Standards and Certification Development in Turkmenistan

The main state service Turkmenstandartlary is the public body holding control over the quality, reliability, uniformity of measurements and standards of products as well as protection, rational use of resources and safety of labour in the country. This institution is rapidly embracing international standards as the norm for practices. The organization has a central administration in Ashgabat and 5 regional operational services centres.

Together with the new trend of reforms engaged over the finance and economics sector in Turkmenistan, Turkmenstandartlary has also engaged major changes and a move of the Institution towards international references and working methods.

The GoT is fully aware that international standards reflect the best practices of research and development, scientific findings, industry/consumers/environmental demands and represent rules, general principles, specifications of most countries in the world to facilitate the elimination of trade barriers and supports WTO accession.

Project description

The overall objective of the project is to support the country development programme of Turkmenistan and specifically the organisation Turkmenstandartlary with regard to introducing standards and certification of goods, products and services in line with internationally accepted standards and practices.

The specific objectives of the proposal are to:

• Increase international cooperation with recognized accredited standardisation and certification organisations with the aim to harmonise local standards and certification and increase compatibility to international ones, compliant with ISO 9001, 14001, 22000, OHSAS 18001, SA 8000 and HACCP
• Provide recommendations for an organisational structure compatible with the international model which will allow the adoption of international standards and their accreditation and certification at different levels.
• Provide assistance to the design of operational management systems and appropriate training for certification specialists in leading international standardization and certification institutions.
• Provide the necessary harmonisation support for measures to eliminate trade barriers and to support the protection of the rights, products and services safety, and the legal interests of Turkmenistan and its population, within friendly environmentally accepted practices.

Activities

The following activities are undertaken to achieve the project objectives:

• Provide detailed tasks for the team members, including work programme, time schedules that will ensure the active achievement of the objectives.
• Identify the needs and gaps in the knowledge, information and professional practices related to International standards and certification practices, methodologies, with the local partner.
• Identify the current level of standards in relation to the project in Turkmenistan and provide a pilot model for comparison and modification to International standards implementation.
• Support the design of a relevant MIS, IT database and systems and relevant training material related to the project.
• Identify the suitability of the present organisational structure in order to comply with the international model.
• Propose a long-term strategy to the Turkmen authorities for further support in areas linked with standards development and liaise with other partners and potential donors.
• Prepare reports as requested.
• Assist team members with their duties as required.
• Investigate the current situation with ICT systems development within Turkmenstandartlary and its suitability for the project components.
• With the assistance of Turkmenstandartlary experts and the Team Leader propose and prepare an electronic inventory/MIS for information on standards, metrology and certification development methodologies to international levels and programmes and training material for use in training courses to develop the knowledge and applications of the approved system. All data to be translated into Russian language.
• Provide training courses for professional requirements and operation of the information inventory for approved access and dissemination to the relevant players
• With the assistance of the Team Leader, propose and prepare a wider scope of assistance intervention in the sector and any training needs.
• Supervise local expertise in all translations necessary (including technical material) as required and the input into the inventory/MIS files.

Results

The main specific expected results from the assistance are:

• The design of a relevant framework for future intervention of support to the further wider development aspects including institutional set-up, legislation and policy aspects of the sector
• Recommendations for an organisational structure compatible with the international model which will allow the adaptation of international standards and certification levels.
• The gaps in the local system are outlined, one approved local pilot comparison model is completed in which it is harmonised to international standards based on best norms and practices, and an action plan exists on how to upgrade to existing system to an internationally recognised one.
• The cooperation with relevant international partners is established and an inventory of statutory international/local existing regulations is available.

Sustainability

The project is implemented at the highest level of management of Turkmenstandartlary and benefits from its support for accompanying the trend of reforms engaged by the new management.

Personnel is being trained for being able to participate to international exchange of information and future meetings by using use-case methodology in working on international references like ISO-17000.

Turkmenstandartlary is also being trained on the ownership of the information system prototype and seminars on change management are planned for further sustainability.

Outreach & Dissemination

Dissemination work is at this stage engaged at Turkmenstandartlary level before opening it to external Turkmen partners once the operational project will be deployed after the pre-identification project.

Lesson learnt (incl. recommendations)

Adopting international standards when not being used to participate to international fora and standardization institutions is not easy and additional support actions are needed before an effective participation of Turkmen experts in international institutions.

Funded by the
European Union

Europa House
Turkmenistan