News from the Technical Cooperation

After completing my secondment to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, I am very pleased to have returned to PTB and to be leading the Working Group "Technical Cooperation with Africa and the Middle East". Since June of this year I have had the pleasure of further promoting PTB's cooperation with these two regions. New staff, new countries, new issues and a rapidly growing number of projects – a great deal is happening. And with my team made up of all the project assistants and project coordinators with many proven years of experience in the highs and lows of project work, we are well positioned to further expand our support for the development of QI in Africa and the Middle East.

I would like to say thank you very much for the confidence placed in me with my appointment to this new post. I am thoroughly looking forward to continuing the extremely pleasant cooperation with my PTB colleagues, experts and external consultants.

The central development-political event of PTB threw light on the discussion on the ecological boundaries of human activities and on the implications for a fitting quality infrastructure in developing countries and in countries in transition.

The Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) dedicated the event to the concept of the "Planetary Boundaries": How fragile is the balance of geophysical processes of our Earth, and where do human activities change these processes permanently? Experts of different branches of science discussed the requirements to be derived from it for the quality infrastructure (QI) in developing countries and countries in transition. The Braunschweig QI Days were held on May 20 and 21, 2014 by the Technical Cooperation Department of PTB.

Quality infrastructure is the core subject of PTB's technical assistance. We carry out technical cooperation on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and other international donors in cooperation with institutions in developing and transformation countries and in countries in transition. From the examination of the drinking water and the composition of drugs to the inspection of technical devices − the quality infrastructure of a country creates the basis for reliable measurements and, thus, for more safety and quality of life. It includes the system of standardization, technical regulations and conformity assessment (accreditation, metrology, testing, certification).

The main topic 2014: Planetary Boundaries

The environmental dimension of a sustainable development can be defined scientifically by absolute biophysical boundaries, within which a safe operating space exists for humanity. If the human-induced pressures exceed these boundaries, there is the risk of sudden and irreversible environmental changes worldwide with drastic impacts on the social and economic development. In 2009, an international group of scientists, headed by Johan Rockström, presented the term "planetary boundaries" and identified biophysical limits in nine areas. What we know today seems to suggest that these limits have already been exceeded in 3 of these areas: climate change, biodiversity and nitrogen input into the biosphere. Further areas identified by the researchers were the stratospheric ozone layer, changes in land use, water use, ocean acidification, phosphor input into the biosphere and the seas, as well as pollution caused by aerosol loading and chemicals.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Sarah Cornell from the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Her lecture introduced the concept of the "planetary boundaries" and presented reflections in connection with the subject "quality infrastructure".

In working groups, different subjects of the planetary boundaries were discussed and concrete tasks of the quality infrastructure derived. In one working group, Dr. Mathias Herbst from Thünen Institute of Climate-Smart Agriculture spoke about greenhouse gas emissions. One working group, headed by Dr. Michael Meyerhöfer from Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, broached the subject of acidification and heating of the oceans. Another working group dedicated itself to the subject of the worldwide availability of drinking water. Ramon Brentführer from the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources and Andreas Paetz from the German Institute for Standardization were speakers on these subjects. Prof. Müfit Bahadir from the Institute of Environmental and Sustainable Chemistry of Braunschweig Technical University headed the working group on the chemistry of waste. Finally, Prof. Roland Scholz discussed the subject "nitrogen and phosphate cycle".

In the final lecture, Dr. Ulrich Hoffmann from the UN Conference on Trade and Development spoke about the global connection of economic development and ecology.

The documentation of the event can be found here:

https://www.ptb.de/cms/fachabteilungen/abt9/fb-93/qi-tage/dokumentation.html

In cooperation with the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), a new four-year project to improve the quality-assuring services for the solar sector was launched in India in March 2014. It is based on several missions for the preparation of technical project activities in 2012/2013. With the NISE and the National Physical Laboratory India (NPLI) as project partners and in cooperation with other German specialized institutions such as, for example, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE), PTB will give expert advice in the fields of module inspection, secondary cell calibration and standardization. In this way, PTB supports NISE in extending its range of services and in the use of QI services that are required to ensure the quality and reliability of solar energy systems.

The project is, thus, an important part of the current political and economic debate on regenerative energy sources in India. With a share of approximately 90 % in the production of power from renewable sources, currently wind energy and –especially – water energy play a dominant role in this field. In contrast to this, solar energy has so far been of no significance, although it is, in particular, solar energy which, due to the climatic conditions and its potential to decentrally supply rural areas with electric energy and hot water, is regarded as the energy source of the future in India. This topic, thus, ranks accordingly high on the political agenda. This is also reflected by the "Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission" (in short: Solar Mission), which was proclaimed at the beginning of 2010.

A central precondition for the successful implementation of this mission is the use of premium-quality and secure solar energy systems which are adapted to international standards. This, in turn, makes it necessary for the national quality infrastructure (QI) to render internationally recognized and demand-orientated services which comprise metrology and standardization as well as conformity assessment, certification and accreditation. Currently, there is a lack of demand-orientated, recognized services rendered by the national QI, so that the PTB project makes an important contribution to the development of solar energy in India. In addition to the NISE and the NPLI, other local executing partners such as the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), are involved in the cooperation.

Since January 2014, PTB has been carrying out a new project in the field of metrology in Asia. The implementing partners are the following two regional metrology organizations: the Asia-Pacific Metrology Programme (APMP) covering the scientific and technical aspects of metrology, and the Asia-Pacific Legal Metrology Forum (APLMF) dealing with legal metrology.

Industrial and legal metrology are the two cornerstones of a well-functioning metrology system. Both fields have to be sufficiently differentiated and yet cooperate closely together. Particularly for developing countries, in which the national metrology system is still being set up, the cooperation of both fields at regional level is of considerable importance.

One focus of the project is therefore on strengthening the cooperation of APMP and APLMF in supporting developing countries. Several areas have been identified for undertaking joint training or awareness-raising measures. The project is managed by a coordination committee made up of seven members, comprising three representatives each of both APMP and APLMF and the PTB project coordinator.

The project also focuses on the development of planning and monitoring instruments. These allow the organizations to adapt the training measures better to the needs of the members from developing countries as well as to their national development strategies.

Besides this, much technical training is planned in the form of a series of seminars, long-term work experience in laboratories and comparison measurements.

On the occasion of this year's metrology symposium in Querétaro/Mexico, CENAM and PTB commemorated the 25th anniversary of their successful cooperation with a ceremonial act. One of the highlights of the celebrations was the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which represents the basis for the extension of this cooperation in the next 5 years.

From 8 to 10 October 2014, CENAM (Central Nacional de Metrologia), the Mexican national metrology institute, organized its metrology symposium in Querétaro; this symposium is held every two years and is of great interest both for national and for international visitors. This year, the symposium acted as a framework for two important anniversaries: firstly, CENAM was celebrating its 20th anniversary (it had been officially inaugurated in Querétaro on 29 April 1994). Secondly, this also marks the anniversary of the agreement signed between the Federal Republic of Germany and the United Mexican States on cooperation in the field of metrology, standardization, testing and quality assurance. This agreement was signed in January 1989 and implemented over the following years by both PTB and CENAM.

At the beginning of the cooperation, PTB contributed its best efforts to setting up CENAM as well as to its organization and infrastructure by exchanging experience and by means of consultation. This contribution was rendered by PTB within the scope of a BMZ-funded technical cooperation project which was implemented from 1989 to 2003 with funds amounting to 2 million euros. Apart from training metrologists of CENAM at PTB and sending experts from PTB to Querétaro to work in the laboratories, PTB's support also consisted in providing calibration services and publications and in donating equipment. All in all, 105 months of training were provided to CENAM employees by experts and 12 months of consultation measures supplied by PTB experts.

CENAM has meanwhile become one of the leading metrology institutes of the continent – and an important partner of PTB in the field of technical cooperation. CENAM is, for example, not only involved in two trilateral cooperation projects, but is also committed to acting as a competent and reliable partner within the scope of other PTB projects in the region. Since the end of 2013, a renewed bilateral cooperation project has been carried out within the scope of the Mexican-German technical cooperation programme "Sustainable Energy". This measure is the project "Quality infrastructure for renewable energies and energy efficiency" (term: 2013-2017). The partners are – besides CENAM (metrology) – ema (accreditation), ANCE (standardization), the Ministry of Energy (SENER) and the General Directorate of Standardization (DGN) at the Mexican Ministry of Economy (which is the project's partner at the political level).

Also within the scope of the scientific-technological cooperation, successful relations have already been established between the individual laboratories at the bilateral and at the European levels; these are to be further consolidated in the future.

These long years of successful cooperation between CENAM and PTB were commemorated on 7 October with a ceremonial act which took place at the Museum of Arts of Querétaro. In the presence of representatives from the German embassy in Mexico and from the Mexican Ministry of Economy, the directors of the two institutes (General Director Dr. Hector Nava Jaimes and President Prof. Dr. Joachim Ullrich) looked back on their common history and emphasized their wish for a continuation of this successful collaboration. This was confirmed by the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which represents the basis for the continuation of this cooperation until 2020.

A group of former PTB employees was also present; they had been involved in numerous activities in these past 25 years of collaboration. The directors of the two institutes thanked them as well as all the other persons involved in these activities for their commitment and their dedication.

One of the publications which was released on this occasion was produced by a Mexican-German editorial team; please use the following link to view it (bilingual edition German/Spanish):

http://www.ptb.de/cms/fileadmin/internet/fachabteilungen/abteilung_q/q.5_technische_zusammenarbeit/docs/CENAM_PTB_25_SP_DE.pdf

The regional organizations of metrology (Sistema Interamericano de Metrología, SIM), of standardization (Comisión Panamericana de Normas Técnicas, COPANT), and of accreditation (Inter-American Accreditation Cooperation, IAAC) signed an agreement on the formalization of their cooperation in Guatemala City on 29 August 2014.

The objective of the agreement is the formal merging of the three regional organizations into a Quality Infrastructure Council of the Americas (QICA). So far, there is a comparable association only in Africa. In the agreement it is planned to systematize the cooperation of the regional organizations and to carry out joint activities. This includes the mutual exchange of information, information and awareness-raising events for decision-makers of the government and the economy, mutual support for and realization of joint seminars and advanced training measures on priority issues, increasing the visibility of the benefit provided by the services offered, as well as strengthening the cooperation at the national level. Besides OAS and UNIDO, PTB is mentioned as a strategic partner in the cooperation.

The merging is a concrete result of a process at the political level of the OAS member states. The OAS Commission of the Ministers for Science, Technology and Innovation identified quality infrastructure (QI) as one of four pillars of the strategy for the promotion of science, technology and innovation. In the associated Action Plan of Panama of 2012, an independent working group was established in which all regional organizations cooperate. At the closing workshop of the BMZ-financed regional project "Consolidation of decentralized structures for the application of quality criteria in the environmental and food sector in Latin America and the Caribbean" (2002-2012; German contribution 1.75 million euros), where all regional organizations, including OAS, were represented, the foundation of a Pan-American quality committee was initiated which has now been sealed by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The OAS Working Group coordinated the setting up and the harmonization of the MoU under the co-chairmanship of Canada (National Research Council, NRC) and Panama (Centro Nacional de Metrología de Panamá, CENAMEP).

The foundation of a regional Council for QI, in which all the regional organizations are members, is a real breakthrough for the cooperation. Now, the challenge consists in implementing the cooperation – which has been formally agreed upon – by means of concrete individual steps, and to ensure its sustainability.

Within the scope of the General Assembly of the pan-African accreditation organization AFRAC, the accreditation bodies of South Africa (SANAS), Tunisia (TUNAC) and Egypt (EGAC) signed an agreement on the mutual recognition of their accreditations (AFRAC MRA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 26 September 2014. This mutual recognition – for example of the accreditations of conformity assessment bodies – means that now only one proof of conformity is needed to market products in the signatory countries. The arrangement will contribute to avoiding multiple accreditations and will remove technical barriers to trade. In this way, a decisive step towards a pan-African free trade zone (Continental Free Trade Area, CFTA) has been taken. The negotiations on creating this free trade area are to start in 2015.

Establishing AFRAC in 2010 and providing continual institutional consultation form a foundation for the PTB project supporting pan-African quality infrastructure. AFRAC is, along with AFRIMETS, AFSEC and ARSO, one of the four pillars of the Pan African Quality Infrastructure (PAQI), which are recognized internationally as well as by the African Union Commission (AUC).

You can read more about the signing of the AFRAC MRA on AFRAC's homepage.

In Ethiopia, the first students successfully completed their training as chemical lab technicians in August 2014. This vocational school course was initiated in the scope of a PTB project with Ethiopia, to react to the lack of laboratory staff with sound practical know-how of chemical testing laboratories. From 2009, curricula and teaching components for a course entitled "Physical Chemical Lab Technician" were developed jointly with the Ethiopian vocational school General Wingate College. After that a training lab was set up in Ethiopia and was equipped with simple instruments, laboratory glassware and chemicals. A vocational school in Karlsruhe, which was also in charge of the professional qualifications of the Ethiopian teaching staff, provided consultancy services to PTB here. In 2011 the laboratory was officially opened and the first 20 students (aged about 16) began their training. Subsequently, regular teacher training measures undertaken by PTB experts took place and additional equipment for more complex experiments was purchased.

In the field of metrology, Tunisia has already reached a high level and its expert knowledge is increasingly high in demand – not only in Tunisia, but also in francophone Africa. To meet this increasing demand and to ensure the dissemination of this knowledge by qualified experts also in the long term, PTB supports Tunisia within the scope of a new project: the development of offers for basic and advanced training in the field of metrology. The project, which is conceived for a period of four years, is carried out in cooperation with the Tunisian Ministry of Industry and builds on competences which were developed within the scope of a preceding project (2010-2014). The aim is to make a comprehensive range of services available which are rendered by qualified Tunisian suppliers to industry in order to improve the quality of exports. The German contribution amounts to 2 million euros.

Within the scope of the new focus on specialist training, emphasis is placed on metrological basic and advanced training of Tunisian experts. The intention is to train young professionals in cooperation with universities and vocational schools in such a way that they can later contribute their metrological knowledge to the work in laboratories or also directly in a company. The aim is to draw up specific modules on the subject of metrology and to integrate these in already existing study and training courses, and to train the lecturers who are going to teach these modules in the future.

In addition, it is planned to develop an offer for advanced training for metrology experts and quality management consultants who will advise the companies in Tunisia and in the region directly in the management of the measuring devices or in the implementation of quality standards, and who raise the awareness for the additional benefit of metrology in the company. These offers of advanced training measures are intended to make it possible for the experts to deepen their existing knowledge and to open up new partial fields of metrology for themselves.

In addition to the establishment of new partnerships in the field of professional training, the project also continues the cooperation with proven partners. The Tunisian accreditation body TUNAC will, for example, be supported in the training of technical assessors to enable the accreditation of calibration laboratories according to ISO 17025 and, thus, the international recognition of their services. The long-standing cooperation with the metrology laboratory of the Laboratoire Central d’Analyses et d’Essais (LCAE), which strives for the international recognition of its competences by the entry of CMCs in the database of the BIPM, will also be continued.

Due to the increased focus on basic and advanced training, the project is envisaged to contribute to the fact that expert knowledge can, in future, be developed and disseminated in the country itself. In this way, the availability of qualified experts and service providers will be ensured for the industry in Tunisia and in the region also in the long term. In addition, it will allow Tunisia to develop its leading role in the field of metrology in francophone Africa and to disseminate its expert knowledge for the benefit of the whole region.

In spite of the current political and humanitarian challenges, the Palestinian government attaches great importance to the subjects "quality" and "quality assurance" for a sustainable economic development in the Palestinian autonomous territories. This is expressed particularly clearly by the extraordinarily fast adoption of the Palestinian quality policy in August 2014 by the Cabinet of Ministers. The National Quality Policy (NQP) gives a strategic orientation to a reorganization and the development of the Palestinian quality infrastructure (QI).

In addition to improved consumer protection and the protection of the environment, the project is aimed at improving the access of Palestinian products and services to regional and international markets. This access is intended to be facilitated by the international recognition of Palestinian test certificates. Considering the fact that Palestine has no control of its own borders, this is of particular political significance. Furthermore, the national availability of inexpensive and internationally recognized QI services increases the competitiveness of Palestinian producers. In addition, it is a declared objective to meet the international requirements (e.g. from the WTO TBT and the SPS Agreement) by an effective national framework for the drawing up of Technical Directives for the protection of the inhabitants, the flora and fauna and the environment.

The development of the NQP for Palestine was coordinated and supported by a task force to which this task had been entrusted by the Ministry of Economics. The task force was composed of representatives of the private economy, the Ministry of Economics and the Palestinian Standardization Institute (PSI). In a participative process with several stakeholder workshops, a political model has been developed which is adapted to the Palestinian requirements and which is supported by all stakeholders. The exceptionally fast adoption by the government underlines the great importance of this subject for the autonomous Palestinian territories. PTB has supported and steered this process and has contributed its well-founded experience and inputs to the international Good Practices. With the adoption of the quality policy, the goal set for the project duration – i.e. the elaboration of a draft – has been exceeded by far.

The implementation of the NQP now constitutes a challenging task; first steps, however have already been initiated. The Palestinian Accreditation Body has been separated from the PSI and is envisaged to gradually achieve independence. The implementation of the NQP requires an institutional reorganization as well as the adaptation of the legal framework conditions. In addition, Capacity Building measures must be implemented and the awareness for quality must be improved at both the public and the private level.

The Ministry of Economics, which also coordinates the international contributions, will lead and coordinate the implementation.