Representatives from 12 national standards bodies gathered at ASTM International headquarters outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA to participate in an Open House for Sub-Saharan Africa on 16-18 May. The purpose of the open house, held in cooperation with the US Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), was to open lines of communication and to find new ways to work cooperatively together.

Standards organizations from the following African countries participated in the open house: Botswana, Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Group photo of standards executives attending the Open House for Sub-Saharan Africa 17 May.

Florizelle Liser, Assistant US trade representative for Africa, US Trade Representatives Office, spoke via video conference at the open house. Other speakers included executives from a variety of standards-related organizations, including CLSI.

Glen Fine, CLSI Executive Vice President, delivered a presentation titled Healthcare Standards in Medical Laboratories in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS. He provided background information about CLSI and its unique consensus process for developing standards and guidelines for patient testing. “I wanted to emphasize,” said Fine “the point that most medical lab errors are caused by systems and process issues, not people. Therefore, it’s the area where standards can have the most impact.”  He stated that CLSI standards can be a tool to improve consistency and quality. CLSI is currently working with four sub-Saharan countries (Tanzania, Nigeria, Namibia, and Zimbabwe) to address the issues of quality laboratory systems development, high-quality laboratory capacity, and training.

Added Fine, “I appreciated the invitation from ASTM to participate in this international open house for leaders from the national standards setting organizations.  It provided an opportunity to establish collaborative professional relationships on a global basis, so CLSI can learn and grow as an organization.”

For others, the open house program also provided an opportunity to discuss international standardization, challenges of developing countries, new technologies for standards development, ASTM’s memorandum of understanding program, and other issues of importance. [ return to top ]