Through intensive advice and support, the Programme Office for Social and Ecological Standards has advanced standards processes in many parts of the world. The activities in the individual components have targeted a wide variety of areas.

The forest certification component, for example, supports national working groups of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in Latin America, Africa and Asia. They help define national standards, or conduct training measures on certification.

In organic agriculture, producer groups are taught about cropping methods and about possibilities of marketing organic products. Governments also receive advice on legislation, often modelled on the EU’s organic regulations.

In partnership with the social standards component, the Foreign Trade Association of the German Retail Trade (AVE) is introducing a streamlined scheme to implement social standards with suppliers in Asia and Eastern Europe.

The social standards component also provides the secretariat of the Codes of Conduct Round Table, a German multi-stakeholder forum for the introduction of social standards in developing countries.

In cooperation with the European Coffee Federation and the Swiss SECO, the programme component “Code of conduct for the coffee sector” is working on an initiative to introduce a code of conduct for the coffee value chain worldwide. Representatives of producers, industry, trade and civil society have made a joint commitment to implement minimum sustainability standards in producing, processing and trading “mainstream” coffee.

The Programme Office compiles experience from the various economic sectors and uses it to develop its advisory services for international cooperation. In the publication "Making Sustainable Development a Reality: the Role of Social and Ecological Standards", the Programme Office sets out a theoretical framework for standards in development cooperation.

Further publications will deal with best practices in standards implementation and address the issue of impacts of standards initiatives on the living conditions of people in developing countries.