Increased adoption of IEC International Standards by African Countries

From left, Amaury Santos,
IEC Regional Manager for Latin
America, Françoise Rauser, IEC
Affiliate Secretary and Carlos
Rodríguez, IEC Affiliate Leader

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From left, Evah Oduor, IEC Affiliate
Coordinator for Africa and Dennis
Chew, Officer in Charge IEC-APRC

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Francis Gbeddy, Director of
Power Division, Ghana Energy
Commission

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Jo-Anne Byng, Secretary of the
South African IEC National
Committee

The key to successful IEC GM (General Meeting) participation

Participating in a formal international meeting such as the IEC GM can be daunting. Françoise Rauser, IEC Affiliate Country Programme Secretary, explained to Affiliate newcomers their rights and duties during the General Meeting. She especially explained their observer status during the technical meetings and the participation of their heads of delegation as invited guests in the Council statutory session.

Adoption of standards can foster domestic economies

Carlos Rodríguez, Executive Director of INTECO (Instituto de Normas Técnicas de Costa Rica), the Costa Rican standards institution,  and Leader since 2006 of the IEC Affiliate Country Programme, which comprises 83 developing countries, shared with the Affiliate delegations the report he submits every year to the IEC SMB (Standardization Management Board) and CAB (Conformity Assessment Board). The report shows a continuous increase in IEC International Standard adoptions by Affiliate countries. Developing countries rely to a certain extent on these adoptions to drive the expansion of their domestic economies.

Seven countries have been granted Affiliate Plus status

Currently, a number of Affiliate countries are using the IEC Affiliate Country Programme to the fullest but, for economic or other reasons, are not in a position to apply for IEC membership. On the basis of this situation, Rodríguez formally asked the IEC for a special status for these countries. His efforts resulted in the creation of the Affiliate Plus status for developing countries. Any country that has established an NEC (National Electrotechnical Committee) and adopted at least 50 IEC International Standards can apply for this status. The Affiliate Plus status provides the opportunity to receive 400 free IEC International Standards for adoption, instead of the normal 200. Seven countries currently meet the criteria and have been granted Affiliate Plus status: Ghana, Guyana, Jordan, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Uganda and Zambia. (See related article in the September 2009 e-tech).

Moses Dowuona, NEC Chairman of Ghana, the first country to be granted Affiliate Plus status, presented to the assembly how Ghanaian regulation refers to IEC International Standards. This was illustrated by a presentation on the role of the Ghana Energy Commission from Francis Gbeddy, the commission’s Director of Power Division. He explained that the energy commission works closely with the GSB (Ghana Standards Board) to identify standards that are required for effective regulation. The commission drafts legislation for enforcement of the standards.

His presentation was followed by an animated discussion involving all Forum participants. Questions included: How does Ghana decide which standards should be made mandatory? How to ensure that the energy commission‘s regulatory role does not overlap with the GSB’s work? How did Ghana manage to motivate academia (it won the wattwatt.com Care4it competition first prize)? Evah Oduor, IEC Affiliate Coordinator for Africa, underlined that it is not sufficient to set up a regulatory function if the country does not have a CA (Conformity Assessment) system.

Increase involvement in standard development

Rodríguez underlined the need for developing countries to get more involved in standards work. To achieve this, the IEC will provide case-by-case mentoring support. Aimed at Affiliate Plus countries, this approach should help provide better understanding and monitoring of IEC technical work that is relevant to their local markets. Rodríguez hopes to be able to report more on this topic next year.

Focus on Africa

More than 3 000 IEC International Standards are in use in 25 African countries and more than 1 200 have been adopted by 12 Affiliate countries in Africa, Oduor proudly reported to Forum participants. Oduor also provided feedback on her missions to the general assemblies of SADCSTAN (Southern African Development Community Cooperation in Standardization) in April 2009 in Botswana and UPDEA (Union of Producers, Transporters and Distributors of Electric Power in Africa) in November 2009 in Ethiopia. She invited countries present at the Forum to establish their NECs to provide them with the necessary infrastructure that would allow them to get more involved in IEC work.

AFSEC signs a formal agreement with the IEC

Claude Koutoua, President of AFSEC (African Electrotechnical Standardization Commission), had the pleasure of announcing that AFSEC and the IEC had signed a formal cooperation agreement (see related article). Koutoua signed for AFSEC and IEC General Secretary and CEO Ronnie Amit for the IEC. The second AFSEC General Assembly is to be held in the first quarter of 2010 and will be followed by a workshop that aims to establish the first AFSEC TCs (Technical Committees). A workshop on rural electrification is planned, and Koutoua hopes that an expert will present IEC work in this area.

Focus on Latin America

In parallel to the main forum, Rodríguez and Amaury Santos, Manager of the IEC Latin America Regional Centre, managed a session with representatives from Uruguay and Peru designed to clarify how to establish an NEC and to make more efficient use of IEC tools.