National Technical Working Groups

National technical working groups
About GLOBALG.A.P.

National technical working groups

National technical working groups (NTWGs) facilitate the implementation of GLOBALG.A.P. solutions in specific countries. They help bridge the gap from global to local by identifying application challenges at a national level and developing national interpretation guidelines.

About NTWGs

Host or join a NTWG

National interpretation guidelines

Thinking globally, acting locally

What are national technical working groups?

National technical working groups (NTWGs) consist of GLOBALG.A.P. Community Members, qualified experts, and relevant stakeholders in a specific country. Participants may include producer organizations, certification bodies (CBs), retailers, supply chain members, and more. Together, NTWG members work to identify adaptation and implementation challenges based on local legislation or structural conditions. They then develop national interpretation guidelines (NIGs), helping producers and CBs to apply and audit against GLOBALG.A.P. principles and criteria (P&Cs) at a local level.

Why do we have NTWGs?

NTWGs are currently active in more than 40 countries, helping Agraya GmbH to tap into national networks of experts and gain extensive knowledge about the different legal and operational contexts that exist around the world. They represent the technical entry point into a new market and form the local contact point for Agraya GmbH when feedback is required.

This expertise helps to ensure that GLOBALG.A.P. farm assurance solutions are fit for purpose in different global conditions, improving the efficiency of the audit process.

Interested in joining the NTWG in your country?

View the list of NTWGs

What are the responsibilities of an NTWG?

Providing assistance

with the proofreading and translation of official GLOBALG.A.P. standard/add-on documents into the languages of the NTWG host country

Developing NIGs

for GLOBALG.A.P. standards/add-ons in collaboration with technical working groups

Supporting technical working groups

with expertise on country-specific conditions and revision proposals for GLOBALG.A.P. standard/add-on documents

Organizing meetings,

a minimum of two per year, providing Agraya GmbH with meeting minutes, participation lists, and insights on relevant issues

Participating in the peer review

of GLOBALG.A.P. benchmarking activities concerning schemes operating in the NTWG host country

Updating Agraya GmbH

with information on names, companies, and email addresses of all NTWG members

Providing assistance

with the proofreading and translation of official GLOBALG.A.P. standard/add-on documents into the languages of the NTWG host country

Developing NIGs

for GLOBALG.A.P. standards/add-ons in collaboration with technical working groups

Supporting technical working groups

with expertise on country-specific conditions and revision proposals for GLOBALG.A.P. standard/add-on documents

Organizing meetings,

a minimum of two per year, providing Agraya GmbH with meeting minutes, participation lists, and insights on relevant issues

Participating in the peer review

of GLOBALG.A.P. benchmarking activities concerning schemes operating in the NTWG host country

Updating Agraya GmbH

with information on names, companies, and email addresses of all NTWG members

Why join an NTWG?

  • Contribute to NIG development for the local interpretation of a GLOBALG.A.P. standard/add-on

  • Participate in the peer review process of GLOBALG.A.P. benchmarking and recognition activities in your country

  • Provide qualified input to the continuous improvement of the GLOBALG.A.P. farm assurance solutions portfolio

  • Help producers in your country to achieve certification and increase awareness of responsible farming practices

  • Expand your regional and global networks by connecting with one of the largest community membership programs in the industry

  • Partner with us at GLOBALG.A.P. TOUR stop events, focusing on issues relevant to your country or region

  • Benefit from regular communication and exchange as part of our stakeholder collaboration framework

  • Gain insights on GLOBALG.A.P. technical news, standard revisions, upcoming trainings, and more

NTWGs have no fixed term and work continuously. They are always open to new members, and participation is free of charge for all groups worldwide. Following acceptance of the online registration, Agraya GmbH informs the host organization who invites new members to the next NTWG meeting.

Participating in a NTWG allows for profound cooperation on the local implementation of GLOBALG.A.P. standard requirements – to the benefit of producers, producers' organizations, and certification bodies.

Ann De Craene

Senior Advisor at Verbond van Belgische Tuinbouwcoöperaties (VBT) | Belgium

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Harnessing regional value chain expertise

How can I establish a national technical working group?

While anyone can join a national technical working group (NTWG), founding hosts must be GLOBALG.A.P. Community Members from one of the three categories producer/supplier, retail/food service, or associate. There is no minimum number of members required, although we encourage NTWGs to integrate relevant stakeholders from across the whole value chain where possible.

Five steps to hosting an NTWG

Reach out to your network, partners, and other interested parties. Ideally, the group will include stakeholders from all stages of the national value chain.

If you are already a GLOBALG.A.P. Community Member, download the NTWG terms of reference and check the responsibilities. If you are not yet a community member, apply online to start the process.

Sign the NTWG terms of reference and send the document to ntwg@agraya.com. Agraya GmbH will countersign it and confirm the approval of the new NTWG by email. A minimum of two meetings per year are required for the group to be considered active.

Ask founding group members to register via the online registration form. Agraya GmbH will inform the host about successful registrations by email. If the NTWG creation is part of a GLOBALG.A.P. capacity building project, additional guidance will be provided.

Schedule the first meeting of the NTWG and define a plan of action (to be shared with Agraya GmbH). Members must also elect a chairperson – they can be chosen from any organization represented within the group, not only from the host. The roles and responsibilities of the chairperson are outlined in the NTWG terms of reference.

Join an NTWG

Interested in supporting the work of your NTWG?

Register here

NTWG terms of reference

Help us to improve the implementation of GLOBALG.A.P. standards and add-ons at a local level.

Download

Adapting to local conditions

What are national interpretation guidelines?

The primary purpose of a national technical working group (NTWG) is the development of national interpretation guidelines (NIGs) for GLOBALG.A.P. standards and add-ons. NIGs are an interpretation of our solutions based on the legal and structural conditions of the respective country. NIGs include both the translation of the documents into the local language, as well as the incorporation of national legislation that is required to complement the principles and criteria (P&Cs). The final NIG is relevant to both the implementation and the audit process.

What is the NIG development process?

NTWGs work in close collaboration with both Agraya GmbH and the technical working groups in order to draft, review, and approve an NIG for a specific country.

NIG development is currently possible for all product categories of the scopes plants and aquaculture in the Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) standard, the GLOBALG.A.P. Chain of Custody standard, and the GLOBALG.A.P. Risk Assessment on Social Practice add-on.

All NIGs for a specific country can be found in the GLOBALG.A.P. document center.

Four steps to developing an NIG

The NTWG downloads the relevant NIG template from the GLOBALG.A.P. website and completes it. Following submission, Agraya GmbH has a maximum of two weeks to ensure that the information is complete and correct. 

Agraya GmbH begins the internal technical review and sends comments to the NTWG. The NTWG has a maximum of four weeks to respond, and this process continues until all comments have been resolved. If a response time is longer than eight weeks, the process must be restarted from the submission stage.

Agraya GmbH invites certification bodies (CBs), accreditation bodies (ABs), and GLOBALG.A.P. Community Members in the relevant country to send written feedback on the draft NIG document within a maximum of four weeks. A further four weeks are allocated for responses to peer review comments. 

Agraya GmbH prepares a peer review report and sends the final version of the NIG to the relevant technical working group for approval. This process takes a maximum of four weeks. Approval can be confirmed in writing or at a technical working group meeting. 

The NIG is added to the GLOBALG.A.P. document center, and its content is integrated into the GLOBALG.A.P. IT platform. Information is provided to all GLOBALG.A.P. Community Members and approved CBs/ABs in the relevant country within a maximum of three weeks. The NIG becomes a GLOBALG.A.P. normative document and is then mandatory for use in the country. 

FAQ

Contact us

For questions about stakeholder collaboration, please contact committees@agraya.com.

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