PUBLIC CONSULTATION CLOSED

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP IN REVISING THE SSCT CREDIBILITY CRITERIA FOR ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL LABELS!

Together with you, we wanted to find out what makes sustainability standards credible. After four weeks, the second round of public consultation has now also been completed. During the period from 29.03.2021 to 25.04.2021, the revised second draft of the SSCT credibility criteria was again reviewed for relevance and applicability. At this point, we would like to express our sincere thanks to all participants for their great commitment! As was the case during the first round of consultation, we were pleased with the great response: in total, 237 ratings in the form of 'likes' and 111 comments on the credibility criteria were received during the second round of consultation. We will provide a summary of the results as soon as possible.

This builds on the positive experience from the first round of consultation, where a total of 420 assessments were received in the form of 'likes' and 187 comments on the credibility criteria. A summary of how feedback from the first round of consultation has been taken into account in the second draft can be found here.

WHAT IS THE BACKGROUND TO THE PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS?

The consultations are based on the SSCT's credibility criteria. These were developed by GIZ together with (inter)national experts on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development about five years ago. More information on the SSCT methodology, its application and our FAQ can be found here.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

GIZ is preparing a final draft of the credibility criteria, taking into account the comments received. Subsequently, this draft will be approved by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the minimum criteria will be approved by the Federal Government.

Thank you for your participation!

Quotes

FEMNET

“It should be evaluated whether a standard scheme has any rules in place on what is required to pass an audit. Many standard schemes require compliance only with some criteria in order to pass the whole audit. It should be more transparent which level...

Consumer Association of North Rhine-Westphalia

“Consumers need transparent, non-misleading sustainability labels and the support and action of scheme owners in case of non-compliant products.”

Ajit Thamburaj - Scientist

“Many studies suggest that stakeholder engagement as part of audits is really important to understand the ground realities (community-based audits). This should also be reflected in the SSCT Credibility Criteria.”

Fairtrade International and Fairtrade Deutschland

„Wir finden es richtig, dass die ISEAL-Kriterien zu einem Großteil die Basis der SSCT-Glaubwürdigkeitskriterien bilden. ISEAL ist nach unserer Ansicht der maßgebliche Kriteriensetzer in diesem Bereich und die Glaubwürdigkeitskriterien des SSCT sollten...

Malea Birke, consultation for WWF

Complaint mechanism is part of ISO. Not part is a deadline of the complaint response which I find crucial to make it "efficient". As well as accessibility of the complaint mechanism for analphabets, locals (no English speaker, etc).

The Process

Online-Consultation I
18 January to 28 February 2021

Development of a
2^nd revised draft

Online Consultation II
March/April 2021

DEVELOPMENT OF A CONSOLIDATED 1ST DRAFT

(Until end of December 2020) The comments, changes and additions made by International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Alliance (ISEAL Alliance) and Assurance Services International (ASI) are edited by GIZ. This 1st draft of the revised credibility criteria is published on this platform.

ONLINE CONSULTATION I

(18 January to 28 February 2021) For the 1st consultation round, the draft of the revised criteria is uploaded along with background information on the revision process as well as the methodology in general. Stakeholders are invited to comment.

DEVELOPMENT OF A CONSOLIDATED 2ND DRAFT

(March 2021) Based on the results of the first 1st consultation round, GIZ prepares a second 2nd draft for the credibility criteria with the help of ISEAL and ASI.

ONLINE CONSULTATION II

(March/April 2021) The revised draft will be uploaded on this platform for the 2nd public consultation by interested stakeholders.

FINAL DRAFT

(April/May 2021) After the 2nd consultation round, GIZ draws up a final draft of the credibility criteria, taking into account the comments received.

APPROVAL OF THE FINAL DRAFT

(Summer 2021) At the end of the consultation process, the final draft needs to be approved by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (the whole criteria set) and the German Federal Government respectively (minimum criteria).

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