Global initiative seeks greater coherence among sustainability standards for agri-food

24–28 August 2026. Mombasa, Kenya. ARSO Week 2026. This is the annual week of meetings and stakeholder events surrounding the 32nd General Assembly of the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO), hosted in 2026 by the Government of Kenya through the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS). 

The theme of this year was “Standards enabling Intra-Africa Trade under the AfCFTA – One Certificate Working for You.”  It reflects its focus on harmonising African standards, conformity assessment and certification to reduce technical barriers to trade and support implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

It brought together African standardisation bodies, policymakers and industry stakeholders around the theme.

The ARSO Week 2026 programme contained several sessions on greater coherence, interoperability and mutual recognition among sustainability standards for agri-food. 

26/08: World Bank Seminar: “World Development Report 2025 – Standards for Development”. 

World Development Report 2025. Standards for trade provides the most comprehensive assessment of the global landscape of standards today and how they can be used to accelerate economic development. 

This panel addressed the growing role of voluntary sustainability standards, tensions and complementarities between public and private standards, the risks of fragmentation, and opportunities for alignment and mutual recognition. 

• Xavier Giné (World Bank)
• Sergio Mujica (ISO)
• Aka Kouassim (UNIDO)
• Chidi Ileka (Afreximbank)
• Emmanueline Irizerwa (Rwanda Standards Board) 
• Erastus Gatebe (Kenya Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry).

26/08: High-Level Panel: “Standards enabling Intra-Africa trade under the AfCFTA – One
Certificate Working for You”. 

The panel examined different standards and conformity-assessment procedures as technical barriers to trade, the benefits of harmonised standards, and the concept of a single certification/quality mark. Speakers represented the Government of Kenya, ARSO, ISO, AfCFTA Secretariat and International Trade Centre, making this particularly relevant to translating global standards coherence into an African/AfCFTA context.

26/08: African Day of Standardisation

Session 1: Agro-Processing

Under the theme “The Role of Agro-processing Industries in Sustainable Development and the Challenge of Incoherent Regulatory Frameworks in Africa,” this panel addressed technical barriers to trade, SPS requirements, ARSO harmonisation and conformity assessment, and capacity constraints facing African agro-processing SMEs. 

• Liliane Kamanzi (ARSO), 
  
  
• Ludovica Ghizzoni (ITC), 
• Andrew Edewa (TradeMark Africa), 
• Efe Ukala (ImpactHER Foundation)
• Caroline Kiende Kaua (MSEA).

Session 2: ARSO Conformity Assessment Programme. 

This session focused explicitly on mutual recognition of conformity assessment procedures, the ARSO Quality Mark as a “One Certificate” model, and cooperation among national, regional and continental quality-infrastructure institutions—all practical mechanisms for making different standards systems interoperable.

 
Session 3: Eco Mark Africa Certification and Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS). This is
the closest match to the global sustainability standards initiative. It examined VSS and eco-certification for sustainable trade, Eco Mark Africa, alignment with global regulatory frameworks such as the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), sustainable certification for African SMEs and green value chains. 

• Rupal Verma of IISD presented the ARSO Sustainability Standards Benchmarking Study, followed by discussants from African and international organizations.

Related:

A growing international coalition is exploring how greater coherence and interoperability among major global sustainability standards and reporting frameworks could support more sustainable and inclusive agri-food trade. 

The initiative, facilitated through a Collaborative Ag-food Advisory Group, responds to concerns that the proliferation and fragmentation of sustainability schemes creates overlapping requirements, higher compliance costs and barriers to broader industry engagement. For agricultural producers and food companies in particular, interoperability could improve market access, while more regionally relevant standards could help connect sustainable production in the Global South with global supply chains.

Rather than creating another standard or organization, the initiative proposes a pre-competitive, partner-driven collaboration focused on practical actions and complementing existing international processes. Its objectives include enabling sustainable agri-food trade between the Global South and North, strengthening food security and resilience, and improving accountability. The work is deliberately focused on major sustainability frameworks and reporting/disclosure schemes rather than trying to harmonize the hundreds of individual standards covering sustainability, safety and quality

26 August 2026 – Sixth coalition discussion

This meeting reviewed the initiative's purpose, interoperability and the coalition's focus, lessons from discussions so far, and a six-month plan for deepening stakeholder input, external outreach and messaging. The central discussion asked: “Why does bringing greater coherence to major global sustainability standards and reporting frameworks matter to the agri-food system and what should be done to address this?”

The initiative has already brought together 24 organizations, representing commodity sectors, farmers, business, research, sustainability initiatives and international organizations. Participants include the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI), GFAiR, Pan-African Farmers’ Organization, International Trade Centre, Consumer Goods Forum, GRI, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, Global Pulse Confederation, Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative and World Business Council for Sustainable Development, among others.

APAARI, is working extensively with International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures for compliance with the SPS/WTO agreements for trade of agricultural commodity trade. Applying these standards also helps countries with their market access strategy. The key issues for the developing countries in Asia-Pacific are the sustainability of using these standards and the standards themselves, which constantly evolve. How we overcome such challenges is something that we need to capture in the sustainbility model. Ravi Khetarpal, Executive Director, APAARI

The diversity of this coalition could be particularly important for ensuring that future sustainability frameworks are not only internationally coherent but also practical and regionally relevant for farmers and agri-food businesses in developing countries—turning interoperability of standards into an instrument for market access, sustainable trade and food-system resilience rather than an additional compliance burden.

The challenge for Africa and smallholder farmers

For developing countries, sustainability standards offer opportunities but also significant risks. Compliance can help producers demonstrate environmental and social performance, strengthen traceability and gain access to higher-value markets. But certification, auditing, data collection and changes in production practices can also impose substantial costs. UNCTAD warns that high compliance costs, limited knowledge about certification and regulatory fragmentation can leave smallholder farmers behind.

This concern is particularly important for Africa, where agricultural exports frequently originate from production systems involving large numbers of smallholders. A standard developed primarily around the capacities of large commercial enterprises can unintentionally become a trade barrier for smaller producers.

African institutions are therefore increasingly advocating sustainability standards that reflect African production realities. The African Organization for Standardisation (ARSO), for example, developed the Eco-Mark Africa ecolabelling scheme as a continental approach to sustainability certification. Standards initially covered agriculture, fisheries, forestry and tourism, while newer standards approved in 2025 extend into areas including sustainable cotton, textiles, leather, mining and construction.

ARSO Week 2026, held on 24–28 August in Mombasa, Kenya, brought together African standardisation bodies, policymakers and industry stakeholders around the theme “Standards enabling Intra-Africa trade under the AfCFTA – One Certificate Working for You,” promoting harmonised standards and quality infrastructure to reduce technical barriers and facilitate intra-African trade.

Related:

26 August 2026. How Food Trade and Markets Shape Diets in West Africa

This webinar was jointly organised by the Sahel and West Africa Club (OECD/SWAC), the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and AGRA. Bringing together perspectives from trade, nutrition, public policy and the private sector.

3 September 2026 | 11:30–13:00. AFS Kigali From Change to Proof: System Transformation

This session brings together leaders from AGRA, the Mastercard Foundation, the True Cost Accounting (TCA) Accelerator, AfrEA, and other partners to explore how innovative measurement approaches, digital technologies, and integrated data systems can strengthen system-wide evidence generation, use, and decision-making.

• Moderator: Liz Ntonjira, Director of Program Communications, Pan-African Programs, Mastercard Foundation
• Keynote Speaker: Prof Hamadi Boga, Vice-President, Program Delivery, AGRA
• Andrew Cox – Director, Strategy, Monitoring & Evaluation, AGRA
• Dr. Tadele Fayso – Director, Impact Delivery – Pan-African Programs, Mastercard Foundation
• Jenn Yates – Director, True Cost Accounting (TCA) Accelerator
• Dr. John Ulimwengu – Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI
• Dr. Getaw Tadese – Director, Department of Policy Intelligence, AKADEMIYA2063
• Dr. Máximo Torero – Chief Economist, FAO

Resources:

World Bank. 2025. World Development Report 2025. Standards for trade World Bank. doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-2275-9. 408 p.

The report identifies proliferation and fragmentation of private standards as a concrete problem for global value chains. Private standards originally helped buyers manage food-safety and reputational risks, but their multiplication created duplication: suppliers serving several retailers may need multiple certifications, audits and documentation even when schemes cover similar criteria. The report notes that consolidation and benchmarking have already reduced this problem in food safety.

For agricultural sustainability, the challenge is becoming more important because private environmental and social standards are expanding rapidly. The WDR examines 12 sustainability schemes—including Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, GLOBALG.A.P., Better Cotton, Organic and RSPO—and finds that the share of harvest area certified by major sustainability schemes has grown substantially, particularly in low- and lower-middle-income countries. For eight major commodities—bananas, cocoa, coffee, cotton, oil palm, soybeans, sugarcane and tea—the certified share in low- and lower-middle-income countries rose from about 10% in 2016 to almost 16% in 2022.

The WDR does not advocate creating one universal sustainability standard. Rather, its logic points toward benchmarking, interoperability, mutual recognition, regulatory cooperation and a shared sustainability language, while allowing standards to reflect different national capacities.

Kassa, Woubet; Kee, Hiau Looi; Maur, Jean-Christophe. 2026. Integrating Africa: From Threads to Hubs. © World Bank. 190 p.

The report argues that interoperability— the capacity of goods, data, finance, and regulatory systems to operate seamlessly across borders—rather than liberalization alone is the central condition for integration. 

Integrating Africa: From Threads to Hubs offers a new analytical and operational framework organized around four interdependent pillars. 

1. First, integrate production regionally. 
2. Second, fix the frictions. 
3. Third, deepen and enforce agreements and implement AfCFTA
4. Fourth, strengthen the provision of regional public goods. Infrastructure, energy, digital platforms, and security are preconditions for integration.

 

Rudolf Buntzel and Francisco Marí (2016) Good Food – Poor Producers: How the Agricultural Industry Rules the Food Markets with Standards - Gutes Essen – arme Erzeuger: Wie die Agrarwirtschaft mit Standards die Nahrungsmärkte beherrscht

This book is unusually relevant to current debates about interoperability of sustainability standards: it examines private standards, certification and conformity systems, their duplication, adaptation to local conditions, and the disproportionate compliance burden on small producers.