World Accreditation Day 2016

World Accreditation Day was jointly established by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), to raise awareness of the importance of accreditation.

Accreditation refers to the formal process of recognising the competence, rigor and impartiality of conformity assessment organizations that provide assurance services including:

• Testing
• Certification
• Inspection
• Calibration

Fundamentally these activities, and the accreditations that govern them, are about Delivering Trust. This was the particularly appropriate slogan of the first World Accreditation Day in 2008.

The IAF and ILAC

Many countries have their own national accreditation bodies. However the nature of the global economy and international trade calls for increasing standardisation and, therefore, consistency between accreditation bodies.

The IAF is the world association of Conformity Assessment Accreditation Bodies and other bodies interested in conformity assessment in the fields of management systems, products, services, personnel and other similar programmes of conformity assessment. Its primary function is to develop a single worldwide program of conformity assessment which reduces risk for business and its customers by assuring them that accredited certificates may be relied upon. Accreditation assures users of the competence and impartiality of the body accredited.

ILAC’s primary purpose is to establish an international arrangement between member accreditation bodies based on peer evaluation and mutual acceptance. ILAC is the principal international co-operation for developing and harmonising laboratory and inspection body accreditation practices.

Accreditation:

Each World Accreditation Day focuses on a theme which represents significant global issues – the theme of World Accreditation Day 2016 is:

               ACCREDITATION: A GLOBAL TOOL TO SUPPORT PUBLIC POLICY

This theme focuses on how accreditation can be a global tool to support public policy for all areas in the public sector – national and local government, regulators.

To help explain the use of accredited conformity assessment, the Public Sector Assurance website www.publicsectorassurance.org has been established to showcase different global examples where accreditation has been used to support public policy efforts.

Previous World Accreditation Day themes:

• 2008: Delivering trust

• 2009: Competency

• 2010: Global acceptance

• 2011: Supporting the needs of regulators

• 2012: Safe food and clean drinking water

• 2013: Facilitating world trade

• 2014: Delivering confidence in the provision of energy

• 2015: Supporting the delivery of health and social care

Get involved

As in previous years, the day will be celebrated across the world with the hosting of major national events, seminars, and press and media coverage, to communicate the value of accreditation to Government, Regulators and the leaders of the business community.

You can get involved too and there are resources including posters, brochures and videos available on the World Accreditation Day website here. Watch the IAF/ILAC video here.