Bonsucro Standard Development and revision procedure
1 |
PURPOSE AND SCOPE |
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| 1.1 | This document specifies the procedure to be followed by Bonsucro for the development of any new Bonsucro international standards and when substantive changes to existing Bonsucro international standards are made. |
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| 1.2 | The purpose of this procedure is to ensure the credibility of all Bonsucro standards, by incorporating the values of transparency, participation and fairness into the processes for their development, and through compliance with international best practice for standards development. |
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2 |
DEFINITIONS |
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| 2.1 | Consensus: General agreement, characterised by the absence of sustained opposition to substantial issues by an important part of the concerned interests and by a process seeking to take into account the views of interested parties, particulalry those directly affected, and to reconcile any conflicting arguments. NOTE – Consensus need not imply unanimity. |
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| 2.2 | Interested party: Any person or group concerned with or directly affected by a standard – used synonymously in this procedure with the term stakeholder. |
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| 2.3 | Reviewing: The process of analysing comments and feedback received to determine a Standard’s continued effectiveness. A review shall consider whether the Standard should be formally and publicly revised. |
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| 2.4 | Standard: Document that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristic for products or related processes and production methods, with which compliance is not mandatory. For the purpose of this procedure, it shall be followed when reviewing and revising the Bonsucro Principles and Criteria. The Bonsucro Chain of Custody standard should follow this procedure. |
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3 |
REFERENCES |
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| 3.1 | Guidelines: ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards (v. 5.01) | |||
| 3.2 | Procedures: Bonsucro Complaints Resolution Process |
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4 |
DECISION TO DEVELOP OR REVISE A NEW BONSUCRO INTERNATIONAL STANDARD |
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| 4.1 | Proposals to develop or review a new standard may be submitted by any interested party and shall be logged centrally in the ‘issues log’ by Bonsucro Secretariat. |
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| 4.2 | The decision to develop or review a new Bonsucro standard shall rest with the Bonsucro Board of Directors (BD). | |||
| 4.3 | Bonsucro standards shall be reviewed on an ongoing basis, with the period of the next review to occur within a 3-5 year period and not exceeding 3 - 5 years from adoption of the previous version of the standard. | |||
| 4.4 | The date of the subsequent scheduled review shall be made publicly available and shall be included in the standard. | |||
| 4.5 | A review process shall consider a standard’s continued relevance, effectiveness, and whether external circumstances have changed to the point where change is required. |
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| 4.6 | After each review, a decision shall be made by the Bonsucro Secretariat on whether a revision shall be recommended to the Board of Directors. |
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| 4.6.1 | Reasons why a revision process may be recommended and initiated are: (a) stakeholder and/or internal Bonsucro feedback as captured in the Issue Log. (b) new scientific developments (c )change in legislation (d) any other significant change in the Sugarcane production and supply chain industry |
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| 4.7 | If the development or the revision of a Standard, the Board of Directors shall direct the Bonsucro secretariat to establish a working group |
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| 4.7.1 | The Working Group (WG) shall include individuals based on the following criteria: (a) expert knowledge and/or experience of the issue(s) under consideration (b) capacity to contribute a wide range of viewpoints, for example of different socio-economic, geographic, cultural, gender, organisational and size of interest (including small and medium) circumstances (c) represent potentially affected stakeholders (d) understanding of Bonsucro’s mission and vision, including knowledge of the Bonsucro’s systems and procedures |
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| 4.7.2 | The WG shall as a minimum include a designated Project Manager from the Bonsucro Secretariat and external consultants, if necessary |
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| 4.8 | The Working group shall: (a) draft terms of reference for the project which include objectives, a list of key interested parties and work plan (including decision making process). (b) produce drafts of the revised standard both prior to and following stakeholder feedback, including justification of the proposed changes, and an assessment of risks and impact of each change. |
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5 |
PROCESS TO DEVELOP OR REVISE A BONSUCRO INTERNATIONAL STANDARD |
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| 5.1 | Terms of Reference | |||
| 5.1.1 | When developing a Standard, the WG shall develop Terms of Reference which must be approved by the Board of Directors. | |||
| 5.1.2 | The Terms of Reference shall include | |||
| 5.1.3 | A justification of the need for the standard, including an assessment of whether the proposed standard will meet an expressed need |
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| 5.1.4 | Clear objectives that the standard seeks to achieve, in particular those objectives that focus on social, environmental and/or economic aspects |
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| 5.1.5 | An assessment of risks in implementing the standard and how to mitigate for these, including identification of factors that could have a negative impact on the ability of the standard to achieve its objectives |
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| 5.1.6 | If the WG is revising an International Bonsucro standard, the WG shall update the ToRs originally approved. | |||
| 5.1.7 | A summary of the finalised terms of reference and work plan shall be made publicly available for comment. | |||
| 5.1.8 | The Bonsucro website shall be continuously updated with information on the status of the standard development or revision activities. |
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| 5.2 | Drafting standards | |||
| 5.2.1 | The social, environmental and economic objectives of the standard shall be clearly and explicitly specified in the standard itself. |
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| 5.2.2 | The standard shall be no more trade-restrictive than necessary to fulfill the legitimate objectives of the standard. | |||
| 5.2.3 | In defining the content of a standard, consideration shall be given to regulatory requirements, market needs as well as scientific and technological developments. |
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| 5.2.4 | If applicable, the standard shall follow a structure where each requirement clearly contributes to the achievement of the standards’ objectives. Each objective shall be linked to principle, criteria, and/or indicators and their associated means of verification. |
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| 5.2.5 | Standards shall be structured to allow for monitoring and evaluation of progress toward achieving the standard’s objectives. |
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| 5.2.6 | A standard shall avoid language and structure that may create ambiguities in interpretation. Consistent interpretation will be sought by setting criteria that are clear, objective and verifiable. |
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| 5.2.7 | A standard shall be expressed in terms of a combination of process, management and performance criteria. To this end, the standard shall be outcome-based so as to avoid being prescriptive. |
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| 5.2.8 | A standard shall not favour a particular technology or patented item. | |||
| 5.2.9 | Requirements relating to assessment of conformity shall be presented separately from technical, process or management requirements. |
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| 5.2.10 | A standard shall attribute or cite all original intellectual sources of content. | |||
| 5.2.11 | The WG shall seek approval from the Board of Directors before releasing draft Standard or draft revised standard for public consultation. |
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| 5.3 | Public Consultation | |||
| 5.3.1 | The launch of a public consultation shall be officially announced on the Bonsucro website. The announcement shall be copied to the ISEAL Alliance. |
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| 5.3.2 | The announcement shall include: (a) a brief and clear description of the scope and objectives of the consultation (b) the justification of the need to introduce or revise the standard (c) the objectives the new standard wants to achieve or the reason for revising standards. (d) the estimated timeline for completion of the proposed standard or revision (e) the opportunity to submit written comments on the specific issues and approaches that should be addressed (f) contact details |
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| 5.3.3 | Bonsucro secretariat shall proactively seek contribution from under-represented stakeholders or disadvantaged groups, using various means, including but not limited face-to-face meetings, emails, workshops or asking support from facilitators who have direct contact with stakeholders. |
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| 5.3.4 | Bonsucro shall encourage organisations that have developed related standards to participate. | |||
| 5.3.5 | Any proposed draft of a standard shall include at least two rounds of public consultation. The second round shall be required if substantive changes have been made since the first draft. |
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| 5.3.6 | Each round of consultation on a proposed draft shall normally include a period of at least 60 days for the submission of comments and no less than 30 days if a justification has been established for a reduced consultation period. |
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| 5.3.7 | After each consultation, a synopsis of the comments received and how they have been addressed shall be produced. The synopsis shall be made publicly available and shall be sent to all parties that submitted comments. |
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| 5.3.8 | The WG shall amend the draft Standard in light with the comments received. | |||
| 5.3.9 | The WG shall submit the final draft version to the Board of Directors for approval. | |||
| 5.4 | Approval of a Standard | |||
| 5.4.1 | The Board of Directors shall reach consensus on the final draft for approval. (a) A summary of the discussions by the Board of Directors to arrive at the decision to endorse a draft standard shall be made publicly available. |
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| 5.4.2 | If consensus is not reached, the Board of Directors shall provide to the WG an explanation of why consensus could not be reached. (a) The WG shall also seek proposals on how to address issues raised by the Board of Directors. (b)The WG shall reconvene as in 4.7. |
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| 6 | PUBLICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF BONSUCRO STANDARDS |
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| 6.1 | Publication and Record Keeping | |||
| 6.1.1 | The approved final draft standard shall be published on the Bonsucro website within 30 days of approval. | |||
| 6.1.2 | All approved standards shall include on their cover page the official language and a note that in case of inconsistency between versions, reference shall default to the official language version. |
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| 6.1.3 | All approved standards shall include a contact point where requests for clarification and general feedback can be sent. | |||
| 6.1.4 | As per 4.4 all approved standards shall include the date of the subsequent scheduled review. | |||
| 6.1.5 | Bonsucro shall keep a file of all records made during standards development activities (consultation comments, how they were taken into account, list of stakeholders, interested parties involved, draft and final versions of the standard, etc.) and these shall be made available on request. |
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| 6.1.6 | All records related to standard development activities shall be kept for at least five years. | |||
| 6.2 | Implementation | |||
| 6.2.1 | Certificate holders shall be given a period of maximum three years to come into compliance with any revised standards. | |||
| 6.3 | Making non-substantive changes | |||
| 6.3.1 | Typographical errors and minor inconsistencies may be corrected with the approval of the Bonsucro Board of Directors. | |||
| 6.3.2 | The Head of Sustainability may also propose non-substantive changes to the Bonsucro Board of Directors as follows: a) a written proposal for the recommended change shall be prepared, and shall be circulated to the Bonsucro Board of Directors and recognised Bonsucro certification bodies for a 30-day review period. b) After this 30-day review period the written justification may be amended to take account of any comments received c) The final written proposal as amended shall be submitted to the Board of Directors for approval. d) The updated standard shall be clearly identified with a version number and date and the most recent version shall be posted on the Bonsucro website |
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