AFRAC HOLDS TRAINING WORKSHOP ON DECISION MAKING INCLUDING THE ROLE OF THE TASK FORCE GROUP

The African Cooperation in Accreditation (AFRAC) recently organised and conducted a virtual training workshop Decision Making Including the Role of Task Force Groups (TFG). The workshop, sponsored by PTB Germany, was held over two half-days on 14 and 15 January 2025. It was attended by a total of thirty (30) participants drawn from AFRAC and Southern African Development Community cooperation in Accreditation (SADCA) MRA Committee and Council members, peer evaluators, trainee peer evaluators and TFG members.

 

Participants during training

 

AFRAC is a cooperation of accreditation bodies (national and multi-economy), National Accreditation Focal Points (NAFP), sub-regional accreditation cooperations and stakeholders. The objective of AFRAC is to provide internationally recognised and accepted accreditation support to industry and to contribute to the protection of health and safety of the public and the protection of the environment, thereby facilitating trade and contributing to the improvement of Africa’s competitiveness within the global market.  The AFRAC MRA Committee plan and manage the implementation and maintenance of AFRAC’s MRA. Peer evaluations are undertaken by a pool of qualified and registered peer evaluators. Decisions on and management of membership in the MRA is the responsibility of the MRA Council. The AFRAC MRA Committee and Council membership has been changing over the years with new members being admitted. Peer evaluators are also continually being trained, qualified, upgraded and registered.

The last training on AFRAC Decision Making Process was held on 6 July 2023. However, some new members of the MRA Committee/Council peer evaluators and trainee peer evaluators have not yet been trained. AFRAC-related documents are continuously being revised/developed. All those involved are required to be fully aware of the decision-making process and follow it consistently at all times. It is for this reason that AFRAC arranged the January workshop.

The Training workshop which was facilitated by Mrs. Maureen P Mutasa was opened by the AFRAC Secretariat, Ms. Fikile Skosana who welcomed the participants, wished them a successful workshop and declared the training workshop open. The Facilitator, welcomed participants from both AFRAC and SADCA, introduced herself and gave background to the training workshop. She then asked participants to introduce themselves outlining their name, position in AFRAC/SADCA, name of accreditation body and position in accreditation body (AB). She informed participants about the objective of the training workshop, which was to impart knowledge on decision-making processes regarding evaluations of an AB including the role of the TFG, and to exchange experiences and knowledge through group discussions, so as to ensure consistent and harmonised decision making.

In her opening remarks the Facilitator thanked PTB Germany for sponsoring the training, the AFRAC Secretariat for her engagement and more importantly the opportunity to share knowledge and experiences, noting that the Facilitator was the immediate past AFRAC MRA Council chair, MRA Committee member and also served on the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) decision making body on evaluations IAF Multilateral Arrangement Committee (MLAC) amongst many other positions in AFRAC, SADCA, IAF and ILAC.

The Facilitator started the workshop by giving an overview of the AFRAC peer evaluation process, highlighting the relevant evaluation documents, some of which had been revised since the last training, the purpose of evaluations, the stages in the evaluation process, establishment of a TFG, consideration of the final evaluation report, and TFG summary review before submission to the MRA Council for decision making.

After the break, the Facilitator presented the terms of reference of the MRA Council covering the functions, composition, responsibilities, meetings and voting rights of MRA Council members. She then outlined the decision-making process, highlighting the role of all the players in this process. Time was spent on the competences and role of the TFG. The Facilitator then walked participants through F017: TFG Evaluation Summary Report and Recommendations to the MRA Council. She outlined all the 10 sections of F 017 and what information was to be completed under each section.

On Day 2 the Facilitator started by presenting two examples of duly completed F 017, highlighting the comments made, collaborations of the TFG with the Evaluation Team and the AB, and the recommendations. She recapped on the subjects covered on Day 1 of the workshop. She also explained classification and closing of findings from evaluations, which members should have a good understanding of, as this is an aspect for consideration in reviewing final evaluation report. She outlined the decision-making process and how, through the process as outlined in AFRAC M001, the MRA Council ensures fair, professional and impartial decisions. The documents for review by the MRA Council in the decision-making process were laid out as were the stages leading to the decisions. The timelines for the processes were highlighted, to ensure timely decisions. The Facilitator also covered the hierarchy of decisions on new applicant AB and MRA signatories, including reasons for and consequences of suspensions/withdrawal.  Decisions on joint evaluations were also covered in detail.

Throughout the workshop the participants asked many questions and made numerous comments which were discussed by the group, drawing on the experiences of some of the participants. Areas of improvement to the MRA processes were identified. The interactions throughout the training workshop were very.

Based on feedback from the participants the overall feedback was that the workshop was well planned, organised and presented, and the content was very relevant. Training materials were circulated by the AFRAC Secretariat to all participants and those who were unable to attend the