Supporting Materials

Strategic Roadmap for the Quality Infrastructure of the Americas launched

A Strategic Roadmap for the Quality Infrastructure of the Americas was launched at the Joint General Assembly of ILAC and IAF which supports their common goal – ‘tested, inspected or certified once and accepted everywhere’.

The Roadmap, funded by the Spanish contribution to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Trade Trust Fund, provides a high-level overview of the key topics that need to be addressed in order to leverage the collaborations between regional standards, metrology and accreditation organizations and their constituent members. This will support inclusive and sustainable industrial development, specifically, intra and inter-regional trade.

This initiative to develop a high-level strategic roadmap for Quality Infrastructure (QI) development and improvement in the Americas was conceived during the UNIDO General Conference in 2013, under the leadership of three main regional entities, namely COPANT (Standards), SIM (Metrology) and IAAC (Accreditation). Subsequently, in 2014, the three entities created the Quality Infrastructure Council of the Americas (QICA), established to provide and promote effective deployment of QI in the Americas, as well as collaboration between national and regional initiatives.

The Roadmap proposes five steps to provide a systematic and efficient approach to QI development in line with national and regional needs. This Roadmap should be considered as an evolving planning tool that is to be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect changing priorities, environment, contexts and the emergence of new challenges and opportunities.

Further information is available on the UNIDO website.