The Southern African Development Community Cooperation in Accreditation (SADCA) is a Cooperation of accreditation bodies in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. SADCA is a Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Cooperation Structure established under the TBT Annex to the SADC Protocol on Trade. SANAS has a mandate to provide an internationally recognised accreditation infrastructure. SANAS provides the Secretariat and Regional Coordinator function of SADCA. The current SADCA Secretariat is Fikile Skosana and the Regional Coordinator is Yolanda Vinnicombe.

SADCA held its virtual Committee Meetings from 4 – 8 March 2024 and the Executive Committee on 12 March 2024. Following the Committee meetings the 28th SADCA General Assembly meeting was held on 14 March 2024 at the Skyna Hotel in Luanda, Angola face-to-face and included facilities for members and stakeholders who were not able to travel to attend remotely via Zoom. The SADCA GA meeting was held as part of the 39th Southern African Development Community (SADC) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Cooperation Structures Annual meetings.

The abovementioned meetings included meetings of the following committees SADCA Evaluators Working Group (EWG), Technical Committee (TC), TC Sub-Committees (Certification and the Calibration and Testing Sub-Committees) Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) Committee, MRA Council, Marketing and Communication Committee (MCC), Committees: Executive Committee (EXCO), and the General Assembly (GA). Many recommendations and decisions/resolutions were taken at the meetings, with the following being highlighted for the interest to SANAS, CABs and stakeholders.

Developments to take note of:

The SADCA EWG held on Tuesday 5 March, SADCA MRA Committee held on Wednesday 6 March and the SADCA MRA Council held on Thursday 7 March resulted in the following main resolutions:

• Confirmation of competencies of 5 SADCA Peer Evaluators / Trainee evaluators and Mr Chankar Bheekhun (MAURITAS) as SADCA Team Leader;
• A workshop / training for evaluators and ABs on “the analysis of the extent and impact of findings raised during an evaluation” as required by IAF/ILAC A3, as well as the timelines to be met for responding to findings will be held in mid-2024.
• Registration of 3 candidates as SADCA trainee evaluators: Mr Thabo Chesalokile (SANAS), Ms Mookho Morienyane (SANAS) and Ms Varsh Gungoa (SADCAS);
• Appointment of additional SADCA representatives to the IAF / ILAC meetings: Mr Edward Mmatli (Botswana NAFP): Communication Professionals Meeting; Mr Victor Mundembe (SADCAS): IAF Database Management Committee (DMC) and IAF WG Digital; Mr John Ndalamo: IAF WG MS Certification (ISO/IEC 17021);
• Appreciation to Ms Pinkie Malebe (SADCAS) for her role and significant contributions as MRA Committee Vice-Chair since March 2018, the term of which has now expired.
• The MRA Committee achieved 94% of its 2023 Workplan activities.
• The SADCA A019 “MRA Council Terms of Reference” will be amended to include a clause for consideration of any regional integration matters affecting the SADCA MRA that are brought to the attention of the Council, and furthermore to include reference to AFRAC resolutions relevant to the SADCA MRA.
• A small Working Group consisting of the MRA Committee and/or Technical Committee will be stablished to consider any national or regional scopes related to capital goods and services, that SADCA can consider extending its scope into; and
• The Council recommended that AFRAC consider scopes/sub-scopes for automobiles as part of the AfCFTA priority areas.

The SADCA TC Sub-Committees held on Monday 4 March and the SADCA TC held on Wednesday 6 March resulted in the following main resolutions:

• Approval of the 2024 workplans of the Certification Sub-Committee and the 2024 Workplan of the Calibration and Testing Sub-Committee.
• Appointment of Gloria Mareka – (Malawi Bureau of Standards) as the Certification Sub-Committee Chair for a four-year term in line with the Sub-Committee Terms of references.
• The TC achieved 89% of its 2023 Workplan activities.
• Encouragement of SADCA members and Stakeholders to participate on the national mirror committees for the revision of the following accreditation related standards which are currently under revision:

• • ISO/IEC 17065;
  • ISO/IEC 17024;
  • ISO/IEC 17067; and
  • ISO/IEC 17012.

The SADCA MCC held on Tuesday 5 March resulted in the following main resolutions:

• Approval of a project plan for the 2024 SADCA Regional World Accreditation Day (WAD) celebration that will be undertake on 14 June 2024 virtually. All SADC member state members are invited along with their stakeholders. The celebration invite and registration details will be circulated to all in due course.
• Members were advised if the 2024 WAD theme and encouraged to celebrate the day in line with the World Accreditation Day theme on or around 9 June 2024 Accreditation: “Empowering Tomorrow and Shaping the Future”
• The MCC achieved 80% of its 2023 Workplan activities.

The SADCA EXCO held on 22 January 2023 in preparation of the annual meetings and again on Tuesday 12 March resulted in the following main resolutions:

• Plan for the GA meeting and certificate ceremony for members who contributed towards the achievement of international recognition of SADCA by ILAC and IAF.
• Approval of various documents which will be published on the SADCA website
• Reviewed and approved the 2023 SADCA Management Review report and proposed approval of the 2023 SADCA Annual Report which was compiled by Fikile Skosana (SANAS) and edited by Yolanda Vinnicombe(SANAS), Chankar Bheekhum (MAURITAS, Edward Mmatli (Botswana – NAFP) and Dr Ron Josias. which will be published on the SADCA website shortly.
• The 2024 SADAC EXCO workplan which is aligned to the SADCA 2022 – 2026 Strategic Plan was finalised and presented to eth GA.

The 28th SADCA General Assembly meeting was held on 14 March 2024 and attended by SADCA Members, Stakeholders and delegates from the SADC Region who have an interests in accreditation matters. During the General Assembly meeting the various SADCA documents were approved as well as the 2023 SADCA Annual Report, and Committees 2024 Work plans. All documents approved will be published on the SADCA website. Zambia was re-admitted as a SADCA Ordinary member following the review and approval of their membership application. The meeting received verbal reports form members states on accreditation activities undertaken during the period under review (Jan – Dec 2023). The GA expressed appreciation to the Government of the Republic of Angola and the SADC Secretariat for the excellent arrangements in hosting the hybrid SADCA GA meeting in Luanda, Angola.

Elections were held during the General Assembly Meeting for the following Office Bearers:

• Dr Ron Josias – was re-elected as the SADCA MRA Council Chair or a term of three years;
• Mr Xavier Mugari – Southern African Development Community Accreditation Service (SADCAS) was re-elected as the SADCA MRA Council Vice Chair for a term of three years;
• Mrs Yolanda Vinnicombe– SANAS was re-elected as the SADCA MRA Committee Chair or a term of three years;
• Ms Eve Gadzikwa– SADCAS was elected as the SADCA MRA Committee Vice-Chair or a term of three years;
• Mr Letoke Mahlase – SANAS was re-elected as the Technical Committee Chair for a term of three years; and
• Mr Victor Mundembe –SADCAS was re-elected as the Technical Committee Vice Chair for a term of three years.

Upcoming SADCA meetings

The next SADCA Executive Committee Meeting will be held in December 2024 – venue to be confirmed
The 29th SADCA General Assembly and Meetings will be held in March 2025 in Zimbabwe.

Fikile Skosana