The International Organization for Standardization’s Committee on Consumer Policy (COPOLCO) and Committee on Developing Country matters (DEVCO) will hold a seminar on improving consumer participation in standards development.

The event, hosted by the Botswana Bureau of Standards, will be held Aug. 31–Sept. 1 in Gaborone, Botswana. Representatives of national standards bodies from around the world and ISO members from sub-Saharan Africa are expected to attend the event, which is designed to help these agencies work more effectively together.

A main objective will be to be ensure consumers’ priorities are included in standards, and to raise consumer awareness about the value of standards. Specific case studies will be presented, and participants will have the opportunity to test consumer priority theories in small group activities. This is the most recent of similar training events that have taken place in Bangkok, Thailand; Cairo, Egypt; Prague, Czech Republic; Toronto and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, since 2003.

For more information, visit www.iso.org/iso/en/commcentre/events/2006/cop_dev_seminar.html

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