Role of IAF-AB

The main role of IAF-ab is two-overlay. First and foremost, to guarantee that license body individuals just certify bodies are capable to accomplish the work they attempt and are not expose to irreconcilable situations. The second reason for the IAF-ab is to lay out common acknowledgment game plans, known as Multilateral Acknowledgment Courses of action (MLA), between its authorization body individuals which lessens hazard to business and its clients by guaranteeing that a certify endorsement might be depended upon anyplace on the planet.

The MLA adds to the opportunity of world exchange by dispensing with specialized hindrances to exchange. IAF-Stomach muscle attempts to track down the best approach to accomplishing a solitary framework that will permit organizations with a licensed congruity evaluation declaration in one region of the planet, to have that testament perceived else where on earth. The goal of the MLA is that it will cover all license bodies in all nations on the planet, in this manner wiping out the requirement for providers of items or administrations to be confirmed in every nation where they sell their items or administrations. Confirmed once – acknowledged all over.

What are the benefits of the IAF-AB MLA?

Accreditation bodies around the world, which have been evaluated by peers as competent, have signed an arrangement that enhances the acceptance of products and services across national borders.

The purpose of the arrangement, the IAF-AB Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA), is to ensure mutual recognition of accredited certification between signatories to the MLA, and subsequently acceptance of accredited certification in many markets based on one accreditation.

For Government – The IAF-AB MLA provides governments with a credible and robust framework on which to further develop and enhance government to government bilateral and multilateral international trade agreements. The long-term aim is the fully accepted use and recognition, by both public and private industries, of accredited certification, including certificates from other countries. In this way, the free-trade goal of “certified once, accepted everywhere” will be realised.

Public Sector Assurance, a website jointly developed by IAF-AB/ILAC/ISO/IIOC, showcases the benefits of accredited testing, inspection, and certification to meet policy objectives. The site showcases case studies, independent research and supporting information from around the world in key policy areas to demonstrate how different tools help government officials and regulators deliver results. View the site.

For Regulators – The IAF-AB MLA represents an internationally recognised ‘stamp of approval’ to demonstrate compliance against agreed standards and requirements. Consequently, risk is minimised, as decisions will be based on reliable certificates. Many specifiers, such as government agencies, have recognised the importance of credible accreditation programs that are developed against internationally recognised standards. Accreditation and the IAF-AB MLA help regulators meet their own legislated responsibilities by providing a globally recognised system to accept accredited certification.

View the Public Sector Assurance site to view case studies that demonstrate how regulators are benefitting from accreditation.

For Business – the IAF-AB MLA provides businesses that are procuring products and services with greater confidence in their consistency of quality. Businesses can therefore select suppliers from further afield in the knowledge that they will receive products and services that conform to a recognised standard.

Business Benefits, a website jointly developed by global quality infrastructure partners, showcases how accredited conformity assessment is used around the world by businesses of all sizes and sectors to deliver positive benefits. This site includes case studies, research papers, and supporting materials to illustrate the value of adopting accredited standards. The examples published on the site cite tangible financial data to illustrate cost savings achieved whether through resource efficiencies or meeting regulation(s) at lower cost, the value of accessing new markets, or savings achieved through recognition from organisations such as insurers, regulators or purchasers. View the site.

For Manufacturers – Having products assessed and certified as conforming to a particular standard allows manufacturers and service providers to distinguish themselves from less reputable suppliers, thereby creating a competitive advantage.

The IAF-AB MLA ensures that standards, specifications and conformity assessment methods are the same, allowing one certificate or certification to be recognized around the world. This lowers the cost of accredited certification and reduces the risk of products or services being rejected by international trading partners.

For Consumers – Consumer confidence can be gained from goods or services that bear a mark or carry a certificate of conformity. The IAF-AB MLA ensures that such goods and services placed on the market, from which ever country of origin, meet standards of quality and safety.

Organisational Structure of IAF-AB

The terms of reference, tasks and duties of the Members, the Board of Directors and the Secretary are defined by the Bylaws and the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The highest level of authority in IAF-AB is the Members in a General Meeting. General Meetings make decisions and lay down policy in the name of the members. The Board is responsible for legal actions to be carried out on behalf of the members, for developing broad policy directions for IAF-AB and for ensuring that the day-to-day work of IAF-AB is carried out in accordance with policies approved by members.

The Executive Committee is responsible to the Board of Directors for the day-to-day work of IAF-AB on the basis of decisions made by the Members and directions by the Board of Directors.

The operations of all IAF-AB Committees and Subordinate Groups, including the Executive Committee, are subject to the IAF-AB General Procedures (ref IAF-AB PR 2 – see Publications).

The relationships between the various parts of the organisation of IAF-AB can be found in IAF-AB PL 5 which can be downloaded from Publications, Policy Documents.

IAF-AB Membership

Accreditation body membership of IAF-AB is open to organisations that conduct and administer programmed by which they accredit bodies for certification/registration of quality systems, products, services, personnel, environmental management systems or similar programmed of conformity assessment. These organisations must declare their intention to join the IAF-AB Multilateral Recognition Agreement (MLA) recognizing the equivalence of other members’ accreditation to their own.

Regional Accreditation Group Members consist of associations of Accreditation Bodies, and possibly other bodies, that cooperate within an identified geographic region to establish and maintain a multilateral recognition agreement based on a peer evaluation system, and represent the interests of accredited entities, industry, users and similar organisations that engage in, are subject to, make use of, accept or rely on conformity assessment results from bodies accredited by Accreditation Body Members of IAF-AB, and which support the purpose of IAF-AB.

A Recognized Regional Accreditation Group is a Regional Accreditation Group that has been peer evaluated to confirm that its membership and MLA peer evaluation criteria and processes meet or exceed IAF-AB requirements.

IAF-AB Association Members are organisations or associations that represent a similar group of entities internationally or within an economy or region. These entities are associated with programmed by IAF-AB Accreditation Body Members supporting IAF-AB objectives.

Charter

The Worldwide Authorization Discussion, Inc. (IAF-AB) is a global relationship of associations that have consented to cooperate on an overall premise to accomplish normal exchange help goals. We are a significant world gathering for fostering the standards and practices for the lead of similarity evaluation that will convey the certainty required for market acknowledgment. We act through the license of those bodies that ensure or enroll the executives frameworks, items, faculty and additionally examination.

We advance the overall acknowledgment of testaments of congruity gave by assessment, certificate or potentially enlistment bodies certify by an Authorization Body Individual from IAF-AB, and try to add an incentive for all partners through what we do and through our projects.

We unite, on an overall premise, accomplice license bodies and delegates of partner bunches that try to work with worldwide exchange through the acknowledgment of certify declarations of congruity.

We create and additionally perceive proper cycles and practices for the direct of congruity appraisal overall and guarantee their all inclusive application by IAF-AB Authorization Body Individuals and their certify accreditation, enlistment or potentially assessment bodies.

We counsel generally with partners in fostering our projects and we work to convey the most ideal norm of similarity evaluation to furnish our partners with a worth added result.

We impact world exchange through connecting and working with other key global associations and industry gatherings.

Approved by members of IAF-AB November 2000.

IAF-AB Programmes

IAF-AB has programmes to:

Develop direction, rules and methodology for the activity of license, accreditation/enrollment and common acknowledgment programs coming about in “Certified once, acknowledged all over”
Guarantee that all certification body individuals work to the best expectations of ability and fidelity and just authorize bodies that have exhibited that they are skilled and unprejudiced
Fit license systems and their execution in view of global principles and guides, and IAF-AB direction on their application
Foster direction, rules and methodology for the activity of explicit area similarity appraisal plans to address the issues of explicit businesses
Foster direction, rules and methodology for the activity of consistence projects to fulfill administrative or government prerequisites
Trade data between certification bodies
Collaborate in the preparation of assessors and other faculty
Add to crafted by ISO and other important global bodies
Liaise with the territorial gatherings of certification bodies
Liaise with other pertinent bodies, for example, ILAC, ISO and industry gatherings
Help arising authorization bodies in low and medium pay economies

What is the IAF-AB Development Support programme?

It is IAF-AB strategy to give specialized help to arising license bodies in low and medium pay economies. The IAF-AB additionally gives monetary help to help arising authorization bodies by giving them the means to empower their staff to go to preparing programs. The program likewise guarantees portrayal by authorization assortments of low and medium pay economies on the IAF-AB Board.

The IAF-AB Participation charge structure is intended to energize license bodies in low and medium pay economies to join IAF-AB and advantage from specialized help accessible to Individuals. Regularly Individuals from low pay economies pay charges that are under 15% of those paid by Individuals in top level salary economies.

The IAF-AB Improvement Backing program incorporates studios, workshops and explicit preparation programs for the staff individuals from arising certification bodies. The IAF-AB additionally gives master counsel and empowers staff from arising bodies to notice experienced staff from other certification bodies directing evaluations. IAF-AB and the Assembled Countries Modern Advancement Association (UNIDO) co-work in working specialized help programs for arising bodies.

Code of Conduct

IAF-AB has fostered a Set of rules to help the wide standards of legitimate and moral business lead embraced by IAF-AB individuals. The Governing set of principles is certainly not a total rundown of lawful or moral inquiries that might be looked throughout business, and subsequently it is expected that it be utilized along with presence of mind and good instinct. This Code implies willful presumption by IAF-AB individuals from a norm of lead that may frequently be far in excess of the necessities of the law. Acknowledgment of this Set of principles is required for IAF-AB individuals as a state of participation of IAF-AB. Inability to keep the Governing set of rules will act as a reason for disciplinary activity, at the carefulness of the IAF-AB Board, up to and including suspension or end of IAF-AB enrollment.

Details of the date when IAF-AB Members adopted the Code of Conduct are listed on the IAF-AB Members pages and is described as “Code of Conduct Adopted”.

Training

IAF-Ab maintains its cycle with getting ready for Buddy Evaluators. Getting ready is expected to cultivate companion evaluators and covers things like comprehension of gone to on lengths, appraisal techniques and strategy. From time to time IAF-AB will cover remarkable gatherings to explore new and emerging issues. IAF-AB will list information on up-coming educational seminar on this page.

Similarly, accreditation Regional Social affairs also offer arrangement events that people could find of interest as well as more decisively open. IAF-AB encourages all people to use the associations gave here to research additional neighborhood open entryways for getting ready.

IAF-AB FAQ

About IAF-AB

Q – What is the role of IAF-AB?

A – IAF-AB is a global network of accreditation bodies and other organisations involved in conformity assessment activities. Its key roles include:

• to maintain and expand the Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA), between accreditation body members, with the aim of reducing risk to business and its customers and ensuring that an accredited certificate may be relied upon anywhere in the world;

• to develop and harmonize accreditation practices across the world; and

• to promote accreditation as an effective mechanism for providing confidence in goods and services, which is essential to global trade facilitation.

Q – Who are the members of IAF-AB?

A – There are three different categories of Membership to the IAF-AB:

Accreditation Body Members

IAF-AB Members that are not yet signatories
Membership of IAF-AB is open to Accreditation Bodies that conduct and administer programmes by which they accredit bodies for certification of quality systems, products, services, personnel, and environmental management systems, as well as other programmes of conformity assessment. When an Accreditation Body first joins IAF-AB, it signs a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to receive a basic level of membership (MoU membership). This basic membership does not mean that an Accreditation Body is a signatory to the IAF-AB Multilateral Recognition Agreement (MLA). Upon joining IAF-AB, Accreditation Bodies must declare their intention to join the IAF-AB MLA recognising the equivalence of other Members’ accreditations to their own.

IAF-AB MLA Signatories
Accreditation Body Members of IAF-AB achieve IAF-AB MLA Signatory status after a full evaluation of their operations by a peer evaluation team, which is tasked to ensure that the applicant member complies fully with both the international standards and IAF-AB documents. Once an Accreditation Body is a signatory of the IAF-AB MLA, it is required to recognise and promote certificates issued by Certification Bodies accredited by all other signatories with the scope of the IAF-AB MLA.

Association Members

Association Members are organisations or associations that represent a similar group of entities internationally or within an economy or region. These entities are associated with the programmes of IAF-AB Accreditation Body Members and fully support IAF-AB objectives.
Regional Accreditation Group Members

Regional Accreditation Group Members consist of associations of Accreditation Bodies, and possibly other bodies, that cooperate within an identified geographic region to establish and maintain a multilateral recognition agreement based on a peer evaluation system, and represent the interests of accredited entities, industry, users and similar organisations that engage in, are subject to, make use of, accept or rely on conformity assessment results from bodies accredited by Accreditation Body Members of IAF-AB, and which support the purpose of IAF-AB. Regional Accreditation Groups are invited to be represented in committees established to enhance cooperation between IAF-AB and the Regional Accreditation Groups.

Recognized Regional Accreditation Group
A Recognized Regional Accreditation Group is a Regional Accreditation Group that has been peer evaluated to confirm that its membership and MLA peer evaluation criteria and processes meet or exceed IAF-AB requirements.

IAF-AB also has non-Member Observers. In cases where the Board believes it is in the best interests of IAF-AB Members to develop closer relationships with a particular entity, the Board may grant Observer status to such an entity for a period not exceeding three years. Observers may be invited to attend IAF-AB meetings and/or participate in technical work in a manner determined by the Board, but are not be eligible to cast a vote on any matter put to the Members for resolution.

Q – How is the IAF-AB structured?

A – IAF-AB is an international association of organisations that work together to achieve common trade facilitation objectives. The terms of reference, tasks and duties of the Members, the Board of Directors, and the Secretary are defined by the Bylaws and the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

The highest level of authority in IAF-AB is the Members in a General Meeting. General Meetings make decisions and set policy on behalf of members. The Board is responsible for legal actions to be carried out on behalf of the members, for developing broad policy directions and for ensuring that the day-to-day work of IAF-AB is carried out in accordance with the approved policies.

The Executive Committee is responsible to the Board of Directors for the day-to-day work of IAF-AB based on decisions made by Members and directions from the Board of Directors.

The relationships between the various parts of the organisation of IAF-AB can be found in IAF-AB PL 5 which can be downloaded from the Policy Documents section of the site.

Q – What type of documents does IAF-AB publish?

A – IAF-AB publishes several documents to communicate policy decisions and rules, share best practices, and support accreditation body and conformity assessment body operations. These documents, which are under constant review, are core to the effective operation of IAF-AB, and support IAF-AB’s objective of certified once accepted everywhere.
All IAF-AB documents are clearly categorised depending on the nature or purpose of the document. Some contain mandatory requirements, however others are available for advisory or informative purposes.

The categories are as follows:

Policy Documents (PL Series): Policy documents set out the governance requirements that IAF-AB members are expected to follow, as well as the IAF-AB position on current issues.

Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) Documents – (ML Series): IAF-AB Guidance documents are based on the experience of accreditation bodies in applying the relevant ISO/IEC Guides in practice, and represent agreement among IAF-AB members on best practices in the application of those Guides. Accreditation bodies that are members of the MLA are required to adopt the IAF-AB Guidance as part of their general rules of operation.

IAF-AB Guidance Documents (GD Series): IAF-AB publishes guidance for the use of accreditation bodies when accrediting certification bodies to assure that they also operate their programmes in a consistent and equivalent manner.

IAF-AB Informative Documents (ID Series): Informative Documents reflect the consensus of IAF-AB members on a given subject and are intended to support the consistent application of requirements. As these documents are for information purposes only, accreditation body members, and the conformity assessment bodies they accredit, are not under any obligation to use or comply with these documents.

IAF-AB Mandatory Documents (MD Series): IAF-AB publishes Mandatory Documents which are required to be used by accreditation bodies when accrediting certification bodies to assure that they operate their programs in a consistent and equivalent manner. Mandatory documents are not intended to establish, interpret, subtract from or add to the requirements of any ISO/IEC Guide or Standard, but simply to assure consistent application of those Guides or Standards.

Procedures Documents (PR Series): IAF-AB Procedures documents set out the procedures to be followed in implementing the IAF-AB program, including the procedures and processes which must be followed in order to satisfy the IAF-AB Objectives, Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws.

IAF-AB-ILAC Joint Publications (A Series): This category includes documents that are published jointly with ILAC, and are used in the the evaluation of regions, and unaffiliated bodies.

Documents for General Information: IAF-AB publishes a number of documents which are made available to assist businesses, regulators and other parties gain a better understanding of IAF-AB and its operations.

Promotional Documents: IAF-AB publishes a range of promotional document for use by IAF-AB members, their accredited certification bodies and other stakeholders interested in accreditation.

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About Accreditation

Q – What is conformity assessment?

A – Conformity assessment is the demonstration that what is being supplied actually meets the requirements specified or claimed. Conformity assessment can be applied to a product or a service, a process, a system, an organisation or persons and includes activities such as testing, inspection, and certification.
Demonstrating compliance with standards and other criteria assumes greater importance to consumer confidence as products and services become increasingly technically complex. Conformity assessment is therefore an indispensable part of an economy’s business and standards and conformance infrastructure.

Q – What is accreditation?

A – Accreditation is the independent evaluation of certification bodies against recognised standards to ensure their impartiality and competence to carry out specific activities, such as tests, calibrations, inspections and certifications.
The IAF-AB operates in the fields of management systems, products, services, personnel and other similar programmes of conformity assessment, while laboratory and inspection accreditation is managed at the global level by the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC).

Through the application of national and international standards, government, procurers and consumers can therefore have confidence in the calibration and test results, inspection reports and certifications provided.

Accreditation bodies are established in many countries with the primary purpose of ensuring that certification bodies are subject to oversight by an authoritative body.

Q – What is an accreditation body?

A – An accreditation body is an authoritative body that performs accreditation. In some instances, its authority is derived from government.
Its primary function is to assess, against internationally agreed standards, organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services (collectively known as conformity assessment bodies). Accreditation demonstrates the competence, impartiality and performance capability of these organisations.

Accreditation bodies normally operate as non-profit distributing organisations.

The IAF-AB operates in the fields of management systems, products, services, personnel and other similar programmes of conformity assessment, while laboratory and inspection accreditation is managed at the global level by the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC).

Q – What is certification?

A – Certification is a “third-party attestation related to products, processes, systems or persons,” as defined by ISO/IEC 17000 Conformity Assessment—Vocabulary and General Principles.
Certification is most often associated with ISO 9001 and the environmental management systems standard ISO 14001. However, certification programs exist for a range of management systems standards, including the ISO/IEC 2700 program for information security management and the ISO 22000 program for food safety management.

Product certification is the process of verifying that a product, including services and processes, meet requirements specified in contracts, regulations, or specifications.

In most countries, accreditation is voluntary, however, many certification bodies choose to seek accreditation in order to demonstrate third-party confirmation of their competence.

Q – What are the expected outcomes for accredited certification to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001?

A – ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification are frequently used in both private and public sectors to
increase confidence in the products and services provided by organizations, between partners in business-to-business relations, in the selection of suppliers in supply chains and in the right to tender for procurement contracts.
IAF-AB and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) have jointly produced a concise statement of outcomes that are to be expected as a result of accredited certification to ISO 9001. The intent is to promote a common focus throughout the entire conformity assessment chain in order to achieve these expected outcomes and thereby enhance the value and relevance of accredited certification.

The following documents can be downloaded from Documents for General Information:

Expected Outcomes for Accredited Certification to ISO 9001

Expected Outcomes for Accredited Certification to ISO 14001