Setting the standard for standard-setting
Founded in 1947, the Geneva, Switzerland-based International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a non-governmental, independent consortium of 165 member countries working toward a common set of goals:
- Developing voluntary international standards covering a gamut of industry sectors including (among others):
- Food Safety
- Facilitating global trade by providing common standards among nations
- Facilitating creation of quality products and services that are safe and reliable
- Helping businesses increase productivity and operational efficiency
- Encouraging fair global trade
- Protecting end-users by certifying that products/services conform to established international standards
ISO's work, including its publishing of more than 22,000 standards to date, influences a range of areas where international standardization helps clear up potential confusion and advance the organization’s stated goals, such as:
- Units of measurement
- Alphabetization and translation
- Specifications for materials, tools, parts, processes and testing methods
- Formats in which specifications are presented
Each of ISO's 165 members is recognized as the entity "most representative of standardization in its country." This can be a private organization — such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) or the British Standards Institution (BSI) — or a governmental organization, as it is in most ISO member nations.
References"Public-Private Partnerships in Healthcare - HealthManagement.Org." HealthManagement, https://healthmanagement.org/c/it/issuearticle/public-private-partnerships-in-healthcare.