveys resulting in poor quality of feedback: The surveys are being planned and managed by personnel that have considerable experience in standards and conformance; 2. Insufficient planning for the workshop resulting in a disorganized, last-minute and poor quality workshop: The workshop is being planned and managed by personnel that have experience in managing events and have checklists and timetables to ensure all aspects are covered in the plan within a suitable timeframe. 3. Lack of clarity and focus about workshop topics and agenda: The agenda for the events are based on the pre-workshop survey that will be carried out prior to the workshop. Participants will be identified from organizations that have a considerable involvement or are impacted by VSS. 4. Poor quality speakers and trainers: Speakers and trainers will be experienced presenters and have expert-level awareness in the subject matter covered in the events. 5. Insufficient materials and subsequent dissemination: All materials for the events will be ready and distributed in advance via the APEC and Standards Malaysia website or through email. This will allow participants to review the materials beforehand and prepare themselves for the activities. As necessary these materials will be updated after the workshop and remain available for download and general use by participants via APEC and Standards Malaysia website on an ongoing basis. 6. Lack of evaluation of outputs: Registration shall be through the use of specifically designed event websites with automated, easy to complete feedback surveys and reporting which is part of the functionality of this online tool, and the results will be reported during the Monitoring Report and Completion Report for the project. 7. Inadequate participation from member economies: In accordance with the project methodology and internal event checklists, invitations to interested parties are expected to be issued in early 2020 before APEC 2020 SOM 1 – this will give up to five months advance notice of the events. Delays in implementation: This project will avoid delays by having clear and timely communication with co-sponsoring economies, the APEC Secretariat, and the experts participating in the events. Teleconferences in the project team will be held regularly before the events to ensure coordinated and timely execution. |
Monitoring and Evaluation |
The principal method to determine whether the project objectives have been met is the pre and post workshop surveys. A feedback survey on the conduct of the workshop will also be conducted to gauge the execution of the workshop. Through a pre-workshop survey, perceptions and expectations of VSS can be gauged prior to the workshop, while the post-workshop survey will be able to gauge whether the participants have gained a better awareness and understanding on VSS has improved as well as capturing recommendations that could pave the way forward for future work on VSS by APEC member economies. The surveys will be distributed to all APEC member economies. It is targeted that at least 60% will provide a response for the pre-workshop survey sufficient enough to design the workshop programme. It is targeted that at least 60% of the total number of 42 invited participants are expected to attend the workshop. For the post-workshop survey, a minimum of 60% should be sufficient to provide information on the effectiveness of the workshop. The surveys will be a mixture of Likert scale questions from a scale of 1 to 5 as well as text questions whereby participants will need to provide information related to implementation of VSS in their member economy. An increase in the results for the Likert scale questions of about 40% will be an indication in the increase in the level of knowledge and understanding of VSS. Other indicators will include achievement of project milestones; adherence to the approved budget; the development and ongoing dissemination the event materials; successful completion of the actual events; and statistic in relation to the number of women participants etc. |
Linkages |
Engagement: This project will leverage on work done in existing platforms by non-APEC stakeholders, such as UNFSS, UNCTAD and ITC. At the APEC level, cross-fora collaboration can be made with CTI and groups such as MAG, Environment Sustainable Development, Agricultural Technical Cooperation, EGILAT, Oceans and Fisheries, Mining Task Force, and SMEWG. Previous work: No previous work has been done on VSS in APEC. This is the first time it is being introduced for discussion in APEC. This topic has also never been discussed at other regional/international platforms such as PASC, ASEAN and WTO. APEC’s comparative advantage: APEC is a region that is rich in resources and biodiversity. A lot of these resources are traded between APEC economies and the rest of the world. VSS is a tool that is widely used to ensure sustainability of produce being traded in the region. As such, awareness and information of it should be disseminated to all APEC member economies. This is also in line with APEC priorities of advancement of remote areas and developing economies in terms of trade and market access. |
Sustainability |
This project assists industry players in making better informed choices. Through this project, it can provide clarity on the relevant VSS available in the market, as well as the issues and challenges surrounding them. Therefore, from there they can plan and develop their system accordingly to meet the requirements of their VSS of choice. From a policy point of view, this project provides the opportunity for APEC public officials to make more informed decisions in developing policies with regards to the use and acceptance of VSS. Therefore, trade facilitation among APEC member economies can be enhanced. Where conformity assessment is utilized by VSS, accreditation bodies and certification bodies can build their competency and system to meet industry needs as well as government requirements. This project will also support ecosystem of SCSC and other fora such as the Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI), the Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group (SMEWG), and the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), SCE and HRDWG. After project completion, post-implementation actions are critical to sustainability and other possible next steps that will likely take place are maintenance of project outputs such as websites, databases and research after project completion, and engagement of stakeholders: relationships developed that can carry project objectives forward. The workshop materials will be available for use by participants, economies, stakeholders and beneficiaries long after the project has been completed, through its availability as a handout document and online at no cost on the APEC Publication Database. The foreseeable actions on this area may lead to a study on VSS in APEC member economies. References, presentations, and recommendations from this workshop may form good basis. The outcomes and recommendations of this Workshop may be used as the input for future projects/ studies in other fora.
Project Overseer will ensure that the project will adhere strictly to APEC project implementation procedures, including the timeline of actions. A feedback survey will be developed and distribute to all participants; this feedback survey will include questions relevant to the workshop, participants, speakers, host, recommendations etc. The KPI measurement tools will be used to measure the project progression, costing, objectives, outcomes, impact on women, challenges or success stories arising from the project and etc. The organizing committee will compile all comments to be reflected them in the completion report, which will be submitted to APEC for consideration. In terms of measuring the progress of outcomes, among the possible measurables, but not limited to, include: 1. Distribution and continued reference to compendium by beneficiaries within the region; 2. Increase in engagement between VSS scheme owners and APEC Specialized Regional Body for accreditation (APAC) for the acceptance of VSS; 3. Establishment of a public-private partnership on VSS in the APEC region; and 4. Increase in collaboration with international organizations working on VSS such as UNFSS, UNCTAD and ITC.
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Project Overseers |
The Project Overseer is Mr. Hussalmizzar Hussain, Director of Accreditation of the Department of Standards Malaysia (Standards Malaysia) under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry Malaysia. Standards Malaysia is the body representing Malaysia in APEC SCSC and is responsible for all APEC SCSC-related matters in Malaysia. Mr. Hussalmizzar Hussain oversees the administration and implementation of this project, which will be undertaken by the Accreditation Division of Standards Malaysia, which comprise of Mr. Roslee Saad (Principal Assistant Director of Accreditation Division) who will oversee the contractors and workshop technical content, Ms. Aainaa Kamilah Roslee (Assistant Director) who will oversee the communications, experts and participant registration. The Project Overseer will ensure that all Project outputs (Project reports, proceedings, slides, presentations, etc.) will comply with the APEC Publications, APEC Logo and Copyrights Guidelines before being published and will be provided to the Program Director, who will review and finalize the project reports, including monitoring and completion reports. |
Cost Efficiency |
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Drawdown Timetable |
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Direct Labour |
To ensure effective execution of this project, the project overseer will engage professional services of a contractor to undertake the following activities: 1. Developing and planning of pre and post workshop surveys; 2. Analysis of survey data; 3. Design and development of 2-day workshop; 4. Facilitation of brainstorming/discussion session during the workshop; 5. Compilation of information into compendium. The fee paid for the contractor using APEC funding is USD28,000. |
Waivers |
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Are there any supporting document attached? |
No
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Attachments
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