GD stakeholders' categories

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GD stakeholders' categories

Each expert (from either an ISO member body or a liaison organization) on an ISO WG or similar body (i.e. any team of individual experts nominated to participate in the drafting of a new deliverable or the revision of an existing one) should indicate the stakeholder category that most closely reflects his or her background.

A scheme for the categorization is set out in the table below and will be reflected in individual entries in the ISO Global Directory. It is designed to assist:

those developing proposals for new ISO work as they attempt to identify the range of relevant stakeholders to be engaged;
ISO member bodies in conducting outreach to identify and engage the relevant national stakeholders in ISO work; and
individual experts in identifying their stakeholder category.

Usually the categorization will reflect the role in which the individual expert also sits on a national mirror committee and in most cases will be determined by the nature of the individual’s employment. However, this is not always a reliable indicator, particularly for categories C, D and G.

Those who are employed as consultants should identify the category that most closely matches the origin of the expertise and the type of perspective that they bring to the project.

Representatives of standards developing organizations, bodies that accredit standards developing organizations, or national standards bodies are not regarded as being in a stakeholder category although they may participate in ISO technical bodies. Their participation is generally related to providing administrative and procedural support or to act as an information conduit between their organization, its stakeholders and the ISO committees. It is not regarded as being in the same capacity as other stakeholders who provide technical expertise on the subject matter of draft ISO standards.

Please note that not all ISO committees, subjects or specific projects will engage the same sets of relevant stakeholder categories. Proposers of new work, ISO committees and ISO member bodies are free to choose the categories which they consider to be most appropriate.

Category	Title	Typically including:
A	Industry, commerce and finance - SME's	manufacturers; producers; designers; service industries; distribution, warehousing and transport undertakings; retailers; insurers; banks and financial institutions; business and trade associations; consultants who are engaged by the above; and industrial users, who are individuals involved in using the type of product or system that is the topic of the committees but who are not involved with the production, manufacture or distribution of that type of product or system.
A	Industry, commerce and finance - Large enterprises	manufacturers; producers; designers; service industries; distribution, warehousing and transport undertakings; retailers; insurers; banks and financial institutions; business and trade associations; consultants who are engaged by the above; and industrial users, who are individuals involved in using the type of product or system that is the topic of the committees but who are not involved with the production, manufacture or distribution of that type of product or system.
B	Government	international and regional treaty organizations and agencies; national and local government departments and agencies, and all bodies that have a legally recognised regulatory function.
C	Consumers	national, regional and international consumer representation bodies, independent of any organization that would fall into the "industry and commerce" category, or individual experts engaged from a consumer perspective.
D	Labour	international, regional, national and local trade unions and federations of trade unions and similar bodies, the main objective of which is to promote or safeguard the collective interests of employees in respect of their relationship with their employers. This does not include professional associations (1)
E	Academic and research bodies	universities and other higher educational bodies or professional educators associated with them; professional associations (1); research institutions.
F	Independent testing / certification / accreditation / metrology bodies Standard application	testing, certification and accreditation bodies; organizations primarily devoted to promoting or assessing the use of standards (2). This category does not include non-independent testing, certification, or accreditation bodies, such as a laboratory that is a subsidiary of a manufacturer.
G	Non-governmental organizations	Organizations that usually operate on a charitable, non-profit basis or that do not distribute profits and that have a public interest objective related to social or environmental concerns. This category does not include political parties or other bodies whose main purpose is to achieve representation in government or governmental bodies; This category does not include standard bodies but includes other professional bodies that do not fit other categories.
H	Standards body	Standardizing body recognized at national, regional or international level, that has as a principal function, by virtue of its statutes, the preparation, approval or adoption of standards that are made available to the public.

Notes:

1) Professional associations are regarded as:

associations of individuals practicing, or being closely associated with the practice of, specific professional skills or sets of closely related skills; and having a purpose, at least in part, to advance the development of those skills and the understanding of the arts, sciences and technologies to which they relate.

2) ‘Accreditation’ refers to the accreditation of testing and certification bodies.

In the Global Directory, when assigning a new expert to a working group, you are asked to indicate the stakeholder category (mandatory metadata). To see what each category include in the application, browse through the different categories and refer to the text displayed right below as shown in the figure below: