The global standard on social responsibility, ISO 26000, is a major step closer to completion after fruitful negotiations on the working draft by 400 experts from 80 countries in Santiago, Chile this month. The multi-stakeholder drafting team that brokered agreement on the text was chaired by leader of the South African delegation, Jonathon Hanks, visiting Senior Lecturer at the UCT Graduate School of Business (UCT GSB).

With agreement being reached on several critical contentious issues, the meeting was a significant milestone in the three-year process of negotiation in the largest multi-stakeholder process ISO has undertaken.

Building on their success in developing international management standards, such as ISO 9000 and ISO 14001, the Geneva-based standards body took on the ambitious task in 2004 of developing a global guidance standard that applies to all organisations, covering such issues as human rights, labour practices, environmental management, organisational governance, consumer issues and community development. Not only is the scope of the standard ambitious, but so too is the process of developing it, involving the participation of global representatives from six stakeholder groups – industry, government, labour, NGOs, consumers and national standards bodies – from more than 80 countries.

“It was a very useful opportunity for intensive debate to get to grips with often controversial issues, and extraordinary to see 400 people representing a wide range of countries and stakeholder groups develop deeper understanding and consensus. It has been a difficult and drawn-out process, which was perhaps inevitable given the complexity of the issues. The great value of the standard is that it is the product of consensus,” said Hanks, who is a visiting Senior Lecturer at the UCT Graduate School of Business and a leading sustainability consultant.

Following last week’s negotiations, the working draft of the standard will now move to the next phase for approval and adoption by ISO member states.

“The US government, however, raised objections to the final wording of the standard, calling for a narrower interpretation of international law that would hold organisations accountable primarily to those treaties and conventions their host countries had ratified, rather than to a broader body of international principles. They also called for tighter provisions in the text relating to ISO 26000’s relationship with requirements of the World Trade Organisation, arguing that the standard might allow countries to impose trade barriers on the basis of an organisation’s social and environmental performance.

“The Chinese delegation voiced their concern with the proposal to reference certifiable standards – such as those relating to fair labour and ethical trade practices – in the annex of the Standard,” said Hanks.

Although the standard is non-binding, and intended to provide guidance only, it will undoubtedly raise the bar for organisations seeking to improve their management of social and environmental impacts, he added.