From June 7 to 9, 2023, an ISO regional workshop on the development of gender action plans (GAP) was held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, organized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in cooperation with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This regional workshop was hosted by the Agency for Technical Regulaton of the Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan (MIIT UZ).

The workshop was attended by 40 participants from 30 foreign countries such as Azerbaijan, Georgia, Canada, USA, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Ethiopia, South Africa, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia.

The aim of the workshop was to create a GAP gender action plan. Participants learned why gender is important in the development and implementation of standards. Gender equality means that everyone enjoys the same rights and opportunities. ISO has launched its second ISO Gender Action Plan (2022-2025) which defines five priority outcomes critical for advancing gender equality in standardization. The Joint Strategic Advisory Group on Gender Responsive Standards (ISO/IEC JSAG GRS) developed GRS guidance for technical work to ensure that international standards provide equal benefit to all different genders, and for technical committees to determine the extent of potential gender implications.

At this regional workshop in Tashkent Bosnia and Herzegovina was represented by Biljana Baljaj and Željka Popić from the Institute for Standardization of Bosnia and Herzegovina.