About Uganda Standards

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How are standards developed?

Uganda Standards are developed through technical committees (TCs).

A technical committee is established to deliberate on standards in a given field or area and consists of representatives of all interested stakeholders.

TCs bring together interested stakeholders such as manufacturers, traders, consumers, regulators, civil society, and other partners to discuss standards.

UNBS has created 20 technical committees

Draft Uganda Standards adopted by technical committees are widely circulated to stakeholders (national and international) and the general public for comments. 

Technical committees review and resolve all the comments received before presenting the final draft standards to the National Standards Council (NSC).  The NSC approves and declares the standards as Uganda Standards.

The process of developing Uganda standards goes through the following stages;

At this stage, the Secretariat at UNBS receives a request for a new standard.  The request may come from stakeholders such as manufacturers, traders, consumers, regulators, civil society, and other party. The secretariat decides either to prepare a formal New Work Item Proposal (NWIP) for approval by UNBS management or not.

The decision to approve a proposal as work item is based on an assessment of the market relevance, and cost effectiveness of development. An approved proposal is then be accorded project status before the secretariat starts the technical work.

Preparatory stage (Stage 2)

At this stage, the secretariat prepares a working draft (WD). An indigenous WD may only be developed by the Project Secretariat where no international or regional standard is available for direct adoption. Sometimes a working group (WG) may be formed to draft the standard as input into the TC.

 Committee stage (Stage 3)

At this stage, the committee discusses the working draft and modifies it to produce committee draft (CD). Comments from the TC are received, and consensus is built to produce a draft Uganda Standard (DUS) for progression to the enquiry stage. Consensus building may be by correspondence, but normally a meeting may be arranged.

Public enquiry stage (Stage 4)

At this stage, DUS is circulated for comments (both nationally and internationally) in accordance with World Trade Organization- Technical Barrier to Trade (WTO/TBT)  requirements (60 days for indigenous standards and 30 days for adopted international standards).           

Confirmation stage (Stage 5)

The confirmation stage is the stage at which after the public enquiry (public comments stage) the TC considers all comments. Once the committee has agreed to the final text of the DUS, all the significant technical changes are included and the DUS is confirmed and elevated to Final Draft Uganda Standard (FDUS) and recommended to the NSC for approval and declaration a US.

Approval and declaration stage (Stage 6)

The approval stage is the stage at which the FDUS is approved by the NSC and declared as Uganda Standard (US).

Declaration of mandatory standards (technical regulations) (Stage 7)

This is the stage at which Uganda Standards, whose implementation is viewed as the only way of achieving its objectives, are declared for mandatory application in accordance with the UNBS Act (Cap 278).

Who initiates the development of a standard?

Standards are developed on a demand basis.

The need for a new standard can be initiated by any individual such as; a manufacturer, an institution, a consumer or a civil society.  

A new standard is developed when it is realized that there is a need for the standard e.g. a new type of product or a new process that may need to be standardized, regulated or promoted.

If you have identified the need for a standard, please fill in and submit this Form (Preliminary work item (PWI) proposal) or request online at https://support.unbs.go.ug  

What is the role of UNBS?

The role of UNBS is to manage the process of standards development. UNBS does this through internationally recognized best practices. UNBS establishes and supports technical committees and process the draft standards for approval. UNBS also publishes the standards and makes them available to the public.