Jon Murthy, the ILAC and IAF Communications Chair, will be presenting at The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Working Party 6 on 30 November 2017. Working Party 6 works on Regulatory Cooperation & Standardization Policies to lower costs, facilitate trade & improve access to critical technologies, while protecting the health, safety of consumers, workers, & preserving our natural environment.

The session will provide an overview of how the activities of ILAC and IAF map to support the UN’s Goals and Targets of Agenda 2030 in the fields of clean energy, clean water and sanitation, health and wellbeing, industry, innovation and infrastructure. Further information is available in this UNIDO brochure on how accreditation supports these goals.

ILAC and IAF have developed initiatives to promote the adoption of standards and accreditation to help meet the 2030 targets. The Public Sector Assurance is a website developed by the global conformity assessment community to promote the use of standards and accreditation by Governments and Regulators. Business Benefits is a newly launched site that showcases the financial benefits for the business community. These sites showcase the evidence in the value of standards and accreditation, thereby providing the case for greater adoption, and in turn a greater likelihood in contributing to Agenda 2030. The session aims to reinforce this message and encourage regulators to make greater use of standards and accreditation to meet their policy goals.

ILAC and IAF have established a close relationship with UNECE WP6. Last year, ILAC and IAF provided comments to make reference to the global arrangements and national accreditation systems, which were included into UNECE’s trade recommendations. While these recommendations are not binding and do not aim at rigidly aligning technical regulations across countries, they are used to encourage policy makers to base their regulations on international standards to provide a common denominator to the norms that apply in different markets.

Recommendation F: Creation and Promotion of International Agreements on Conformity Assessment
Recommendation G: Acceptance of Conformity Assessment Results