The Standards and Metrology Institute for the Islamic Countries (SMIIC) is an intergovernmental regional standardization organization aims at realizing common standards, achieving uniformity in metrology, laboratory testing and establishing conformity assessment schemes for the purpose of expediting exchange of materials, manufactured goods and products in the Muslim World under the umbrella of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation(OIC).

The great majority of the Islamic countries are considered as non-industrialized economies, having as exportables only a limited number of primary commodities and/or raw materials.

Dependence on imports of manufactures and capital goods is overwhelming, as the limited numbers of industries that exist are small scale operations that produce a restricted spectrum of consumer and/or intermediate products. Because of the low level of technology used and its rather out-dated nature, industrial production is not so efficient and is relatively costly, arising only marginal benefits from the existing resources.

Despite the urgency of the situation, the positive changes in favour of the OIC member states on the global scene were rather small, especially during the recent years, the developed states have not been very eager to help the developing countries bilaterally or in terms of multilateral action.

On the other hand, standardization is a key element to push up the capacities of export and competition and is a necessary process for ensuring effectiveness in any product/service. Standards are important because they provide a common language among the buyers and sellers coming from a large variety of cultures.

It’s highly important to conduct the activities to harmonize the standards and conformity assessment procedures under the auspices of an international or regional organisation. Therefore, it has been necessary to take steps in order to establish of a powerful standardization infrastructure between OIC member states.

All OIC Member States have the right to become a member of SMIIC. Status of the Observer may be granted to the  OIC Observer States.

Membership to SMIIC is Member States based and is open to the Member States of OIC.

At SMIIC General Assembly and its organs, Member States are represented by the nominated national bodies that are most broadly representative of standardization or metrology or accreditation.

Status of the Observer may be granted to the national bodies most broadly representative of standardization or metrology or accreditation in the OIC Observer States.

No, It is not.

The General Assembly is the supreme decision-making organ of the SMIIC and composed of the Member States. Each Member State holds one vote. Voting by proxy shall be as set out in the Rules of Procedure. The General Assembly meets at least once each year in an ordinary session at the Headquarters of the SMIIC or at any other venue as it may be agreed by Member States.

Observers are invited to participate in these meetings without right to vote.

The General Assembly has all the powers necessary to achieve the purpose of the Institute. The powers of the General Assembly are, inter alia, notably: 

• Approval of the annual accounts,
• Approval of the budget and annual fees,
• Approval of external auditor’s report,
• Election/Appointment of Secretary General, Board of Directors members and External Auditor and dismissal of Secretary General and External Auditor,
• Approval of the amendments to the Statute and Rules of Procedure,
• Approval of the general Internal Regulations,
• The organization, powers, operations and decision making process of the Board of Directors,
• The organization, powers, operations and decision making process of the Secretary General,
• Dissolution of the Institute.

The Board of Directors of the SMIIC is the organ entrusted with the supervision of the execution of the programs, plans and activities of the Institute. The Board of Directors comprises of thirteen members, including the host country as the permanent member, elected by the General Assembly, on the basis of an equitable geographic distribution, for a term of three years. Any member of the Board may be re-elected for successive terms.

The Board shall elect a chairman and three vice-chairmen among its members for a term of three years re-electable for successive terms.

The Board of the Directors shall hold at least two meetings every year. The Board of Directors shall be responsible before the General Assembly. The meetings of Board of Directors shall be executed in accordance with the procedures defined in Rules of Procedure.

The Board of Directors is responsible for the followings: 

• Admission or expulsion of new SMIIC members in accordance with the Statute and Rules of Procedure,
• Oversee the performance of all councils along with approval of their Terms of References,
• Recommendation of the mission, vision and values of the Institute,
• Monitoring the implementation of the Strategic Plan of the Institute,
• Approval of the accounts of the ended accounting year and the budget of the following year and submission to the approval of the General Assembly,
• Approval of the Terms of References of the SMIIC organs,
• Defining the job descriptions of SMIIC staff,
• Election of Chairman and Vice Chairmen of Board of Directors and the members of the Standardization Management Council,
• Approval to the appointment of Assistant Secretary General, and the Chairs of Councils,
• Observing the interest of the all SMIIC members while taking any decisions.

A standard is a document, established by consensus and approved by a recognized body, that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context.

Standardization refers to the process of establishing by common agreement the criteria, terms, principles, practices, materials, items, processes, equipment, parts, sub-assemblies, and assemblies appropriate to achieve the greatest practicable uniformity of products and practices, to ensure the minimum feasible variety of such items and practices, and to effect optimum interchangeability or interoperability of equipment, parts, and components. 

Standards are made by technical experts and are reached by consensus among its stakeholders ensuring a high level of safety and quality of goods and services while simultaneously expanding state-of-the-art technology in Technical Committees.

Standards are not developed by the standardization organization itself. Standardization is handled by various technical committees (TCs). The TCs are the key bodies that drive the standardization and comprise experts from the members and are a completely voluntary effort.

Standardization Management Council is the organ assigned the task of development of OIC/SMIIC standards in cooperation with Member States.

Standardization Management Council shall coordinate and oversee the performance of the Technical Committees.

Standardization Management Council shall consist of a chair and 9 Member States appointed or elected by the Board of Directors, on the basis of an equitable geographic distribution, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure. The chair of SMC, which shall be one of the Vice-Chairmen of Board of Directors, shall be assigned by the Board of Directors. The secretary of SMC shall be appointed by Secretary General among the General Secretariat staff.

The method and principles of the administration of SMC shall be defined in Rules of Procedure. It shall operate according to a Terms of Reference document which shall be approved by the Board of Directors.

SMC performs standardization activities in the fields of product and service sector with special emphasis on Member States’ requirements and any other activity determined by the Board of Directors.

SMC shall constitute the Technical Committees as it might deem necessary in line with their work programs and fields of responsibility.

SMC shall prepare annual work plan in line with the SMIIC Strategic Plan and report the progress to the Board of Directors.

The primary duty of a Technical Committee is the development and systematic maintenance of the OIC/SMIIC Standards according to related activities within a particular scope of work (e.g.: TC 1 Halal Food Issues, TC 5 Tourism and Related Services, TC 9 Textiles and Related Products, TC 11 Halal Management System, etc.).

A Technical Committee (TC) is a technical decision making body with precise title, scope, strategic business plan and work programme, established in the SMIIC. A TC essentially manages the preparation of SMIIC deliverables - in accordance with an agreed business plan.

A Technical Committee is composed of a chairman, a secretary and TC members from national bodies of SMIIC Member States. The national delegations are designated by the SMIIC members. OIC/SMIIC standards are developed by experts, within TCs. TCs are made up of representatives of industry, NGOs, governments and other stakeholders, who are put forward by SMIIC’s members. Each TC deals with a different subject.

SMIIC’s full members (member bodies) can decide if they would like to be a participating member (P-member) of a particular TC or an observing member (O-member). P-members participate actively in the work and have an obligation to vote on all questions submitted to vote within the technical committee. O-members follow the work as observers; they receive committee documents and have the right to submit comments and to attend meetings, but cannot vote within the committee.

The operation of SMIIC TCs is largely governed by the SMIIC Directives, Part 1 Procedures for the Technical Work.

Secretariats of TC are important duties that has to be performed responsibly for the successful administration of standardization process. A member body which has been assigned to the secretariat post, by mutual agreement, has the responsibility for providing technical and administrative services to a TC or SC. Secretary is the person who manages the technical and administrative services provided. Secretaries are responsible for all operation, documentation and future activities of the TCs.

An OIC Member State desiring to be granted membership in the Institute shall apply in writing to the Secretary General, stating its acceptance of the Statute and Rules of Procedure. The Secretary General shall immediately submit the application to the Board of Directors.

The Board of Directors shall approve whether or not the applicant shall be admitted as a new Member State or Observer Member of the Institute.

The annual contributions for the Member States are determined by the General Assembly in such a way that their amount covers the expenditure provided by the budget in accordance with the procedure defined in SMIIC Financial Regulations.

The Calculation of SMIIC Scale:

- The last three year average for Gross National Income (GNI) values of each SMIIC member is calculated.

- The last three year average for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) values of each SMIIC member is calculated.

- The GNI values calculated above of each member are summed up to get the TOTAL GNI value.

- The GDP values calculated above of each member are summed up to get the TOTAL GDP value.

- The formula “(GNI / TOTAL GNI)*100” gives the GNI percentage of each SMIIC member over the TOTAL GNI.

- The formula “(GDP / TOTAL GDP)*100” gives the GDP percentage of each SMIIC member over the TOTAL GDP.

SMIIC Scale = (GNI member state percentage + GDP member state Percentage) / 2

The allocation of mandatory contributions to SMIIC Member States shall be follows:

• The Host Country shall cover the 40% of the SMIIC Budget. 

• Each Member of the Board of Directors shall cover 0,5% of the SMIIC Budget resulting a total of 6,5%. 

• The remaining 53,5% of contribution shall be distributed to the all SMIIC Member States except the host country according the SMIIC Scale 

Accreditation Council (AC) is the organ carrying out activities aimed at the establishment of an accreditation scheme in the OIC Member States. AC is responsible for supporting actions for establishing a sound accreditation system OIC-wide and raise awareness of accreditation concept within the Member States.

AC shall be responsible for implementing OIC/SMIIC accreditation standards and performing peer assessment.

AC consists of members from national accreditation bodies authorized by the Member States and Observers of SMIIC.

The chair and 12 members from national accreditation bodies authorized by the Member States shall be appointed or elected by the Board of Directors for the management of AC, on the basis of an equitable geographic distribution, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure.

AC will form accreditation technical committees (ATC) to implement accreditation related policies/projects/programs in line with the SMIIC Strategic Plan. Membership of ATC is open to all Member States.

The chair of AC shall be elected by the members of AC in accordance with the procedures defined in Rules of Procedure and approved by the Board of Directors. AC shall prepare annual work plan in line with the SMIIC Strategic Plan and report the progress to the Board of Directors.

The method and principles of the administration of AC shall be defined in Rules of Procedure. It shall operate according to Terms of Reference document which shall be approved by the Board of Directors.

Metrology Council (MC) shall have an inventory of existing calibration standards and establish a chain of traceability to reference standards for each basic unit.

MC shall act as intermediary, for any unit, for meeting calibration requirements which may arise at any link of the chain to be established. It shall, through its staff of experts, certify the extent of accuracy and precision with which any calibration laboratory offers services.

Metrology services shall also be supplied by making the most efficient use of the existing potentialities in the Member States. Priority issues in the field of metrology shall be solved through coordinated research.

Metrology Council (MC) shall consist of a chair and members from national metrology institutes of the Member States and Observers of SMIIC.

The chair of MC shall be elected by the members of MC in accordance with the procedures defined in Rules of Procedure and approved by the Board of Directors. MC shall prepare annual work plan in line with the SMIIC Strategic Plan and report the progress to the Board of Directors.

MC shall make cooperation in all types of metrology activities and policies among SMIIC Member States.

The method and principles of the administration of MC shall be defined in Rules of Procedure. It shall operate according to a Terms of Reference document which shall be approved by the Board of Directors.

SAC shall act as a consultative group and advice on the issues related to the governance, policy and activities of Councils.

The objective of the SAC is to act as an independent robust advisory body to the Board of Directors to assure alignment with best international practices in the fields of standardization, metrology and accreditation.

SAC shall consist of a minimum of (6) and maximum of (9) members divided equally between the three main pillars of SMIIC activities those are standardization, metrology and accreditation. The Secretary General shall be an ex-officio member and convenor of SAC.

SAC shall submit the advisory report to the Board of Directors.

SAC members will be nominated by General Secretariat, appointed by Board of Directors and shall be a part of Organization of Islamic Cooperation and its organs/international organizations/internationally recognized bodies/Non-governmental Organizations well known in their respective field.

The method and principles of the administration of SAC shall be defined in Rules of Procedure. It shall operate according to Terms of Reference document which shall be prepared by General Secretariat and approved by the Board of Directors.

SAC has to fulfil their fiduciary duties toward SMIIC by acting upon the interest of all Member States.

When we look at current situation from halal standardization point of view, it can be easily seen that many different halal standards exist in the world and certification according to those halal standards are applied in contravention to basic economic principle as the removal of technical barriers to trade among countries while Muslim Countries using halal food standards are expected to share and transfer their experience which may result as a great synergy throughout Islamic Countries.

There is a need for a common halal standard in order to ensure trust and safety both throughout the value creation chain and for the consumers focused on the entire food chain and not merely on parts of it, such as production.

SMIIC addresses to standardization, conformity assessment and accreditation aspects of Halal both in terms of religious and technical perspectives. There are OIC/SMIIC Halal standards which provides a comprehensive solution for the conformity assessment and accreditation of Halal. SMIIC standards are based on Islamic rules and principles as well as the standards of global standardization organizations. OIC/SMIIC standards refer to ISO/IEC and Codex standards and they are in line with international standards. SMIIC is about to finalize the establishment of accreditation mechanism enabling a trustworthy certification system that is based on intergovernmental accreditation so that halal products can move freely on global scale based on OIC/SMIIC standards and related reference documents.

SMIIC, by taking into consideration the needs of OIC Member States will continue to take active position in all related standardization, metrology and accreditation activities in addition to conformity assessment as well as focusing on capacity building, training etc..

SMIIC aims to set common standards that are applied across the whole of the OIC as a single market where SMIIC ensures the protection of consumers, facilitate cross-border trade, ensure the interoperability of products, encourage innovation and technological development, include environmental protection and enable businesses to grow.

While doing that, the Institute will focus on technical improvement and capacity building and play a directive function to guide the investment on laboratory etc. and equal distribution of mentioned plans in OIC Member States.

SMIIC is ready to cooperate with sister OIC institutions which have various mandates with regards to the industry, science and technology, economic development etc. in coordination with OIC General Secretariat.

 SMIIC shall be supported in a way that:

• It shall take active position in all related standardization, metrology and accreditation activities in addition to conformity assessment as well as focusing on capacity building, training etc. taking into consideration the needs of OIC Member States.
• It shall have the role of setting common standards that are applied across the whole of the OIC as a single market where SMIIC ensures the protection of consumers, facilitate cross-border trade, ensure the interoperability of products, encourage innovation and technological development, include environmental protection and enable businesses to grow.
• It shall foster the OIC economy in global trading, the welfare of Muslim community and the environment by providing a platform for the development of OIC/SMIIC standards and other technical specifications across a wide range of sectors as well as the metrology and accreditation to verify—against OIC/SMIIC standards—organizations that carry out evaluation services such as certification, verification, inspection, testing and calibration.
• It shall keep up to date its operations and provide proactive solutions in technical field for the OIC Member States which will be mostly the emerging countries in near future by the political support of OIC Member States.
• It shall work on all elements of quality infrastructure as standardization, metrology and accreditation prioritizing the needs of OIC Member States.
• It shall focus on technical improvement and capacity building and should play a directive function to guide the investment on laboratory etc and equal distribution of mentioned plans in OIC Member States.
• It shall closely work with especially sister OIC institutions which have various mandates with regards to the industry, science and technology, economic development etc. in coordination with OIC General Secretariat