Significant Progress Has Been Made in the Implementation of the IAF's Five-Year Strategic Plan

As the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) Strategic Plan (2015-2019) is halfway through its implementation, IAF President Xiao Jianhua recently released a statement on the IAF website, announcing significant progress in four areas since the plan's inception.

The IAF Strategic Plan (2015-2019), officially launched in October 2014, outlined six strategic objectives for the IAF over five years, including: improving the efficiency of mutual recognition expansion to better meet market demands; improving the peer review process and strengthening the peer review team; promoting wider acceptance of accreditation mutual recognition results; improving consistency in accreditation implementation; strengthening support for accreditation development in developing countries and regions; and enhancing the overall effectiveness of global and regional organizations.

Over the past two years, the implementation of the IAF Strategic Plan (2015-2019) has played a crucial role in better meeting the expectations of IAF members and stakeholders. One key improvement is the improvement of IAF multilateral mutual recognition review processes. To date, the IAF has completed the revision of key documents of the multilateral mutual recognition agreement, adopted a resolution to expand the scope of the multilateral mutual recognition agreement for management system certification, and developed a new action plan to further improve the peer review process; it has also improved the consistency of IAF members in the application of international standards for conformity assessment. The IAF has enhanced the consistency and equivalence of accreditation implementation by organizing thematic seminars on "Accreditation Body Assessors Competence," officially launching the "IAF Accreditation Implementation Consistency Online Seminar," and encouraging representatives of conformity assessment bodies and user associations to participate in various working groups of the IAF Technical Committees. Strengthened communication and advocacy have promoted wider recognition of accredited conformity assessment results and IAF multilateral mutual recognition. The IAF has held various promotional activities globally on the occasion of World Accreditation Day. The "Public Service Assurance" website, jointly built by the IAF and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), has published over 200 practical application cases and more than 70 research papers, showcasing the role of standards and accreditation in the public service sector to relevant parties.

Currently, the IAF and ILAC have launched a new initiative to collect and share data on business activities, aiming to reveal the convenience and benefits that standards and accredited conformity assessment activities bring to global business activities.

The IAF and ILAC have continued to strengthen cooperation with relevant international organizations, achieving positive results. These organizations include: the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the World Trade Organization/Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade (WTO/TBT), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

The International Accreditation Forum (IAF) currently has 102 members, including 78 accreditation bodies, 18 associations, and 6 regional accreditation cooperation organizations. The IAF Multilateral Mutual Recognition Agreement (MLA) currently has 63 signatory accreditation bodies and 3 signatory regional accreditation cooperation organizations. To date, the IAF Multilateral Recognition Agreement has four main areas of scope, with six sub-scopes. The main areas of scope include: management system certification (ISO/IEC 17021), product certification (ISO/IEC 17065), personnel certification (ISO/IEC 17024), and greenhouse gas verification (ISO 14065).