The significance of an accreditation system for trade and the economy, as well as practical advice for the establishment of accreditation bodies, are the focus of a newly released publication titled, “Setting up accreditation bodies in developing economies – A guide to opening the door for global trade”.

Prepared by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), in cooperation with the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), the publication was launched at the ILAC-IAF joint General Assembly. The guide aims to support the common goal of “tested, inspected or certified once and accepted everywhere”.

It is comprised of two parts. The first part focuses on the need for accreditation and the benefits that an accreditation system can bring to good governance. It provides policymakers with a framework for establishing an accreditation body or partnering with neighbouring economies to form a shared system, which can bring an economy closer to its trading partners through mutually recognized arrangements of accreditation.

The second part offers comprehensive practical advice and building blocks to those who are tasked with establishing an accreditation body. It presents information on the essential operational requirements for accreditation bodies, and outlines available resources, as well as potential challenges. Case studies then follow to offer an illustration of practical applications of the guidance provided in the publication.

The publication is an update of a 2003 UNIDO publication, “Laboratory accreditation in developing economies”.

“Not only does an accreditation system have benefits for improving trade flows, it also delivers many benefits internal to an economy. Examples include providing confidence in non-trade arenas, such as the monitoring and measurement of progress towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals and their associated targets,” said LI Yong, the Director General of UNIDO.

A recently released UNIDO-IAF-ILAC brochure highlights the contribution of accredited conformity assessment services to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

These joint publications also indicate the increasing collaboration among international agencies to help developing countries overcome barriers to trade.

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Setting up accreditation bodies in developing economies: A guide to opening the door for global trade

Introduction

The world has become a global economy where trade is vital. While international trade has existed for centuries, it often consisted of lower valued commodities and products. Today all types of manufactured products or foods and beverages made in one economy are sold in another. Hence, the enhanced awareness and need for the safety and the quality of traded products and services is required. Nowadays, most large manufacturers which once were fully integrated, such as those in the automotive sector, have moved from being self-reliant organizations to ones that now focus on core activities and outsource much to others. Activities such as the assembly of components and systems, and the manufacture of parts such as wheels, jacks, exhausts, electronic devices and even dashboard assemblies are usually built by subcontractors, resulting in another need to ensure that outsourced products meet quality and performance standards. The increased outsourcing has provided many developing countries with lower labour costs an opportunity to respond to, and enter these markets.

Export is critical to the growth of any economy, be it fresh fruit, flowers, minerals or manufactured goods. As a developing economy takes advantage of new global opportunities, even neighbouring countries can enjoy some benefits by supplying services to the exporting economy such as electricity, water and telecommunications. To support and facilitate this trade a system is needed whereby importers can have confidence that the imported goods and services meet performance and quality expectations that are found in standards. Conformity Assessment is the term applied to the activities used to provide confidence in the conformity of products and services to standards. ISO/IEC 17000, “Conformity Assessment – Vocabulary and general principles”, provides the definition of conformity assessment as the demonstration that specified requirements relating to a product, including process and services, system, person or body are fulfilled.

To ensure that an accreditation and conformity assessment system is fair, efficient and cost-effective, it must not create new trade barriers whereby importing countries add requirements for repeat testing or certification which has already been carried out by the exporter. A key to lowering technical barriers to international trade is the existence of internationally recognised systems for the accreditation of bodies that perform conformity assessment such as testing, inspection and certification. As such, the global network of bodies that accredit laboratories, inspection bodies and certification bodies, is working to maintain and extend a system to support the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS). Accredited Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) that are internationally recognized are key to the successful implementation of these agreements.

Accreditation creates confidence in the work carried out by CABs located anywhere in the world. Accreditation comes from the Latin word ‘accredo’ which means ‘give credit or acknowledgement’. In the past, with an absence of internationally recognised accredited facilities, tests and inspections carried out and certificates issued in the exporting country were often repeated by a recognised laboratory, inspection or certification body in the importing country. An adverse test or inspection report in the importing country could result in the rejection of an entire shipment of food or manufactured goods, which was very costly for the exporter, and represents a negative market impact for the importer.

Although accreditation is often thought of as a means to enhance the flow of exports, it also has a significant domestic role within an economy. The demand for consumer protection is growing as global trade results in large increases in the number of products and services available in a domestic marketplace. Governments can also use accreditation to support their regulatory efforts in health, safety, environmental protection, fraud prevention or market fairness, and therefore accreditation also serves as a risk management tool. In the past, regulators often performed their own inspections to determine if products and services were in compliance with legal requirements; this took place with limited resources. Today, new approaches are being sought to reduce demands on government staff and resources, which in turn lower costs. One such approach is for regulators to rely on accreditation bodies to provide assurance that services meet regulations, and on accredited bodies to test, inspect or certify that products and systems meet regulatory objectives. When regulators delegate compliance monitoring to accreditation bodies and accredited bodies, they can focus their own efforts on ensuring regulations reference the appropriate accreditation, testing, inspection and certification standards to mitigate risk.

Accreditation is an attestation of the competence and impartiality of laboratories, inspection and certification bodies that perform the conformity assessment work. Accreditation is an impartial and objective process carried out by third-parties; it thus offers the least duplicative, the most transparent, the most widely accepted and the least discriminatory route for the provision of credible and trustworthy conformity assessment results.

The international accreditation system is established worldwide by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC). IAF oversees the accreditation of certification bodies and verification/validation bodies while ILAC oversees the accreditation of laboratories, inspection bodies, proficiency testing providers and reference material producers. This system helps to make work carried out by accreditation bodies consistent across the globe, and maintains international standards from one accreditation body to the next. As a result, a product tested, inspected or certified once under the IAF and ILAC umbrella can be accepted everywhere with equal confidence.

It should however be noted that while conformity assessment results should be accepted in another country because of the application of equivalent competence and standards, there is no guarantee that each and every regulator or organization in the world will accept a given report or certificate. UNIDO, the IAF, ILAC, its members and associates continue to work towards the broader recognition of accredited test and inspection reports and certificates around the world so that tests, inspections and certificates applicable to a product made in one economy can be accepted with confidence in any other economy. Through various initiatives and projects such as this publication, UNIDO is working to facilitate the participation of developing economies into this global system that will in turn facilitate the export of goods and services from their economies, while minimising risks.

This document addresses many questions for policy decision makers and for the implementation of accreditation in developing economies including whether an economy should develop its own accreditation system, or access such services in cooperation with other economies. Although accreditation and conformity assessment do not have to be provided nationally, all countries should have access to these services either through international or regional organizations or through cooperative arrangements with neighbouring countries.

Whether the decision is made to establish a domestic accreditation system or to cooperatively use an existing extra-national one, the chosen system should address all requirements needed for international recognition. This document provides information on the necessary supportive infrastructure that must be in place for a successful system, how the services of established bodies can be used during the formative process, and guidance on the establishment of a body that meets international standards and best practices.