World Accreditation Day is celebrated on 9 June 2024.

This year’s theme, ‘Accreditation: Empowering Tomorrow and Shaping the Future’, examines the impact of accreditation as digitalisation, new technologies and sustainability concerns continue to change our world.

Accreditation has been a key pillar of societal assurance for decades, and now underpins trust in almost every aspect of everyday life. Accredited conformity assessment can enable the development and adoption of new technologies, particularly in industries and supply chains where precision, safety and quality are critical. It can support cybersecurity and privacy in an increasingly connected world. As sustainability remains a major concern, accreditation can help consumers and businesses make informed decisions.

In each of these areas, mutual recognition arrangements such as the IAF Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) and the ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) play a vital role in helping businesses to transcend geographical borders and industry boundaries.

This year, we asked our network how they think accreditation empowers tomorrow and shapes the future.

We heard from a fellow accreditation body, conformity assessment scheme owners, and a certification body, as well as JASANZ’s own team members.

From providing the best possible audit practices, through to building trust and eliminating anti-competitive behaviour in the marketplace, accreditation plays a vital part in creating a better, more sustainable future.

“Accreditation empowers tomorrow and shapes the future by underpinning confidence in the implementation and use of new technologies through compliance with international and national standards of best practise,” said Jennifer Evans, NATA CEO.

And this is becoming even more significant in a world that is rapidly changing.

“[As technology changes], the standards and conformance infrastructure needs to keep up, ensuring that we continue to support trade through the development of innovative schemes that meet consumer needs and demands,” said Kylie Sheehan, JASANZ General Manager Operations.

“We need to work together to ensure accredited certification supports these goals into the future,” she said.