There is a wide diversity of international organizations (IO’s) involved in global standard-setting, including inter-governmental, trans-governmental and private. They all have specific mandates, expertise, and strengths, and are organized in diverse ways. In an interconnected world, effective international learning and cooperation can transform the ability of individual nations to make economic, social, and environmental progress.
International regulatory cooperation (IRC) allows lawmakers to leverage global expertise in meeting these goals and is a major focus for the work of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In 2021, OECD published a landmark study highlighting the role of ASTM International in this landscape.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a regional economic forum established in 1989 to leverage the growing interdependence of the Asia-Pacific. APEC's 21 members aim to create greater prosperity for the people of the region by promoting balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure growth and by accelerating regional economic integration and the issues APEC addresses.
Guest status grants ASTM:
In November 2022, ASTM was approved by the APEC economies as a Guest Organization within the Subcommittee on Standards and Conformity. To receive this status, ASTM was required to successfully demonstrate compliance with three criteria:
During the 2023 US host year, ASTM will implement a self-funded project on Assisting Policy Makers with Mitigation and Prevention of Plastics Pollution – Standards as a Resource for the Policy Framework.
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, advances economic development and improves the lives of people by encouraging the growth of the private sector in developing countries. IFC applies its financial resources, technical expertise, global experience, and innovative thinking to help their partners overcome financial, operational, and other challenges.
In September 2022, ASTM and the IFC concluded 18 months of collaboration on personal protective equipment (PPE). Through an MoU signed in March 2020, ASTM, working cooperatively with its members and MoU partners in Jordan and Viet Nam, delivered eleven technical sessions related to PPE, sanitizers, and related topics such as additive manufacturing, good laboratory practice and sustainability.
Combined with the technical initiatives was a series of 12 procedural sessions. They were arranged as part of ASTM’s routine capacity building for MoU partners. Both program series were opened to all ASTM MoU partners, routinely engaged between 20 and 80 participants from several nations and were well received based on feedback provided in post-event evaluations.
Beyond the webinar programs, the collaboration was successful in terms of related actions.
Other success indicators include the adoption of three ASTM International PPE standards by the Jordanian Standards and Metrology Organization (JSMO).
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is an innovative and independent U.S. foreign assistance agency created by the U.S. Congress in January 2004. MCC provides time-limited grants promoting economic growth, reducing poverty, and strengthening institutions.
The Standards Alliance was announced by USAID in November 2012 as a new funding facility designed to provide capacity-building assistance to developing countries, specifically related to implementation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement. The Standards Alliance involves collaboration with
A key goal of the Standards Alliance is to help increase the capacity of developing countries to implement accepted international best practices to reduce instances of poor quality and unsafe products, services, and infrastructure. Project activities will help developing countries prevent and remove non-tariff barriers, and stimulate economic growth, while also preserving and expanding markets for U.S. businesses.
The Standards Alliance is managed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945. Currently composed of 193 Member States, the UN, and its work, are guided by the purposes and principles of its founding Charter. It remains a place where all the world's nations can gather, discuss common problems, and find shared solutions that benefit all of humanity.
The UN Charter provides arrangements for consultations with non-governmental organizations. Consultative status is granted by ECOSOC upon recommendation of the Committee on NGOs. Special consultative status is given to NGOs with special competence in, and explicitly concerned with, some of the fields of activity covered by the ECOSOC.
ASTM International was granted special consultative status with the ECOSOC in 2021. The consultative status provides ASTM access to the ECOSOC, its many subsidiary bodies, the various mechanisms of the United Nations, ad-hoc processes, and special events organized by the President of the General Assembly
