Thursday 26 April 2012


Nigeria to Adopt ISO26000 Guidance Standard on Social Responsibility

The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) has through her national member body, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), commenced the adoption process of an international standard on Social Responsibility, ISO 26000 in Nigeria.

Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and her Knowledge Partner, ThistlePraxis Consulting (TPC) announced the commencement of the ISO 26000 Guidance Standard on Social responsibility, Nigeria Adoption Process in a statement signed by the Director General of Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Dr. Joseph Odumodu, MFR. Both organisations will partner on implementing the Nigeria Adoption process, scheduled to commence in May 2012. This process will feature three (3) technical meetings over a period of six (6) months.

Corporate organisations have been invited to express interests in participating in the exercise as Technical Partners. As technical partners, organisations will benefit from global recognition as industry leaders and pioneer institutions in promoting Social Responsibility standards in Nigeria. SON and TPC have also promised special recognition and further technical support to participating organisations after the successful completion of this exercise.

ISO 26000 is an International Standard (by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) elaborated to guide organisations on Social Responsibility. It is a consensus guidance document that provides support or a reference for all kinds of organisations in both private and public sectors both in developed and developing countries, as well as those who may be referred to as ‘being in transition’.

In July 2010, at the 9th Plenary meeting of the ISO Working Group on Social Responsibility (ISO/WG/SR) held in Copenhagen, 450 participating experts and 210 observers from 99 ISO member countries which included Nigeria and 42 liaison organisations deliberated and ratified the Final draft standard. Six main stakeholder groups were represented: industry; government; labour; consumers: nongovernmental organizations; service, support, research and others, as well as a geographical and gender-based balance of participants.

This exercise is open to all organisations strictly on the basis of ‘Expression of Interest’ as these entities will be required to play leadership roles in representing and advocating for provisions of the guide for their respective industries or sectors. Organisations who participate will be provided a copy of the guide for use in developing Sustainability Reports whilst ThistlePraxis Consulting, as Knowledge Partners will provide support in this regard.

When adopted, Nigeria will join many other African countries such as Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, South Africa, Senegal, Malawi, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Ghana who have adopted the standard.

In order to drum up support and achieve the New Media Strategy required to drive the process, a blog: http://iso26000nigeria.blogspot.com/ has been created to properly communicate the process for local and foreign observers. Interested individuals are encouraged to visit for comments, suggestions and input, accordingly.

Tuesday 10 April 2012

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs):

Understanding ISO 26000

WHAT IS ISO 26000?

ISO 26000 is an International Standard (by the International Standards Organisation, ISO) created to guide organisations on Social Responsibility. It is drawn up to provide support or a reference for all kinds of organisations in both private and public sectors both in developed and developing countries, as well as those who may be referred to as ‘being in transition’. Instead of a law or index, this document provides a mere guide to complement the diverse efforts of organisations all over the world in attaining social responsibility.
ISO also likes to note that the ISO 26000 document only contains a voluntary guidance, not requirements, and should therefore not be used as a certification standard. (Like ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004).

WHAT MAKES THIS STANDARD DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS?

Sustainability in business enterprises involves all the efforts and activities (both internal and external) that ensure an organisation operates in a socially responsible manner. With increasing pressure from all stakeholders, there is a need to develop standards as well as also benchmark on credible business practices at all times.

Since many experts across board all agree that CSR or SR or CR – all mean different things and vary from organisation to organisation; the ISO 26000 provides a rallying point for ALL kinds of organisations – especially both private and public enterprises as well as large corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises, public administrations and government agencies. The contents of this document, is simple and easy to understand – even for non-specialists or practitioners of CSR.
This standard complements the many other high-level declarations, conventions and individual CSR or SR initiatives that have been established, adopted or imbibed by organisations. Thus, the guide provides a plan to implement these lofty ideas.

What also stands ISO 26000 out is the amount of input and work from ISO’s far-reaching networks and national-member organisations. ‘ISO’s expertise is in developing harmonized international agreements based on double levels of consensus – among the principal categories of stakeholder, and among countries (ISO is a network of the national standards bodies of 163 countries)’.
Therefore, ISO can and should be trusted to ‘distil a globally relevant understanding of what social responsibility is and what organizations need to do to operate in a socially responsible way’.

WHAT DOES THIS STANDARD COVER?

The contents of ISO 26000 are summarised as follows: Scope, Terms and definitions of Social Responsibility, Understanding social responsibility, Principles of social responsibility, Recognizing social responsibility and engaging stakeholders, Guidance on social responsibility core subjects, Guidance on integrating social responsibility throughout an organization and examples of voluntary initiatives and tools for social responsibility.

HOW WAS THIS DEVELOPED & HOW DO I TRUST ITS CREDIBILITY/EXPERTISE?

The membership of the ISO/WG SR was the largest and the most broadly based in terms of stakeholder representation of any single group formed to develop an ISO standard.
Six main stakeholder groups were represented: industry; government; labour; consumers: nongovernmental organizations; service, support, research and others, as well as a geographical and gender-based balance of participants.

Under the joint leadership of the ISO members for Brazil (ABNT) and Sweden (SIS), it was made up of experts from ISO members (national standards bodies – NSBs) and from liaison organizations (associations representing business, consumers or labour, or inter-governmental or nongovernmental organizations). Membership was limited to a maximum of six experts per NSB and two experts per liaison organization.

In July 2010, the ISO/WG SR had 450 participating experts and 210 observers from 99 ISO member countries and 42 liaison organizations. The ISO national members bodies (NSBs) of 83 countries nominated experts to participate whilst the ISO members of 16 countries observed the work of the ISO/WG SR. About 42 organizations had liaison status with the ISO/WG SR and nominated experts to participate in its work.

NB:
The International Standard ISO 26000:2010, Guidance on social responsibility, provides harmonized, globally relevant guidance for private and public sector organizations of all types based on international consensus among expert representatives of the main stakeholder groups, and so encourage the implementation of best practice in social responsibility worldwide.

Thursday 5 April 2012

Welcome to ISO26000: NPA

ISO 26000 is an International Standard (by the International Organisation for Standardization) elaborated to guide organisations on Social Responsibility. It is a consensus guidance document that provides support or a reference for all kinds of organisations in both private and public sectors both in developed and developing countries, as well as those who may be referred to as 'being in transition'.

In July 2010, at the 9th Plenary meeting of the ISO Working Group on Social Responsibility (ISO/WG/SR) held in Copenhagen, 450 participating experts and 210 observers from 99 ISO member countries which included Nigeria and 42 liaison organisations deliberated and ratified the Final draft standard. Six main stakeholder groups were represented: industry; government; labour; consumers: nongovernmental organizations; service, support, research and others.

Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and her Knowledge Partner, ThistlePraxis Consulting (TPC) are pleased to invite your organisation to participate in the Nigeria Adoption Process as Technical Partner and/or Sponsor, scheduled to commence in April 2012.