The inaugural Southern African Development Community Cooperation in Accreditation (SADCA) Regional World Accreditation Day (WAD) was successfully celebrated virtually on the 9^th June 2022 under the theme: Accreditation: Sustainability in Economic Growth and the Environment. The theme highlights how accreditation supports 9 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the provision of a trusted platform for defining, developing and verifying requirements for products and services while helping to ensure and demonstrate that products and services meet specified requirements.

The SADCA Regional WAD workshop was attended by more than 170 participants from various backgrounds including the public and private sectors, SADCA members, conformity assessment bodies, and several associations within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.

In his capacity as the SADCA Marketing and Communications Committee (MCC) Chair and the Master of Ceremonies for the event, Mr Edward Mmatli, introduced the presenters while SADCA Chair, Mr. Chankar Beekhun gave the welcome remarks.

The following presentations were given during the workshop:

• Benefits and importance of the SADCA MRA by Mr Xavier Mugari, SADCA MCC Vice Chair;
• Accreditation and Environmental sustainability by Mr. Shadrack Phophi, SANAS Accreditation Manager: testing Laboratories & GLP/GCP;
• Accreditation: A route to protect the environment by ensuring compliance with standards by Ms. Pinkie Malebe, SADCAS Technical Manager;
• How Accreditation has ensured sustainable economic growth and environment in Mauritius over the years by Mr. Robin Gopee, MAURITAS Director and Ms. Cheeshta Matadeen-Domum, MAURITAS Assistant Accreditation Manager; and
• Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) by Mr, John Ndalamo, SANAS Accreditation Manager.

Presentations were followed by a screening of a video produced by ILAC and IAF entitled, “Accreditation: Sustainability in Economic Growth and Environment”. The audience posted comments and questions which were promptly addressed by the organisers and presenters, making for an interactive and engaging webinar experience. Ms. Tshenolo Molamu, SADCA MCC Vice Chair, gave the closing remarks. Various WAD promotional materials that were developed by ILAC and IAF were utilised during the preparation of the event.   It is hoped that following the successful regional World Accreditation celebration, SADCA would continue to organise the regional WAD event in future over and above the celebrations that are expected to be held at national level.

SADCA is a cooperation of accreditation bodies in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. It is a Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Cooperation Structure established under the TBT Annex to the SADC Protocol on Trade. SADCA currently comprises of a total of 21 Members covering 15 out of the 16 SADC Member States:

• 3 Arrangement Members namely: MAURITAS (Mauritius); SANAS (South Africa); and SADCAS a multi economy accreditation body servicing the accreditation needs of 14 SADC Member States);
• 13 Ordinary Members; and
• 5 Stakeholder Members.

SADCA’s mission is to manage and expand accreditation recognition arrangements that support SADC industrialisation, facilitate trade and regional integration through credible, reliable and sustainable conformity assessment services that will contribute to the SADC region’s sustainable development.