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Mesopartner Blog
At Mesopartner, we are passionate about exploring complexity and driving meaningful change in territorial development, innovation, and economic systems. This blog is a space where we share our insights, experiences, and reflections drawn from our work across the globe. Whether you're a development practitioner, policy-maker, researcher, or simply curious about how systems thinking can inform more sustainable and inclusive development, we invite you to join the conversation. Here, we unpack ideas, showcase tools and methodologies, and offer thought-provoking perspectives on the challenges and opportunities of working in complex environments.


New frontiers in quality infrastructure research
Quality infrastructure refers to the technical institutions supporting global trade while ensuring consumers can purchase safe, healthy, high-quality products and services.
In recent years, scientific interest in quality infrastructure (QI) has grown continuously. The Google Scholar results from 1997 to 2024 confirm this trend.

Dr. Ulrich Harmes-Liedtke
Apr 9
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Advancing the Global Quality Infrastructure: Key Insights and Trends from GQII 2023
The “GQII-Report 2023: Insights and Trends on Economies Using Metrology, Standards, Accreditation and Conformity Assessment Services” was published earlier this year using 2023 data. The GQII database and ranking integrate information on quality infrastructure (QI) in 185 economies. Each edition collects and analyses data on standardization, metrology, accreditation and conformity assessment activities.

Dr. Ulrich Harmes-Liedtke
Sep 24, 2024
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Photovoltaic: Quality, Safety, and Sustainability Challenges
<p>In a June 2024 Solar Energy Special, the Economist called solar energy generation the “least obtrusive revolution imaginable.”(The Economist 2024b) According to the International Solar Energy Society, solar power is on track to generate more electricity than all the world’s nuclear power … <a href="https://qi4d.org/2024/09/16/photovoltaic-quality-challenges-and-solutions-a-2024-overview/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a

Mesopartner
Sep 16, 2024
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Photovoltaic: Quality, Safety, and Sustainability Challenges
In a June 2024 Solar Energy Special, the Economist called solar energy generation the “least obtrusive revolution imaginable.”( The...

Christian Schoen
Sep 16, 2024
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Accreditation of private schemes: differentiator and source of credibility in various markets
In recent years, accreditation has grown, particularly for privately owned standards schemes.

Dr. Ulrich Harmes-Liedtke
Apr 29, 2024
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Macroeconomic benefits of quality infrastructure
One reason for investing in Quality Infrastructure (QI) is its contribution to a country’s economic growth. QI enhances economic performance through several avenues, including opening markets, reducing entry barriers, promoting knowledge transfer and better management procedures, facilitating production along value chains, enabling economies of scale, and reducing adverse selection and asymmetric information (Gonçalves and Peuckert, 2011).

Ann Ramkissoon
Jun 10, 2023
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The contribution of quality infrastructure to the satisfaction of human needs
Quality infrastructure is not an end in itself. Instead, its raison d’être is to support companies in the production and trade of goods and services that are ultimately intended to contribute to the well-being of people.

Dr. Ulrich Harmes-Liedtke
May 2, 2023
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What do Regional Trade Agreements mean for quality infrastructure?
The number of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) entering into force has steadily increased over the past two decades (see figure below). This continuous growth has been interpreted as a reaction to the Multilateral Trading System (MTS) crisis, which has raised concerns about the future of Quality Infrastructure.

Dr. Ulrich Harmes-Liedtke
Mar 6, 2023
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The Implications of Artificial Intelligence for the Quality Infrastructure
Artificial intelligence (AI) is on everyone’s lips. A significant stimulus was when the US company OpenAI published the ChatGPT in November 2022.[1]

Dr. Ulrich Harmes-Liedtke
Feb 13, 2023
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Quality: compliance or competitive strategy?
Higher standards are often associated with better consumer protection and quality of life. However, this correlation is not unequivocal, as neither markets nor government regulation work perfectly. This observation is especially true for developing and emerging countries. In this sense, we wonder how a country’s quality infrastructure can best be aligned to contribute to economically sustainable development and the quality of life of its citizens in challenging contexts.

Dr. Ulrich Harmes-Liedtke
May 23, 2022
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Quality infrastructure, trade and environmental agreements
The potentially tumultuous relationship between Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements has been an issue of special interest within the international trade and environmental debate for decades.

Dr. Ulrich Harmes-Liedtke
Jan 31, 2022
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Data on international standards
What are the differences between countries using international standards?
For decades, the United States, Western Europe and Japan have led international standard development. Representatives of these countries chaired most international standards committees and led standard making through agenda-setting and the know-how of national companies and scientific institutions.

Dr. Ulrich Harmes-Liedtke
Jan 24, 2022
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Quality infrastructure for the service sector
Quality infrastructure has its origins in the industrial revolution of the 19th century, first in England, then throughout Western Europe and the USA, and later spread to Japan and other parts of Europe and Asia during the transition from agrarian to industrial societies. For a long time, QI was mainly a matter of checking whether physical products met defined technical specifications.

Dr. Ulrich Harmes-Liedtke
Nov 1, 2021
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Benchmarking QI worldwide
For ten years, we, Ulrich Harmes-Liedtke and Juan José Oteiza have been working on measuring and comparing the development level of a country’s quality infrastructure (QI). This challenging task occupied not only us but also colleagues from metrology, standardisation and accreditation bodies, and other consultants.

Dr. Ulrich Harmes-Liedtke
Apr 13, 2021
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Women in the Quality Infrastructure System
Gender inequality is still present throughout the world
The world is equally composed of women and men. However, gender inequality is still present throughout the world. As published by the United Nations in October 2020, only 47% of working-age women participated in the global labour market, while for men, the percentage was 74%.
Maribel López
Mar 8, 2021
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Geographical Indication – place-linked quality of products
Geographical indication of product quality
Mexican Tequila, Darjeeling Tea, Roquefort cheese, French Champagne, Italian Prosciutto di Parma and Parmigiano-Reggiano (Parmesan) cheese, Ecuadorian Cacao Arriba, Colombian Coffee, South African Rooibos herbal tea, Scotch whisky, Munich beer or Phu Quoc fish sauce from Vietnam.

Christian Schoen
Feb 18, 2021
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Free online access to standards responding to COVID-19
Justification of standards fees
From time to time, we hear complaints from SMEs, especially in developing and emerging countries, about the costs of acquiring technical standards. This is especially true for the international standards of ISO and IEC or their national adaptations.

Dr. Ulrich Harmes-Liedtke
Feb 1, 2021
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Reform of the quality law in Costa Rica
Central American success model
Costa Rica is a small, innovative country in Central America. Long ago, the government decided to abstain from having an army and instead invested in environmental protection and technological innovation.

Dr. Ulrich Harmes-Liedtke
Jan 25, 2021
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