ISO/TC 338 Menstrual products Plenary meeting and Capacity building activities in Stockholm, April 2023
The very first face-to face meeting took place April 2023 in Stockholm at the Swedish Institute for Standards. 47 members participated on site and 21 members participated via Zoom. We discussed, among other things, what the standard should contain. We had a number of international guests attending from Zimbabwe, Japan, Namibia, Iran, Uzbekistan, India, Thailand, Germany, Austria and France, as well as several international organizations working with everything from women's health to the development of materials.
We started the meeting days with one day of Capacity building training. The objective of this capacity building initiative was to provide hands-on training sessions on the ISO standards development process with
the aim to increase effective participation of developing countries in the technical work of ISO/TC 338 Menstrual products. After the plenary meeting, we gathered all members for a follow up and debrief after the plenary, to raise questions and concerns from the meeting.
It was a very fruitful meeting, and we look forward to our next physical meeting, to meet everyone again and to continue this important work.
Quote from Gerda Mazi Larsson, Chairperson ISO/TC 338:
"The aim of the standard is to ensure that products are safe, transparent information about content and simplification in procurement, export and import. Standards can ensure that everyone has access to the same quality of menstrual products and can make informed choices, no matter where in the world they live".