SBS: World Accreditation Day ‒ June 2021 |17 June 2021
Accreditation: Supporting the implementation of the sustainable development goals
Wednesday June 9 was World Accreditation Day. The theme for this year’s World Accreditation Day (WAD) is ‘Accreditation: Supporting the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS)’. The theme highlights the role of accreditation in supporting the implementation of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
As the country’s representative of the Southern African Development Community (Technical Barriers to Trade Cooperation Structures (SADC TBT), the Seychelles Bureau of Standards (SBS), an entity of the Ministry of Investment, Entrepreneurship and Industry, was designated by the SADC Cooperation in Accreditation (SADCA) as the body to house the National Accreditation Focal Point (NAFP) for Seychelles.
NAP responsible for the coordination, administration, promotion and marketing of accreditation as well as the SADC Accreditation Service (SADCAS) at the national level.
The environment laboratory, food chemistry laboratory and the Calibration laboratory at the Seychelles Bureau of Standards and the drug quality control laboratory at the Health Care Agency are the current laboratory testing facilities that have been accredited for different scopes by SADCAS. The environment laboratory is accredited from the year 2012 for testing of seven potable water tests and from the year 2016 for testing of heavy metals in fish. The food chemistry laboratory is accredited from 2017 for testing of histamine in fish while the Calibration laboratory is accredited from the year 2011 for calibration of mass for the range 1g to 20kg.
The SBS testing laboratories were re-assessed (virtual) by SADCAS assessors from May 31 to June 2, 2021 for continued accreditation to the ISO/IEC 17025: 2017 - General Requirements for the Competence of Testing and Calibration Laboratories which is an international standard developed by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and International Electro-technical Commission (IEC). The assessment team recommended continued accreditation for the eleven accredited tests and recommended approval for five technical signatories and one nominated representative subject to approval by the approvals committee of the SADCAS which is the normal practice. The tests accredited are of great assistance to the fish industry as both competent authorities ‒ fish inspection, and quality control unit ‒ and the fish industries are making use of the testing facilities at the Seychelles Bureau of Standards for the export of fish and fish products. The laboratories at the SBS are the only testing laboratories in the country accredited for testing of heavy metals and histamine in fish and for seven tests in potable water.
ILAC/IAF partnership
The International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) have maintained a close strategic partnership and technical cooperation with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as it recognises the important role that accreditation plays in the achievement of the sustainable development agenda and its impact on industrial development and economic growth.
Accreditation, in collaboration with other quality infrastructure institutions, provides the technical foundations that are critical to the functioning of developed and developing societies. It enables industrial development, trade competitiveness in global markets, efficient use of natural and human resources, food safety, and health and environmental protection.
The SDGs are at the core of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a
broad and ambitious plan of action with the overarching objective of leaving no one behind. The UN’s SDGs represent a blueprint for achieving a better and more sustainable future. These SDGs address global challenges including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, and justice.
There are 17 SDGs with 169 associated targets which seek to guide all global, regional and national development endeavors. Accreditation and, with its other quality infrastructure (QI) institutions including metrology, standardisation, conformity assessment and market surveillance, is a critical cornerstone in supporting the SDGs and the three interrelated thematic priorities: creating shared prosperity, advancing economic competitiveness and safeguarding the environment.
The technical and operational foundations that are critical to the functioning of developed and developing societies are delivered through accreditation. Accreditation supports policy objectives in areas including cross-border trade, food safety, health and environmental protection, and industrial and infrastructural development. Accreditation provides a trusted platform for defining, developing and verifying requirements for products and services, helping to ensure and demonstrate that products and services meet specified requirements. It also provides policymakers, businesses and other stakeholders with the technical knowledge and capacity to strengthen the implementation, measurement and monitoring of many of the objectives and targets contained in the SDGs, and support to achieve them.
While there have been a number of successes around the world, the theme of this year’s World Accreditation Day 2021 has been chosen to ensure that policymakers continue to use accreditation and QI services to support their SDG Agenda. World Accreditation Day provides the opportunity for ILAC and IAF members to share examples of how accreditation may be applied to meet objectives such as increasing trade, addressing health and safety concerns, and improving the general overall quality of output in an economy. The theme can also act as a trigger for evolution, and to ensure that accreditation continues to be relevant in the face of ever more rapid technological innovations, the impact of the 4th Industrial Revolution and the threats posed by climate change, pollution, and the diminution of resources.
Resources such as www.business-benefits.org and http://www.publicsectorassurance.org/ will support events, press and television coverage, and workshops and seminars taking place in conjunction with the celebration of World Accreditation Day in over 100 economies to raise awareness of the value that accreditation plays in supporting the implementation of the SDGs. World Accreditation Day 2021 enables the IAF (www.iaf.nu), the ILAC (www.ilac.org) and their members to highlight the role of accreditation in supporting the implementation of SDGs.
Southern African Development Community Accreditation Service
The Southern African Development Community Accreditation Service (SADCAS) is a multi-economy accreditation body established in terms of Article 15 B of the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Annex to the SADC Protocol on Trade with the primary purpose of ensuring that conformity assessment service providers operating in those SADC member states which do not have national accreditation bodies are subject to an oversight by an authoritative body. Typically, in the developed world, each country has its own accreditation body but within the SADC region considering the cost of establishing and sustaining such a body and further taking into account the limited financial and human resources, the region decided to establish one accreditation body which services the accreditation needs of a number of countries. Over the years, SADCAS, the first multi economy accreditation body in the world, has proved to be a viable, cost effective and sustainable model which optimises limited financial and human resources. A number of other regions in the world such as the Gulf region, Economic Community of West African States (UEMOA), have benchmarked on the “home grown” SADCAS model, a concept developed by a group of experts from the SADC region.
SADCAS services the accreditation needs of 14 SADC member states namely: Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. SADCAS provides accreditation services to organisations that perform calibration, testing including medical testing, inspection, certification (personnel, product and management systems) and those that provide legal metrology services against international standards. SADCAS will broaden its scope of accreditation as needs arise. SADCAS also offers training services on accreditation related activities. Seven (7) out of nine (9) accreditation schemes offered by SADCAS are internationally recognised.
Hence the accreditation certificates issued by SADCAS for testing/calibration/medical laboratories, inspection bodies and management systems certification bodies’ accreditation schemes and the sub-scopes quality/environmental/occupational health and safety managements systems are recognised worldwide thus removing the need for repetitive conformity assessment checks. Effectively this means that through internationally recognised accreditation SADC member states serviced by SADCAS have better access to foreign markets – A truly global reach!
For more information, please visit the SADCAS website www.sadcas.org OR Contact the National Accreditation Focal Point in Seychelles based at Seychelles Bureau of Standards.
Accreditation body SADCAS carries out Initial assessment before granting accreditation when it is first time accreditation, carries out periodic on-site assessment every year until the fifth year to grant continued accreditation and re-assessment every five years and issue new accreditation certificate for another five years.
Drug Quality Control Laboratory (DQCL) achieved accreditation
The Drug Quality Control Laboratory under the Health Care Agency was accredited in March 2021 for the “Chemical analysis – pharmaceuticals”. This year’s accreditation of the ‘Drug Quality Control Laboratory’ (DQCL) is a great achievement for the Health Care Agency and that of the country. Seychelles currently ranked as the eighth Accredited Pharmaceutical Quality Control Laboratory in the African Union and third in the SADC region. Being an accredited laboratory now, DQCL can provide consistent service with minimal or no errors.
As Seychelles imports almost 100% pharmaceutical products and if the country happens to encounter an out-of-specification or substandard or falsified medicines, DCQL (Seychelles) can report it to the manufacturer or supplier and be acknowledged for the investigation, rather than being taken up to task.
The parameters accredited by both SBS and DQCL will support the implementation of the following sustainable development Goals:-
DQCL - SDG 3 – Good Health and Well-Being, SBS – SDG 6 – Clean Water and Sanitations, and SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and production.
Contributed by SBS
