The CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ) joins with other organisations in over ninety countries to celebrate World Accreditation Day on June 09, 2014. The theme for this year is Accreditation: Delivering confidence in the provision of energy. Accreditation is the independent assessment of bodies performing activities such as testing, calibration, inspection or certification against internationally recognised standards to ensure their competence, integrity and impartiality to perform these activities. This year’s theme is relevant as we in the Caribbean continue to make strides in developing our renewable energy capacity in areas such as hydropower, wind, solar and geothermal energies in an effort to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. It is therefore paramount that as capacity is built in these areas, systems be put in place to ensure the performance, safety and environmental friendliness of products being offered. Accreditation of the facilities whether laboratories, inspection bodies or certification bodies, that assess such products brings about that assurance.
World Accreditation Day was established as a global initiative by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) to raise awareness of the importance of Accreditation and related activities. Accreditation bodies around the world are members of ILAC and/or IAF. Multilateral arrangements are established between members through evaluations and acceptance of members’ accreditation systems. This facilitates world trade through the international acceptance of accredited testing, calibration, inspection and certification results. The acceptance of products and services across national borders is increased by these arrangements since the need for them to undergo additional tests, inspections or certification at each country of entry is reduced.
Within the region, the Caribbean Cooperation for Accreditation (CCA) Scheme is an arrangement that facilitates the provision of economical, accessible, internationally recognised Accreditation services by the Trinidad and Tobago Laboratory Accreditation Service (TTLABS) and the Jamaica National Agency for Accreditation (JANAAC). The Vision of the CCA Scheme is “To be the Caribbean’s premier arrangement ensuring a world class suite of internationally recognised accreditation and related services that meet the needs and priorities of our member countries”. Currently, JANAAC recently signed on to the ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) in October 2013 for the scope of testing laboratories. TTLABS continues to move steadily towards signing on to this agreement for testing and medical laboratories. As part of the CCA Scheme, National Standards Bureaux are identified as National Accreditation Focal Points (NAFPs). The NAFP is an in-country resource on accreditation related matters. The NAFP serves as a link to the Accreditation Bodies and the CROSQ Secretariat. NAFPs also assist in building the capacity of Conformity Assessment Bodies towards achieving accreditation.
