Strengthening the Compliance of the OIC Member States
to International Standards
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standards across countries. Some OIC member states have relatively high degrees of harmonization with
international standards such as those issued by ISO, IEC, and the Codex. Others exhibit a lower degree of
harmonization. Some countries allow goods into their markets if they comply with international
standards and there are no applicable local standards, which is a type of de facto harmonization.
However, standards and quality infrastructure remain underdeveloped in lower income OIC member
states—a contrast with the situation in higher income countries, where the body of standards in force is
significant, and there is evidence of real capacity in this area, including in relation to harmonization.
Given the important role played by international standards in many countries, including OIC member
states, it is important to ensure that international standards bodies are as representative as possible.
Participation of developing countries is particularly important. A lack of effective participation by
developing countries in work of organizations like ISO, IEC, and the Codex is sometimes cited as a reason
why there is a case to be made that many standards are better suited to developed, as opposed to
developing, country contexts. A review of ISO, IEC, and the Codex shows that OIC member states have
different approaches to membership and participation depending on the organization. Participation is
weakest in IEC and strongest in the Codex. However, as the ISO example makes clearest, membership
alone is not enough. It is also important for countries to be actively involved in these organizations
technical committees and similar bodies where standards are debated and designed. Developing OIC
member states are often active in only a few such committees in ISO, which greatly limits their ability to
exercise an effective influence over the organization’s work. Of course, small countries cannot expect to
have the human and financial resources to participate in the same number of technical committees as
large countries, so it is natural to choose based on the economic interest of different sectors. But even
given this point, the evidence suggests that many poorer countries play only a marginal role in the work
of international standards bodies. As a result, it may be difficult for them to ensure that the work
product of those bodies is indeed appropriate to their developmental level and economic and
geographical circumstances. There is surely a role for development assistance to play in helping
facilitate greater participation by developing OIC member states in the work of ISO, IEC, the Codex, and
other international standards bodies.
In terms of concrete examples of the use of international standards in the context of the OIC, this report
looked at three case studies: Bangladesh, Egypt, and Senegal. These three countries are at different
income levels, and have distinct trajectories in terms of the nature and extent of national quality
infrastructure. They are also different in size, which has implications in terms of resource availability for
standards and quality-related activities. Nonetheless, in all three cases, there is significant evidence that
international standards play an important role as part of the overall context in which standardization
activities take place within each country. Legal and factual harmonization are present to a significant