TERMS OF REFERENCE

National Procedures Document for Barbados

BACKGROUND

The CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards & Quality (CROSQ) is an intergovernmental organisation which was established in February 2002 under the revised Treaty of Chaguaramus. CROSQ is mandated to develop and/or harmonise a regional quality infrastructure (standards and technical regulations, metrology, accreditation and conformity assessment). The Organisation’s objectives are to:

• facilitate trade;
• enhance efficiency in the production and delivery of goods and services;
• improve quality of goods and services traded within the Community and with third States; and,
• protect consumers and the environment.

The CROSQ is currently in the process of establishing a Harmonised Regional Pilot Energy Efficiency Labelling Scheme for household electrical appliances, designed to promote the use of energy-efficient appliances and illuminants to include lighting equipment, refrigerators and air conditioners which will contribute to lower energy consumption to meet part of the 2013 mandate of COTED. The scheme is currently being implemented through a piloting phase in four member states – Belize, Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Trinidad & Tobago, and more recently Barbados.  As part of this scheme, energy efficiency labelling standards with minimum performance standards for domestic appliances will inform the specifications of a regional label which will be affixed to these appliances at the point of retail.

The primary target group of the scheme comprises consumers of energy in private households, in public institutions and in the private sector who benefit from a sustainable use of energy; as well as a secondary target group of retailers, importers and distributors of electrical appliances. Direct beneficiaries of the project are the National Standards Bureaus (NSBs) in participating countries.

The main components of operationalizing the labeling scheme will be through the development of procedures manuals and guides at the regional and national levels; building capacity in conducting energy efficiency testing through training and procurement of equipment as well as development of a database to serve as a repository for results of tested equipment and appliances; facilitating regional laboratories to get accreditation ready and sharing of information among regional quality infrastructure institutions and sensitization of stakeholders.

From this perspective a Regional Model Guide and National Procedures Manuals for the four (4) original piloting countries have been developed for CARICOM to guide the procedures at the national and regional levels. These documents were designed to:

1. Ensure standard procedures relevant to the energy efficiency labeling scheme are customized at the national level in participating countries to guide the national compliance programmes. Each national programme has been documented and organized into a National Procedures Manual.
2. Ensure harmonization at the regional level by providing a general format for the Regional Model Guide. It is expected that national procedures will feed into the regional processes.

In November 2019, CROSQ received support from the Technical Assistance Programme for Sustainable Energy in the Caribbean (TAPSEC), which is CARICOM-implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Gmbh to support the energy initiative mentioned above.

The CROSQ, as part of its efforts to fully operationalize the scheme, which is intended to be implemented throughout the region, is now extending the Harmonized Regional Energy Efficiency Labelling Scheme to Barbados with support from the TAPSEC.

OBJECTIVES

The overall objective of this consultancy is to facilitate the seamless execution of the compliance programme in Barbados. The compliance programme should consider all activities in the process from port of entry to retail display. This programme will ensure that energy efficient refrigerators, lighting equipment and air conditioners are imported for retail trade in compliance with the recently developed and approved CARICOM energy efficiency standards for these appliances.

The purpose of this consultancy is for the development and documentation of standardised and formal procedures and practices in the form a National Procedures Manual for Barbados, to guide the compliance programme associated with the pilot regional harmonised labelling scheme both at the national and regional levels.