The VICH Steering Committee has the decision making role and is the driver of the harmonisation process. The Steering Committee is composed of two delegates of the regulatory authorities and two delegates of representative industry associations from the three regions. Australia/New Zealand, Canada and South Africa have observer status with one delegate representing government authorities and one delegate representing industry associations. OIE, the associate member, has one delegate (see also "Overview of VICH Structure").
New VICH guidelines topics are proposed by members of the Steering Committee. If the new topic is approved by the Steering Committee then a topic leader within the Steering Committee is appointed which will usually be the original proposer of the topic, and normally the chair of the corresponding expert working group will come from the same country or region as the Steering Committee topic leader (see also "VICH Process").