Background

ISO/TC 338 Menstrual Products covers an area that has not been internationally standardized before, although is utterly important to the whole world. Therefore, it is important to enhance engagement from stakeholders and countries, especially from Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC), that previously may have limited experience of international standardization. ISO/TC 338 has together with SIS and ISO Capacity Building unit performed the following activities listed below to target this challenge.

Agreement signing regarding twinning partnership with GSA, Ghana Standards Authority and the Swedish Institute for Standards are signed. Annika Andreasen, CEO SIS, Joakim Falk, SIS, Jenny Acaralp SIS, Francisca Frimpong, GSA and Deborah Kusi Appiah, GSA

Twinning 
In January 2025 SIS established a two-year twinning partnership with GSA, Ghana Standards Authority to raise capacity and involvement in ISO standardization. Twinning describes the concept by which an ISO member is seeking to build its capacity and enters an arrangement with another ISO member, in this case SIS, to share its knowledge by e.g. providing training, guidance or assistance to build the capacity of the twinned partner.
The twinning with Ghana is on two levels, P-member twinning, to support national procedures and expert participation in ISO/TC 338 activities, and Secretariat Twinning, which is intended to support the leadership of an ISO Committee, in this case resulting in GSA to have similar roles as SIS to lead ISO/TC 338 (twinned committee manager and support team).
In late 2025, SIS and Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) agreed on a P-member twinning program that will take place during 2026 and include on-site trainings as well as virtual mentoring and interactions.

Activities

• An intensive training session (1 ½ days) on ISO standardization development process in relation to the ISO/TC 338 Plenary in Stockholm April 2023. All 10 participants were members from LMICs that was sponsored by ISO to attend the training session and TC meeting. The instructors were from SIS and ISO Central Secretariat.
• Two international webinars in March 2024 about the need for standards for menstrual products. The webinars included information on menstrual health, experiences from TC members, and updates on the ongoing standardization work, as well as general information on standardization and ways to participate in the work. There were seven presenters from India, Uganda, Ghana, Sweden and ISO, and in total about 70 participants from 42 different countries. Link to the webinar.
• Training sessions were organized in relation to ISO/TC 338 Plenary and WG meetings in Copenhagen June 2024 with the main focus on writing standards and ISO processes.In connection with the plenary meeting in Nairobi 2025, training focusing on online standards drafting was carried out. The target group primarily were LMIC representatives, but also other members of the TC and experts of the WG 1. The training session was held by SIS together with ISO Central Secretariat.  30 participants from India, Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Namibia, Brazil, USA, Sweden, UK, France, Denmark, Japan, China, Austria, Italy as well as international organizations in liaison to ISO/TC 338 attended the session.

Future plans

The ambition is to provide further training sessions in relation to ISO/TC 338 annual physical meetings. The sessions may cover standardization processes but can also include technical subject matter expertise on menstrual health, and standards implementation when the process approaches publication of the committee’s standards. In addition, there may be opportunities for regional or national training sessions and other capacity building activities as well as webinars depending on the need and proposals of TC members.

 

Contact

If you have any input or proposals concerning capacity building activities within the field of menstrual products standardization, please contact [email protected] and [email protected]. 

 

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