Category Archives: Quality Infrastructure

The totality of internationally recognized standards and technical regulations, metrology, accreditation, conformity assessment services and information, awareness and education programmes involved in strengthening the quality competitiveness of the goods and services produced or provided at the national levels, with the aim of: increasing and facilitating trade, boosting industrial and State efficiency and effectiveness, promoting consumer welfare and safety and contributing to other sustainable development goals.

Gender Perspective in Quality Infrastructure: A Pathway to Equality and Innovation (PART 2)

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In a previous post, we discussed the importance and implications of incorporating a gender perspective into QI. We recommended using a framework tailored to the QI context to evaluate contribution levels and progress toward gender equality. This time, we will explore various entry points through which QI can integrate a gender perspective, including:

  1. Fostering women’s talent and empowerment within QI organisations

In 2023, the Global Gender Gap Report published that women represent 49.3% of total employment in occupations outside science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), but only 29.2% of all STEM workers. This shows that women continue to be under-represented in this field of work, which is usually highly paid and has excellent growth potential.

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Gender Perspective in Quality Infrastructure – A Pathway to Equality and Innovation (PART 1)

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An analysis of crash and injury data collected by the National Automotive Sampling System Crashworthiness Data System between 1998 and 2015 in the United States, conducted by the University of Virginia, revealed a disturbing disparity: belted women are 73% more likely to be seriously injured in frontal crashes than men.

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Elevating Quality Infrastructure through Regulatory Impact Assessments

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Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) is a systematic approach to critically assessing the positive and negative impacts of proposed and existing regulations by systematically examining different policy options and alternatives. It is the only tool for Good Regulatory Practice (GRP) and an evidence-based approach to policymaking.

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Accreditation of private schemes: differentiator and source of credibility in various markets

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In recent years, accreditation has grown, particularly for privately owned standards schemes.

The German company FoodPLUS GmbH pioneered a group of European retailers responding to various food industry scandals in the 1990s. In 1997, the newly founded Euro-Retailer Produce Work Group Good Agricultural Practice (EurepGAP) commissioned experts to develop new standards for good agriculture practices. This gave rise to the certification system known today as GLOBALG.A.P.(1)

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Global dialogue and benchmarking of quality infrastructure systems

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Quality infrastructure (QI) systems differ between countries.

Germany can look back on a particularly long history of QI development. The predecessor of the PTB was the first National Metrology Institute (NMI) globally, and the German DIN is one of the pioneering National Standards Bodies (NSB). Accreditation was later introduced and, during European integration, merged into one National Accreditation Body (NAB) carrying the acronym DAkkS in Germany. However, the term “quality infrastructure” is a relatively new terminology in Germany.

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