Public consultation raises the bar for ISEAL Impacts Code
01 November 2009
International experts in impacts assessment and practitioners in standards systems have contributed more than 150 written contributions to the first formal public consultation on the upcoming ISEAL Impacts Code. Once adopted in 2010, the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Assessing the Impacts of Social and Environmental Standards Systems will streamline reporting procedures and help standards systems and their supporters better understand how their programmes can help to bring about social justice and environmental sustainability.
Many comments addressed the requirement to formulate a theory of change for each standards system. "It's not easy to pinpoint the exact mechanism for change in a system as complex as the global trade in commodities", acknowledges Paddy Doherty, ISEAL's Credibility Tools Manager. "However, only if standards systems have a clear understanding what they want to achieve can they use monitoring and evaluation to find out how to do it better." The ISEAL Secretariat is working with its members directly to help them define their theory of change.
With the guidance of the international steering committee for the ISEAL Impacts Code, the ISEAL Secretariat is now tasked with incorporating the contributions received during the consultation period into the text of the Impacts Code. A series of workshops, webinars and outreach meetings will invite additional discussions of the code and its implementation. While the formal consultation is now closed, further contributions to the ISEAL Impacts Code will continue to be welcome.
Please send your contributions to Paddy Doherty, ISEAL Impacts Manager.
