Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) is in the process to adopt best practices from other countries on how to tackle occupational hazards.

RSB, in partnership with British and Swedish standards bodies, wants to train its staff on the new standard (ISO 45001) about occupational health and safety to lessen burden of injuries and diseases in workplaces.

This was revealed on Wednesday at the opening of a regional workshop on occupational health and safety management systems that attracted officials from RSB and other standards bodies in the region in Kigali.

According to Dr Marc Cyubahiro, the director-general of Rwanda Standards Board, enhancing participation of the region and global experts in the field will help Rwanda improve safety and health conditions in the workplace.

"With such support, I hope that we can get good mileage in building capacity to develop better health and safety systems. Occupational injuries alone cost over $150 billion in the region a year in terms of medical and insurance costs, compensation, equipment, production delays and replacement of injured and dead workers,” he said.

According to Charles Corrie, the business programme manager at the British Standards Institution (BSI), ILO provides a lot of guidance to governments under its 180 international labour standards that give governments aspects of health and safety.

"This applies to a number of elements with regard to working hours, holiday requirements and the use of child labour. Thus, governments need to review ILO publications and get advice from ILO as to what their national strategy should be,” he said.

Yvonne Mujawabega, the State Attorney at Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB), said that occupational hazards could increase due to the rise in the labour force and infrastructure.

"That is the reason why we need to sensitise people more on their rights to avoid these hazards at an early stage,” she said.

In Rwanda, a specific standard numbered ISO 45001 is due to be published in 2016, with the Labour ministry, the Police and other safety regulation agencies expected to help RSB to decentralise its implementation.

Peace Ababo, the secretary of the technical committee on standards of environment, health and safety, explained that, "A standard does not work in isolation. We have to look at the existing national laws and regulations.”

The International Organisation for Standardisation specifies requirements for organisations to use for providing a safe and healthy workplace and preventing injury and ill health to its workers.

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