Participation of the National Accreditation Centre in meetings of leading global accreditation organisations

In Montreal, Canada, the 37th General Assembly of the International Accreditation Forum IAF, celebrating this year its 30th anniversary, the 27th General Assembly of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation ILAC and the 21st Joint General Assembly of both organisations with the participation of the General Director of the National Accreditation Centre Talgat Momyshev and the representative of the quality management Gulzhan Amanzholova started their work. The Forums bring together more than 200 participants from around the world.

Among the issues on the agenda - adoption of reports on the implementation of decisions of the previous, XXth joint meeting of the IAF and ILAC, including on the work of the IAF Checkarch database for accredited certificates of management systems, reports of regional groups, reports of Committees, recognition of new signatories of MLA/MRA Agreements and Memorandum of Understanding, presentations and discussions on the topic of merging ILAC and IAF into a single organisation headquartered in New Zealand.

The participants were presented a report on the implementation of the IAF's strategic plan for 2020-2025, in particular, the IAF's development in such areas as increasing the recognition of internationally recognised accredited conformity assessment results, promotion of reliable and credible accredited services; introduction of innovative approaches; creation of a single international accreditation organisation.

As a result of the IAF Forum it is expected that the South African Accreditation Development Cooperation Community SADCA will become a new signatory of IAF MLA in the field of certification of management systems; the accreditation body of the Republic of Korea KOLAS, the accreditation body of Jordan JAS-AU, the accreditation body of Japan Jasaff, the accreditation body of Egypt EGAC, as well as accreditation bodies of Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Canada, Vietnam, Costa Rica and a number of other countries will expand the scope of IAF MLA.

The Jamaican National Accreditation Agency JANAAC and the Kyrgyz Accreditation Centre KAC will become new participants in the IAF Memorandum of Understanding.

The General Assembly noted that the Memoranda of Understanding between the IAF and GLOBALG.A.P., the organisation for the implementation of the International Standard on Agricultural Practices, the IAF and the International Personnel Certification Association IPC, the IAF and the International Aerospace Quality Group AISBL were approved by written ballot.

It was decided to expand the scope of recognition of the IAF MLA Agreement on a number of standards in the field of certification of products, services and management systems.

Also to be approved at the meeting are the new members of the IAF Board of Directors, the newly elected chairs of IAF committees and the executives appointed to serve a second term.

The 27th ILAC General Assembly is expected to adopt resolutions on reports, including those of the international standardisation organisation ISO, including CASCO; ILAC's close cooperation with the International Bureau of Weights and Measures BIPM and the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA is noted. In addition, the meeting cancelled the document on the possibility of remote assessments of regions and accreditation bodies, which was in force at the time of the pandemic.

Representatives of Kazakhstan participated in the discussion and voting on all agenda items. The Forum will continue until 16 November.