Malawi Bureau of Standards

The Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) is a statutory organization established with a mandate to promote metrology, standardization and quality assurance of commodities and of the manufacture, production, processing or treatment thereof; and further to provide for matters incidental to, or connected with the foregoing

Vision
To be amongst the leading standardization, quality assurance and metrology services providers globally

Mission
MBS exists to promote standardization, quality assurance and metrology services towards the strengthening of the economy of Malawi and towards enhancing the quality of life of its entire people

Roles

• Facilitate agribusiness and commercialization of agriculture value chains focusing on standards and certification
• MBS will receive support to improve its operations and regulations related to agribusiness standards and certification by introducing risk assessment, improved market surveillance, and incentives for agribusinesses to assume greater responsibility for compliance with standards and regulations
• Improved efficiency of testing and certification through support received from the project to purchase equipment to beef up capacity of the MBS laboratories; strengthening, coordinating, and improving the implementation of technical regulations in MBS and other ministries or agencies; and automating certification processes
• Assist Producer Organizations (Pos) and Productive Alliances ( Pas) in obtaining various types of certifications for their products and processes—for example, Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) certification, Global Gap, Rainforest, Alliance, Halal certification, Fair Trade certification, and HACCP. At least three Malawian manufacturing firms with horizontal links to POs or organized farmers will be supported to obtain ISO certification
• Jointly with World Bank Advisory Group. Standards and certifications will be analyzed to determine if they pose different constraints for men and women, and restrictive standards and practices will be addressed (technical barriers to trade)