ASTM International Hosts Open House for Standards

Executives from Sub-Saharan Africa

Representatives from 13 national standards bodies gathered at ASTM International Headquarters to participate in an Open House for Sub-Saharan Africa on May 16-18. The purpose of the Open House, which is being held in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology and the American National Standards Institute, is to open lines of communication and to find new ways to work cooperatively together.

Standards organizations from the following African countries are participating in the Open House: Botswana, Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Florizelle Liser, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa, U.S. Trade Representatives Office, spoke via video conference at the Open House. Other speakers include executives from a variety of standards-related organizations.

The Open House program provides an opportunity to discuss important issues regarding international standardization, challenges of developing countries, new technologies for standards development, ASTM's memorandum of understanding program and other issues of importance.

The Open House for Sub-Saharan Africa is the four in a series of programs bringing together national standards bodies. Previous open houses were for Latin American, Caribbean countries and Canada (November 2001); Asia Pacific countries (September 2003); and the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (July 2005).
                    

Shafeenaaz Nurmahomed,                                   Martin J. Kuscus,

Embassy of the Republic of                                  Chief Executive Officer,

Mauritius                                                            South African Bureau of Standards