Summary
The United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS) is a joint initiative of 5 UN Agencies (FAO, ITC, UNCTAD, UN Environment and UNIDO) and aims to provide governments and their stakeholders with impartial information, analysis, and discussions on VSS and their potential contribution to facilitate market access, strengthen public goods and achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Their 4th Flagship Report 'Scaling up VSS in Sustainable Public Procurement and Trade Policy' aims to provide an understanding on the role of government as a vehicle to drive the adoption of VSS. This Evidensia and UNFSS webinar draws out key insights from this latest report on VSS adoption trends across sectors and countries and a special focus on public procurement and trade policy links. We discuss questions such as:
- What accounts for the variation in VSS adoption amongst key countries?
- How can VSS support sustainable development and public procurement goals together?
- What is the future of VSS considerations in future trade policy negotiations, especially from a developing country standpoint?
The webinar counts with lead speakers Dr Axel Marx (University of Leuven) and Santiago Fernandez de Cordoba (UNFSS) as lead author and editor of the report. Panel discussion reflecting on insights from the report includes Karin Kreider (ISEAL Alliance), Anakarina Pérez Oropeza (FSC International), Manish Pande (India National Platform for Sustainability Standards) and Prof. Zhang Jianping (Regional Economic Cooperation).