Aparna Dhawan
APAC CPC Chair
Joint Director, NABCB

Each year, June 9^th marks celebrations for World Accreditation Day (WAD), a global initiative established by IAF and ILAC to promote the value of accreditation.

The theme for this year focused on: “How accreditation improves food safety, supporting the confidence of consumers, suppliers, purchasers, regulators and specifiers in the quality and safety of food.”

Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (APAC) Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) signatories celebrated the event with participation from all stakeholders, including industry, regulators, conformity assessment bodies and consumers. Participation this year was largely done by promoting the event using social media platforms, advertising the event on websites and using online tools, in consideration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Emirates National Accreditation System (ENAS), entidad mexicana de acreditación, a.c. (ema), International Accreditation Service (IAS), Iranian Association of Clinical Laboratory Doctors (IACLD), Philippines Accreditation Bureau (PAB), and National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) organized virtual meetings/webinars to celebrate the event and spread the message about the role of accreditation in improving food safety. Other Accreditation Bodies (ABs) like the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA), Standards Malaysia (DSM), and the National Institute of Standards and Industrial Technology of Papua New Guinea (NISIT), promoted the event through posting articles on their websites.  The Korean Accreditation Board (KAB) organized an award ceremony for the auditors for the UNCTAT awards held by the Korea Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The celebrations organized by the China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (CNAS) were supported by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), and WAD activities with the theme “Certification, Testing, Inspection and their Accreditation: Safeguarding safety bottom line, supporting work resumption” were held in Beijing.

A snapshot of celebrations of different ABs can be viewed here.