|
June 9, 2022 is World Accreditation Day (#WAD2022), a global initiative established by IAF and ILAC to promote the value of accreditation. This year’s theme is Accreditation: Sustainability in Economic Growth and the Environment.
IAAC held a virtual event to celebrate World Accreditation Day #WAD 2022 with the participation of keynote speakers of IAF, ILAC, APAC, ISO/CASCO an Accreditation Bodies of the region, who addressed the theme of how Accreditation supports sustainable economic growth and the environment. The event was well attended with over 450 participants. The IAAC WAD event was held a day prior to the actual WAD date, which allowed more participation without competing with other WAD celebrations held throughout the region. The IAAC WAD event was recorded on YouTube is available on the IAAC website www.iaac.org.mx.
Why do we celebrate World Accreditation Day?
Accreditation, in collaboration with other quality infrastructure institutions including metrology, standardization, conformity assessment and market surveillance, provides the technical foundations that are critical to the functioning of developed and developing societies. It is an enabler for industrial development, trade competitiveness in global markets, efficient use of natural and human resources, food safety, health and environmental protection.
This year’s theme, Accreditation: Sustainability in Economic Growth and the Environment, aims to draw attendtion to how accreditation and conformity assessment provide global solutions for global issues.
During these challenging times, our interconnected world is facing several disruptions, supply chain issues and product shortages, rising food and fuel prices, energy overconsumption and dependency on fossil fuels, and an alarming climate crisis that is felt globally. Our reality is complex, and our countries and governments try to adapt quickly to overcome obstacles and find new solutions, however, climate change has been a key issue that has not been sufficiently addressed and is only getting worse. The current economic models are based on the indiscriminate use of resources at an increasing pace, to the detriment of our environment. A more inclusive and sustainable industrial development needs to be implemented by our countries, so that technological solutions contribute to an environmentally sound industrialization. We should not strive for an accelerated progress at the expense of the environment. Economic growth objectives should be based on sustainable goals and principles, while safeguarding the environment.
Accreditation plays a critical role by providing a wide variety of schemes that help to protect the environment or to reduce the use of energy or to use it more efficiently. Accreditation bodies in the IAAC region offer accreditation programs that help to monitor emissions of greenhouse gases using the ISO/IEC 17029 standard, ensure that environmental management systems are certified by accredited bodies in conformance with international requirements using the ISO/IEC 17021-1 standard, and contribute to the development of a circular economy, using a combination of accreditation programs that comply with several standards. Accreditation schemes also play a part in the development of energy efficiency products and systems, and in assessing energy management systems. To protect our biodiversity, some IAAC members have implemented the PEFC scheme for sustainable forest management under ISO/IEC 17065.
As an internationally recognized region, IAAC manages the IAAC multi-lateral recognition arrangements in 11 main scopes and 9 subcopes so that test results, certificates, inspection reports, are performed once and accepted everywhere. This means that all IAF and ILAC arrangement signatories accept each other’s accredited results. Having confidence in accreditation by all stakeholders is key. IAAC performs peer evaluations of its MLA signatory members which are carried out by peer evaluators from other signatories, this way the evaluations ensure that accreditation bodies are complying with the international standards and requirements and that the MLAs can be trusted.
Accreditation is useful for governments and regulators to implement national policies aimed at meeting the United Nation’s Sustainable Development goals. IAAC and its Accreditation Body members are involved and contributing to the SDGs in each of the countries in the Americas. Together we will continue to work within our region to make Accreditation and conformity assessment better tools that provide global solutions for global issues.
IAF and ILAC statements on World Accreditation Day
A joint statement by the IAF and ILAC Chairs, a brochure and a poster will be available for download on the IAF website here and the ILAC website here.
Case studies and research on the recognition of the IAF MLA and ILAC MRA by governments and regulators are available from the Public Sector Assurance website. This website a collaborative initiative of the INetQI members is currently being updated with a significant number of new case studies collected in support of the WAD 2022 theme – Accreditation: Sustainability in Economic Growth and the Environment.
The Business Benefits website, also another successful collaboration of the InetQI partners, is a reference website designed to demonstrate the monetary value of standards, conformity assessment and accreditation for businesses.
IAAC, IAF, ILAC videos on World Accreditation Day
The Inter-American Accreditaton Cooperation, (IAAC) held a virtual webinar to celebrate World Accreditation Day which was streamed live and is available on the IAAC You Tube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3-chXC1EhEA
IAF and ILAC published a video on World Accreditation Day, you may see it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmvYvV0X6uk
Social Media
Follow IAAC (@IAAC_Official) IAF (@IAF_Global) and ILAC (@ILAC_Official) on Twitter for the latest updates.
Happy World Accreditation Day!
Read below for information on IAAC members celebrations
|
CUEC New IAAC Stakeholder Member
On May 26, 2022, the IAAC General Assembly approved, via electronic vote, the 
