The OECD Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) elaborated a document on the importance of quality infrastructure for regulatory policy and regulation with the support of PTB.
On 16 September 2025, during the 11th Annual Meeting of the International Organisations Partnership (IOP) at the OECD headquarters in Château de la Muette in Paris, the document “Reinforcing Regulatory Frameworks through Standards, Measurements and Assurance. Making Better Use of Quality Infrastructure in Policymaking” was presented. In line with a proposal of PTB that was financed by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), a group of OECD professionals and consultants (Marianna Karttunen, Alberto Morales, Hamsini Shankar), who were supported by Rahima Guliyeva (BIPM) and Ritwika Sengupta (BSI), elaborated the document. In addition, expert advice was provided by Karl-Christian Göthner, a consultant of PTB.
The participants of the 11th Annual Meeting of the IOP in Paris. ©PTB/Christian Göthner
The objective of the publication is to help policymakers and regulators to understand the significance of a national QI system’s technical competencies (metrology, standardization, accreditation, conformity assessment, market surveillance) and to use these competencies to effectively develop and implement regulations. Written in plain language, the report describes the QI and its contributions to regulation and good governance in five chapters:
- Assessment and recommendations
- Integrating the standards and quality assurance (QI) system in the regulatory policy cycle
- Enabling effective governance of standards and quality assurance and regulatory systems
- Leveraging the standards and quality assurance system for global challenges
- Practical Checklist on the interactions between the standards and quality assurance (QI) system and regulations
A practical, five-step checklist in the last chapter, which explains how to include QI in elaborating, implementing and monitoring regulations, is particularly useful.
The core team from left to right: Marianna Karttunen, Rahima Guliyeva, Ritwika Sengupta, Karl-Christian Göthner and Alberto Morales. ©PTB/Christian Göthner
The segment of the event during which the report was at the focus was moderated by Graham Russell. He underlined the value the document and thanked the OECD team, PTB, BIPM and BSI for their work. Anna Cypionka (BIPM), Etty Feller (ILAC), Silvio Duplinsky (ISO), Xavier Giné (World Bank), Lee White (IFAC) and Amelia Espinoza Tiffer (UNIDO) welcomed the publication and added additional valuable information to the presentation. The document was predominantly well received by the participants, and the resonance in social media was positive.
Several virtual launching events are planned for different regions and countries. The first one, for the ASEAN Member States, was already realized by PTB and OECD on 18 September 2025.
Link: Reinforcing Regulatory Frameworks through Standards, Measurements and Assurance | OECD
Cover image ©OECD
