World Accreditation Day 2024

World Accreditation Day 2024 serves to show Accreditation: Empowering Tomorrow and Shaping the Future.

On 9 June each year, World Accreditation Day highlights the work that accreditation and conformity assessment does to improve so many aspects of life, whether for consumers, society as a whole, business or government.

Solutions to huge challenges facing the world are vital, challenges from sustainability to climate change and energy transformation, from AI to cyber security. The quality infrastructure, which includes standards developers, assurance and accreditation bodies, is striving to address these issues that will define the future.

As the 2024 World Accreditation Day video states, ‘Accreditation has been a key pillar of societal trust for decades and now underpins virtually every aspect of everyday life.’

Some of the issues that accredited conformity assessment is providing greater assistance with includes:

• supporting innovation and technical advancement
• enabling the development of new and digital technologies
• supporting a path to net zero
• supporting diversity and inclusion, promoting fair practices in organizations
• supporting the transformation to a circular economy
• enabling the transparent and ethical use of AI.

The Joint World Accreditation Day statement from the Chairs of the International Accreditation Forum and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation further details the role accreditation plays in helping all the transitions faced. This is expanded upon with a variety of examples in the 2024 World Accreditation Day brochure.

The joint statement concludes, ‘It’s important to note that these examples of change are only some of the wide range of changes that IAF, ILAC and accreditation are addressing. Priorities will continue to shift as new challenges and opportunities emerge, perhaps from changes not yet foreseeable. IAF and ILAC are confident that as the world continues to evolve, accreditation will continue to remain a steadfast foundation for progress, empowering businesses, protecting consumers and advancing global prosperity.’

Examples of the positive impact of accredited conformity assessment can be seen at publicsectorassurance.org and business-benefits.org

Further details of the wide range of assurance services IIOA members provide to empower tomorrow and share the future can be seen here.