Role of Standards in Business
Senior 4 · Entrepreneurship
Role of Standards in Business
Lesson 3 of 4
25 min
Nziza makes liquid soap in a small workshop in Bugesera and sells it to schools and hotels. One morning a customer forwards her a public review notice from Rwanda Standards Board: a list of Draft Rwanda Standards circulated for comment, including one for the kind of soap she makes. One clause would require a test that only a large laboratory can run. Nziza has a choice. She can ignore the notice and live with whatever is published, or she can send RSB a reasoned comment, with evidence, before the review closes. (Nziza, her business and the clause are illustrative; RSB really does publish such notices on its website.)
Think about it: who decides what goes into a Rwanda Standard? Is it RSB staff, the government, big companies, or people like Nziza?
Rwanda Standards Board (RSB), set up under Law N° 50 of 2013, is the national standards body. Within RSB, the National Standards Division develops, maintains and publishes national standards through three units: Engineering and Urban Planning (EUP); Food, Agriculture, Chemistry, Environment and Services (FACES); and Standards Publication, Training and Technical Assistance (SPTTA). But RSB staff do not write standards alone. The Division acts as secretariat to technical committees whose members come from research, industry, exporters, academia, regulators, development partners and consumer associations. RSB compares its role to a conductor; the experts are the orchestra.
Which standards get written is planned. The work comes from the National Standardization Plan and the EAC Regional Standardization Plan, and RSB publishes a work programme (the list of standards under development) every six months. RSB's rule of thumb is to adopt an existing regional or international standard whenever one exists, and to develop a standard of Rwandan origin only where none fits. To do this, RSB works with regional bodies such as the EAC, COMESA and the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO), and international ones such as ISO, IEC and the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
Definition
National standards body: the organisation recognised by a country to develop, approve and publish its national standards and represent it in regional and international standardisation. In Rwanda this is RSB.
Definition
Technical committee (TC): a group of volunteer experts from different interests (producers, users, regulators, researchers, consumers) that drafts, discusses and votes on standards in one field. RSB's National Standards Division is its secretariat.
Example: a committee on soaps and detergents with members from manufacturers, a university chemistry department, Rwanda FDA and a consumer association.
Definition
Consensus: general agreement, shown by the absence of sustained opposition to substantial issues by any important part of the concerned interests, reached by a process that seeks to take everyone's views into account and reconcile conflicting arguments (RSB's standardisation principles). Consensus is not the same as unanimity, and it is more than a simple majority.
Definition
Draft Rwanda Standard (DRS): a standard agreed in committee but not yet approved. It is circulated for public review (the enquiry stage) so that anyone, including people outside the committee, can comment. RSB announces drafts on its website and in the official newspaper and notifies the WTO Secretariat.
RSB's development procedure (set out in RS 0: 2019, the "standard for standards") moves every standard through numbered stages. After 60 days of public review, a draft with no outstanding comments goes to the RSB Board of Directors for approval; the approved standard is published in the Official Gazette, and RSB holds the rights to sell and distribute it.
Voting is the key to consensus. If the committee agrees, the draft moves on; if not, it is modified and voted on again. Every standard is also reviewed after it is published, because technology, markets and science change.
| RSB principle | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Openness | Anyone with an interest may join a committee, comment on a draft or propose a new work item |
| Transparency | The work programme, drafts and approved standards are announced publicly |
| Impartiality and consensus | No single company, however large, may dictate the content |
| Coherence and harmonisation | Rwanda adopts regional and international standards where they fit, so one test can serve many markets |
| Development dimension | RSB must make it possible for SMEs to take part |
| Performance based; science-based discussion | Requirements say what a product must achieve rather than how to make it, and arguments must rest on documented evidence |
Tip
Decode the name. "RS" means Rwanda Standard. What follows tells you where it came from: RS ISO … is an adopted international standard, RS EAS … an adopted East African Standard, and plain RS … a standard of Rwandan origin. The number after the colon is the year: RS EAS 36: 2020 is East African Standard 36, adopted in its 2020 edition.
Taking part costs time, but it pays: requirements can be written to suit local raw materials and SME capacity, you hear about new requirements before your competitors, and your name on a committee builds credibility with buyers.
Worked example 1: decode and decide
(a) State the origin of each standard: RS ISO 22000 (food safety management systems); RS EAS 36: 2020 (honey); RS 184: 2017 (HACCP). (b) A Rwandan firm wants to export avocado oil to Kenya and Uganda. Should RSB write a new Rwandan standard for it, or adopt one? Explain.
(a) RS ISO 22000 is an international (ISO) standard adopted as a Rwanda Standard. RS EAS 36: 2020 is an East African Standard adopted in its 2020 edition. RS 184: 2017 has no ISO or EAS prefix, so it is a standard of Rwandan origin, published in 2017.
(b) Adopt, if a suitable East African or international standard exists. A harmonised standard is recognised by the buyers' own countries, so one test can serve all three markets, and RSB avoids "reinventing the wheel". Only if no regional or international standard fits should a Rwandan standard be drafted, and even then the committee should follow international practice so that it is not an obstacle to trade.
Worked example 2: consensus is not a simple majority
A technical committee of 18 members votes on a committee draft. Suppose its rule is: approve if at least two-thirds of the votes cast are in favour and not more than one quarter of the votes cast are against; abstentions are not counted. (An illustrative rule, of the kind standards bodies use.) The result is 12 yes, 4 no, 2 abstain. (a) Does the draft pass? (b) What if one abstainer had voted no instead?
(a) Votes cast .
Both conditions hold, so the draft passes, but only just.
(b) Votes cast .
The draft fails, even though more than 70% voted yes. It goes back to the committee to deal with the objections. Lesson: a determined minority with good evidence (like Nziza) can change a standard, which is exactly why small firms should take part.
Warning
Common mistakes. RSB does not approve standards on its own and the Minister does not write them: committees of stakeholders draft them by consensus, and the RSB Board of Directors approves them after public review. And a standard is not "finished" once published: it is reviewed and can be revised or withdrawn.
ISO Training, "Unit 1: The International Organization for Standardization" (about 11 minutes). RSB takes part in ISO's work for Rwanda. Watch for how ISO is structured around national members and technical committees, and compare it with the way RSB's own committees work.
Practice
Key points
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the Bugesera case, the stage flowchart, the principles table, the worked examples (the voting rule is illustrative) and the practice items. People, businesses and figures are illustrative (2026).
Quick check
Put these stages of developing a Rwanda Standard in order, first to last.
Tap the cards in the right order.
