ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification are frequently used in both private and public sectors to increase confidence in the products and services provided by organizations, between partners in business-to-business relations, in the selection of suppliers in supply chains and in the right to tender for procurement contracts.
IAF and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) have jointly produced a concise statement of outcomes that are to be expected as a result of accredited certification to ISO management system standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. The intent is to promote a common focus throughout the entire conformity assessment chain in order to achieve these expected outcomes and thereby enhance the value and relevance of accredited certification.
The following document can be downloaded from Documents for General Information:
Expected Outcomes for Accredited Certification to ISO Management System Standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001
Certification is a “third-party attestation related to products, processes, systems or persons,” as defined by ISO/IEC 17000 Conformity Assessment—Vocabulary and General Principles.
Certification is most often associated with ISO 9001 and the environmental management systems standard ISO 14001. However, certification programs exist for a range of management systems standards, including the ISO/IEC 27001 program for information security management, the ISO 22000 program for food safety management, the ISO 50001 program for energy management, and the ISO 45001 program for occupational health and safety management.
Organizations may also be certified for private sector schemes, such as FAMI-QS, FSSC 22000, IPC Management System Auditors, ICAO CORSIA or GLOBALG.A.P. IFA.
Product certification is the process of verifying that a product, including services and processes, meet requirements specified in contracts, regulations, or specifications.
Personnel certification is the process of confirming that an individual has the necessary experience, knowledge, skills or other attributes to fulfil requirements.
In most countries, accreditation is voluntary, however, many certification bodies choose to seek accreditation in order to demonstrate third-party confirmation of their competence.
An organisation that provides certification, testing, calibration, inspection and other conformity assessment services can seek accreditation. An accredited body has demonstrated that it fully meets the requirements of relevant national and international standards.
The criteria for determining a certification body’s competence are based on the relevant national or international standard (such as ISO/IEC 17024, ISO/IEC 17065, ISO/IEC 17021) and include: the qualifications required, knowledge and skills, training and experience of staff; appropriate equipment that is properly calibrated and maintained; adequate quality assurance procedures; and appropriate sampling practices.
Accredited bodies can be private or government owned, and can range in size from sole traders to large multi-disciplinary, multi-site organisations.
The IAF operates in the fields of management systems, products, processes, services, personnel, validation and verification and other similar programmes of conformity assessment, while laboratory and inspection accreditation is managed at the global level by the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC).
An accreditation body is an authoritative body that performs accreditation. In some instances, its authority is derived from government.
Its primary function is to assess, against internationally agreed standards, organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services (collectively known as conformity assessment bodies). Accreditation demonstrates the competence, impartiality and performance capability of these organisations.
Accreditation bodies normally operate as non-profit distributing organisations.
The IAF operates in the fields of management systems, products, services, personnel and other similar programmes of conformity assessment, while laboratory and inspection accreditation is managed at the global level by the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC).
Accreditation is the independent evaluation of conformity assessment bodies against recognised standards to ensure their impartiality and competence to carry out specific activities, such as tests, calibrations, inspections and certifications.
The IAF operates in the fields of management systems, products, processes, services, personnel, validation and verification and other similar programmes of conformity assessment, while laboratory and inspection accreditation is managed at the global level by the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC).
Through the application of national and international standards, government, procurers and consumers can therefore have confidence in the calibration and test results, inspection reports, certifications and validation and verification statements provided.
Accreditation bodies are established in many countries with the primary purpose of ensuring that conformity assessment bodies are subject to oversight by an authoritative body.
Conformity assessment is the demonstration that what is being supplied actually meets the requirements specified or claimed. Conformity assessment can be applied to a product or a service, a process, a system, an organisation or persons and includes activities such as testing, inspection, and certification.
Demonstrating compliance with standards and other criteria assumes greater importance to consumer confidence as products and services become increasingly technically complex. Conformity assessment is therefore an indispensable part of an economy’s business and standards and conformance infrastructure.
IAF publishes a number of documents to communicate policy decisions and rules, share best practices, and support accreditation body and conformity assessment body operations. These documents, which are under constant review, are core to the effective operation of IAF, and support IAF’s objective of accredited once accepted everywhere.
All IAF documents are clearly categorised depending on the nature or purpose of the document. Some contain mandatory requirements, however others are available for advisory or informative purposes.
The categories are as follows:
Policy Documents (PL Series): Policy documents set out the governance requirements that IAF Members are expected to follow, as well as the IAF position on current issues.
Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) Documents – (ML Series): In order to ensure that the various accreditation programs in the IAF MLA are operated in an equivalent and harmonized way worldwide, IAF issues documents that need to be followed by IAF Members. Such IAF documents are based on the experience of IAF Members and represent agreement among IAF Members on best practice in the application of requirements.
IAF Informative Documents (ID Series): Informative Documents reflect the consensus of IAF Members on a given subject and are intended to support the consistent application of requirements. As these documents are for information purposes only, Accreditation Body Members, and the conformity assessment bodies they accredit, are not under any obligation to use or comply with these documents.
IAF Mandatory Documents (MD Series): IAF publishes Mandatory Documents which are required to be used by accreditation bodies when accrediting certification bodies to assure that they operate their programs in a consistent and equivalent manner. Mandatory documents are not intended to establish, interpret, subtract from or add to the requirements of any ISO/IEC standard, but simply to assure consistent application of those standards.
Procedures Documents (PR Series): IAF Procedures documents set out the procedures to be followed in implementing the IAF program, including the procedures and processes which must be followed in order to satisfy the IAF objectives, Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws.
IAF-ILAC Joint Publications (A Series): This category includes documents that are published jointly with ILAC, and are used in the evaluation of regions and unaffiliated accreditation bodies.
Documents for General Information: IAF publishes a number of documents which are made available to assist businesses, regulators and other parties to gain a better understanding of IAF and its operations.
Promotional Documents: IAF publishes a range of promotional documents for use by IAF Members, their accredited conformity assessment bodies and other stakeholders interested in accreditation.
IAF is an international association of organisations that work together to achieve common trade facilitation objectives. The terms of reference, tasks and duties of the Members, the Board of Directors, and the Secretary are defined by the Bylaws and the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
The highest level of authority in IAF is the Members in a General Assembly. General Assemblies make decisions and set policy on behalf of IAF Members. The Board is responsible for legal actions to be carried out on behalf of IAF Members, for developing broad policy directions and for ensuring that the day-to-day work of IAF is carried out in accordance with the approved policies.
The Executive Committee is responsible to the Board of Directors for the day-to-day work of IAF based on decisions made by IAF Members and directions from the Board of Directors.
The relationships between the various parts of IAF can be found in IAF PL 5 which can be downloaded from the Policy Documents section of the site.
There are three different categories of IAF membership:
IAF Members that are not yet signatories
Membership of IAF is open to accreditation bodies that conduct and administer programmes by which they accredit bodies for validation/verification or certification of management systems, products, processes, services, personnel and other programmes of conformity assessment. When an accreditaiton body first joins IAF, it signs a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to receive a basic level of membership (MoU membership). This basic membership does not mean that an accreditation body is a signatory to the IAF Multilateral Recognition Agreement (MLA). Upon joining IAF, accreditation bodies must declare their intention to join the IAF MLA recognising the equivalence of other Members’ accreditations to their own.
IAF MLA Signatories
Accreditation Body Members of IAF achieve IAF MLA Signatory status after a full evaluation of their operations by a peer evaluation team, which is tasked to ensure that the applicant complies fully with both international standards and IAF documents. Once an accreditation body is a signatory of the IAF MLA, it is required to recognise and promote certificates and validation and verification statements issued by conformity assessment bodies accredited by all other signatories within the scope of the IAF MLA.
Association Members are organisations or associations that represent a similar group of entities internationally or within an economy or region. These entities are associated with the programmes of IAF Accreditation Body Members and fully support IAF objectives.
Regional Accreditation Group Members consist of associations of accreditation bodies, and possibly other bodies, that cooperate within an identified geographic region to establish and maintain a multilateral recognition agreement based on a peer evaluation system, and represent the interests of accredited entities, industry, users and similar organisations that engage in, are subject to, make use of, accept or rely on conformity assessment results from bodies accredited by Accreditation Body Members of IAF, and which support the purpose of IAF. Regional Accreditation Groups are invited to be represented in committees established to enhance cooperation between IAF and the Regional Accreditation Groups.
Recognized Regional Accreditation Group
A Recognized Regional Accreditation Group is a Regional Accreditation Group that has been peer evaluated to confirm that its membership and MLA peer evaluation criteria and processes meet or exceed IAF requirements.
IAF also has non-Member Observers. In cases where the Board believes it is in the best interests of IAF Members to develop closer relationships with a particular entity, the Board may grant Observer status to such an entity for a period not exceeding three years. Observers may be invited to attend IAF meetings and/or participate in technical work in a manner determined by the Board, but are not be eligible to cast a vote on any matter put to the Members for resolution.
More information can be obtained from Section 3.01 of the IAF Bylaws.
IAF is a global network of accreditation bodies and other organisations involved in conformity assessment activities. Its key roles include:
Yes, IAF has released a statement at the following link: https://iaf.nu/en/news/additional-statement-regarding-sanctions-relating-to-the-situation-in-ukraine/.
Additional details on how the statement should be applied are available below.
IAF members; ABs and Association members should make sure their entity (e.g. scheme owner, industry group),
– is not affiliated with an entity covered by sanction/s (e.g. ownership)
– members are not sanctioned (themselves) or affiliated with an entity covered by sanction/s (e.g. ownership)
– members are not providing services to an entity covered by sanction/s.
If it is discovered there is activity with an entity covered by sanctions, then immediate action would need to be taken to disassociate from that entity.
Activities include accredited services provided by CABs that may be sanctioned (themselves) or affiliated/associated with an entity covered under sanctions (CAB’s owner, etc.).
The activities also include certified CAB clients that are covered under sanctions. Which means; a certified entity, itself, is sanctioned or affiliated/associated with an entity covered under sanctions (entity’s owner, etc.).
IAF members are expected to manage the impact of sanctions within their own organization and with their accredited CABs, which typically will include informing them to abide by the (US, national, regional and international) sanctions and/or communicating any IAF notification to them.
There are various websites which can be used to search for sanctioned entities, e.g. for the US sanctions https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/ or for European Union sanctions https://www.sanctionsmap.eu/.
IAF is not requiring or recommending one tool/source over another and IAF members are encouraged to check with “relevant authorities” in the economy where established and/or are operating.
An importer is in violation of sanctions if they import products covered by sanctions or import products produced from an entity covered by sanctions.
The importer would not be considered a sanctioned entity; but they would be considered violating sanctions.
If a company produces goods that are subject to an import ban, then that company has violated sanctions.
Yes, the statement issued by IAF in May 2022 remains effective as the IAF Code of Conduct includes “An IAF member shall comply with applicable laws and regulations both domestic and international, and all IAF members shall act honestly, in good faith and in the best interests of IAF, not engaging in conduct likely to bring discredit upon IAF”, and while the statement was issued due to the situation in Ukraine, the statement was reminding Members of the existing IAF Code of Conduct.
The new single international accreditation organisation, Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated is the international organisation of accreditation bodies, stakeholders, and regional cooperation bodies. It is registered in New Zealand as a Not-For-Profit, Incorporated Society.
Last Update: October 10, 2025.
Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated will develop its vision, mission, and strategic plan with input from its members when it becomes fully operational in January 2026.
Last Update: September 15, 2025.
Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated is governed by its Constitution (GOV-001), General Rules (GOV-002), and Code of Conduct (GOV-003), and other procedural documents. These key documents establish the objectives, membership requirements and obligations, general assembly, executive committee, committees and organisational structure, general rules, and members’ codes of conduct.
Last Update: September 30, 2025.
The decision to establish a new international organisation, Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated, was made after years of strategic planning and consultation between the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC). It also is the natural progression with key joint activities already in place, such as the Joint General Assembly, Joint Executive Committee, Joint Management Committee for both the ILAC MRA and IAF MLA, Joint Working Group Communications, Joint A Series documents and joint meetings.
In 2019, the 19th IAF-ILAC Joint General Assembly held in Frankfurt adopted two resolutions:
In October 2024, at the 22nd Joint IAF and ILAC General Assembly held in Berlin, both memberships formally endorsed the establishment of the new body.
The benefits of establishing a single international organisation include:
Last Update: October 10, 2025.
Yes, the organisation was formally registered as an Incorporated Society on 6 December 2024 under the New Zealand Incorporated Societies Act 2022.
Last Update: October 10, 2025.
Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated is the official name of the organisation. An acronym will be announced in April 2026.
Legal address: Building 7, Central Park
660-670 Great South Road,
Ellerslie, Auckland 1051
New Zealand
Postal address: 2200 Wilson Blvd, Ste 102-332
Arlington, VA 22201
United States of America
Telephone: +1 571-569-2614 (USA)
Email: secretariat@global-accreditation.nz
Website URL: To be determined. Launch date: April 2026.
Last Update: October 10, 2025.
You may visit this website link for more information about incorporated societies in New Zealand.
Last Update: September 15, 2025.
Yes, the Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated is registered as an Incorporated Society, which is a Not-For-Profit organisation according to the New Zealand Incorporated Societies Act 2022. As Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated does not act for the financial gain of its members through the distribution of profits of surplus, it therefore qualifies as a Not-For-Profit entity according to the New Zealand law.
Last Update: September 30, 2025.
Last Update: September 15, 2025
Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated operates according to principles embedded in its founding documents, including its Constitution and General Rules. These principles reflect international best practices and the organisation’s long-term vision. They include:
Last Update: September 15, 2025.
Recognition by Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated provides several important benefits:
Recognition strengthens global cooperation and ensures that accreditation serves as a reliable tool for quality assurance, public protection, and market access.
Last Update: October 10, 2025.
Whilst Global Accreditation Cooperation incorporated has been in operation since its first General Assembly (Berlin October 2024) full operations will commence on 1 January 2026. From that date, the organisation will:
Last Update: October 10, 2025
During the initial governance period, from incorporation until 31 December 2025, leadership is provided by representatives of IAF and ILAC officers as required by Article 15.2 of the Constitution (GOV-001) and JGA Berlin Resolution 2 (2024), the following are acting as Global Accreditation Cooperation leadership:
These individuals were appointed to enable the legal registration of the organisation and provide oversight during the establishment phase.
The four (4) member accreditation body organisations during this initial governance period are Accredia of Italy, ANAB of the United States of America, ema of Mexico and ISRAC of Israel.
A formally elected Executive Committee, including its officers, will be in place and begin operating from 1 January 2026, in accordance with the General Rules (GOV-002) Section 7.4.2.
Last Update: October 10, 2025.
Documents are developed by a designated independent and qualified contractor with direct input from committees, working groups and/or the Secretariat, based on structures agreed upon by IAF and ILAC. All formal documents must be:
Last Update: October 10, 2025.
Yes, but not in their current capacities. Both IAF and ILAC will cease active operations following their respective dissolution plans.
During this period, Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated will operate as a distinct entity under New Zealand law, independent of both IAF and ILAC.
Last Update: October 10, 2025.
Accreditation Bodies that are signatories to the IAF MLA and/or ILAC MRA may be accepted into the Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated MRA. Their prior recognition under ILAC or IAF will be the basis for acceptance by Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated General Assembly as full members, maintaining the same scopes of recognition as under ILAC and/or IAF.
The Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated MRA will be launched on 1 January 2026.
Accreditations issued before January 1, 2026, under the IAF MLA and/or ILAC MRA, shall be recognised and remain valid for a defined period of time.
Last Update: October 10, 2025.
Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated and its members will be able to use the IAF MLA Mark and/or the ILAC MRA Mark for a period of time, until the new organisation’s mark is available and the IAF MLA Mark and ILAC MRA Mark are transitioned out of the marketplace.
Last Update: October 10, 2025.
Former IAF and/or ILAC members that are unable to join Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated by the established deadline but are committed to joining the new organisation, may also be able to use the IAF MLA Mark and/or the ILAC MRA Mark at least through the transition period. Specific information about this topic is available from the Secretariat.
Last Update: October 10, 2025.
The work of Accreditation Bodies, Conformity Assessment Bodies, Scheme Owners, Regional Cooperation Bodies etc. will continue as normal, with no interruptions in their services.
The launch of full operations has been carefully planned to minimise disruptions to services for all members.
To ensure continuity:
While IAF and ILAC will formally cease normal operations by 31 December 2025, the new organisation will be fully operational from 1 January 2026, ensuring no service gaps.
Last Update: October 10, 2025.
Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated is a not-for-profit Incorporated Society governed by its Constitution (GOV-001) and General Rules (GOV-002). It comprises:
Last Update: September 15, 2025.
Membership is open to entities that meet the criteria defined in the General Rules (GOV-002) Section 4. There are four main membership categories:
1.Full Members – accreditation bodies that meet eligibility and recognition requirements and are MRA signatories;
2. Associate Members – accreditation bodies that, while not yet signatories to the MRA, operate accreditation schemes recognised under the MRA and can provide evidence that they are operational and committed to comply with the requirements set out in relevant standards established by appropriate international standards writing bodies such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and are recognised in their economy as offering an accreditation service;
3. Stakeholder Members – organisations with a demonstrable interest in accreditation as per the General Rules (GOV-002) section 4.6(3):
(a) Associations of Conformity Assessment Bodies, or
(b) Associations of users (industries or consumer associations), or
(c) Standardisation Organisations, or
(d) Metrology Organisations, or
(e) Regulators, or
(f) Scheme owners with a wide representation in their membership at an international, regional or national level, or
(g) Associations of scheme owners, or similar bodies, or
(h) Representatives of regulatory schemes.
4. Regional Cooperation Bodies – organisations representing groups of accreditation bodies in specific geographic regions.
As of 1 January 2026, members include entities that were previously members of IAF or ILAC and that applied for and were accepted into Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated under the new membership framework.
Last Update: October 10, 2025.
Current IAF and ILAC stakeholder members are eligible to join the Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated.
Balanced participation is achieved through the following mechanisms:
These principles are embedded in the Constitution (GOV-001) and detailed in the General Rules (GOV-002), ensuring fair representation across accreditation bodies, stakeholders, and regions.
Last Update: October 10, 2025.
Regional Cooperation Bodies (RCBs) (previously known as Regional Accreditation Groups in IAF) will maintain the same roles as in IAF and ILAC. RCBs will be evaluated every four years by Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated for compliance with documented requirements.
RCBs play an essential role in supporting Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated by contributing to the multilateral recognition framework and peer evaluation processes.
Their roles include:
As noted in the General Rules (GOV-002) Section 4.3, Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated recognises the important contributions of RCBs and encourages their involvement in supporting its global objectives. Accreditation bodies are also required to be members of the relevant RCB if such membership is available.
Last Update: October 10, 2025.
Both IAF and ILAC have previously signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with several international organisations. These MoUs reflect both organisations’ commitment to forge stronger links and strategic partnerships with key players operating in their sphere of work. Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated plans to renegotiate these existing international MoUs as a means of advancing our common interests.
Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated will also pursue strategic cooperation with other informal liaison partners, such as international and intergovernmental organisations, to promote confidence in accreditation and support cross-border acceptance of conformity assessment results.
Interactions with international bodies may include:
These activities will be coordinated under policies established by the Executive Committee and General Assembly, in line with the organisation’s broader objective to promote international recognition of accreditation outcomes. While not detailed in the General Rules (GOV-002), these functions are consistent with Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated’s purpose as defined in the Constitution and its strategic development.
Last Update: October 10, 2025.
Yes, Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated will recognise and maintain the endorsement of the IAF endorsed sector schemes with no need for a new scheme evaluation when transferred to Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated.
Existing IAF endorsed schemes and applications for scheme endorsement that are currently under review by IAF will be transferred to Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated on 31 December 2025, to continue the review process.
After 1 January 2026, applications submitted for new scheme endorsement will follow the Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated rules for scheme endorsement.
For further details, please contact the Secretariat at secretariat@global-accreditation.nz.
Last Update: September 30, 2025.
Membership in Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated is not automatic for existing IAF and ILAC members. They must formally apply for membership under the new legal and governance framework.
Other organisations that are not currently members of IAF or ILAC may formally request the Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated application form via the Secretariat at secretariat@global-accreditation.nz. Applications from new organisations will be accepted from 1 January 2026.
Applicants are expected to:
Last Update: October 10, 2025.
Yes, if they become members of Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated. Provided that the signatory is a Full Member or a recognised Regional Cooperation Body of the IAF MLA and/or the ILAC MRA they shall be accepted as signatories of the Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated Arrangement, in accordance with the scopes and dates of approval currently endorsed by the IAF MLA Committee and the ILAC Arrangement Council.
Last Update: October 10, 2025.
No. An organisation may apply under the single membership category that best aligns with its legal structure and accreditation-related activities. The Executive Committee reviews and approves the applicant’s category eligibility in accordance with the General Rules.
Last Update: September 30, 2025.
IAF CertSearch (https://www.iafcertsearch.org/) is an online database containing the largest and most up-to-date collection of accredited certificates in the world. It allows users to validate any individual accredited management system certification from any economy in any language in real time. The technology employed ensures data security and protection, safeguarding information.
Find answers to common questions about IAF CertSearch here.
IAF Membership offers several advantages for your organisation and your economy:
Accreditation Body Membership of IAF is open to bodies that conduct and administer programmes by which they accredit bodies for validation/verification and/or certification of management systems, products, processes, services, personnel and other programmes of conformity assessment, providing those bodies are willing to allow their accreditation systems to be used by other IAF Members.
Association Membership is open to organisations or associations representing the interests within an economy, region or internationally, of a like group of entities that engage in, are subject to, make use of, accept or rely on, conformity assessment results from bodies accredited by Accreditation Body Members of IAF, and which support the purpose of IAF.
Regional Accreditation Group Membership is open to associations of accreditation bodies, and possibly other bodies, that cooperate within an identified geographic region to establish and maintain a multilateral recognition agreement based on a peer evaluation system, and represent the interests of accredited entities, industry, users and similar organisations that engage in, are subject to, make use of, accept or rely on conformity assessment results from bodies accredited by Accreditation Body Members of IAF, and which support the purpose of IAF.
Application forms can be obtained by contacting IAF via the Contact Us page.
IAF treats any complaints with the utmost concern and will deal with them expeditiously and in confidence.
In the first instance, complaints against a conformity assessment body should be lodged with that particular organisation. If the matter cannot be resolved within a satisfactory timeframe, the complainant has the right to refer the matter to the local accreditation body. If the complaint still cannot be resolved, then the complaint should be referred to the regional cooperation (if applicable), and then to IAF.
Anyone wishing to submit a complaint should do so by emailing the relevant details to the IAF Corporate Secretary together with any necessary documentation required to substantiate the complaint.
A copy of the IAF mechanism for dealing with complaints is available for information from IAF PR1:2023 Procedure for the Investigation and Resolution of complaints which can be downloaded from Procedure Documents.
Purchasers wishing to confirm the validity of an accredited certification should refer in the first instance to the Certification Body shown on the certificate. The IAF website does not list accredited Certification Bodies. If the address or website of the Certification Body is unknown, this can be found from an internet search or from the Accreditation Body whose Mark should also be found on the certificate.
The address or website of the relevant Accreditation Body can be found in Recognized ABs. Clicking on the Accreditation Body’s name on their entry page will link directly to the website where information on the Certification Bodies accredited by that Accreditation Body should be available.
A full current list of IAF MLA Signatories can be found in Recognised ABs and Recognised Regions.
Full contact details are also provided.
Selecting the right organisation to carry out your certification can be fraught with unknowns. A certification body that has been accredited by an accreditation body that is a signatory to the IAF Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) has proven that it complies with best practice. It is competent to deliver a consistently reliable, and impartial and accurate service which meets the appropriate, internationally-recognised standard.
A full current list of IAF MLA Signatories can be found in Recognised ABs and Recognised Regions.
Full contact details are also provided.
The IAF MLA provides governments and regulatory agencies with a credible and robust framework on which to further develop and enhance government-to-government bilateral and multilateral international trade agreements.
It represents an internationally recognised ‘stamp of approval’ to demonstrate compliance against agreed standards and requirements. Consequently, risk is minimised, as decisions will be based on reliable conformity assessment results.
Many specifiers, such as government agencies, have recognised the importance of credible accreditation programs that are developed against internationally recognised standards. Accreditation and the IAF MLA help regulators meet their own legislated responsibilities by providing a globally recognised system to accept accredited certification, validation and verification.
The longer-term aim is the fully accepted use and recognition, by both public and private industries, of accredited certification and validation/verification, including certificates and validation/verification statements from other economies. In this way, the free-trade goal of “accredited once, accepted everywhere” will be realised.
Accreditation bodies in many economies publish hardcopy or online lists or directories of the certification bodies that they have accredited, together with certification body contact details and information on their scope. Visit the accreditation body website to find out further information, by clicking on your economy under the list of Accreditation Bodies.
Contact individuals for each IAF member organization may be found in the IAF website.
Yes. IAF has published a list of of FAQs related to JWG A-series documents. You can find these here.
This website contains comprehensive information on the IAF MLA structure, process and a full list of Signatories. Further information is available under the IAF MLA and IAF MLA Signatories sections (Recognised ABs and Recognised Regions)
IAF publishes an annual report which can be downloaded from the Promotional Documents section that details ongoing activities to maintain the integrity and consistency of the IAF MLA.
The scope of the IAF MLA includes two components, main scope and sub-scope.
Currently there are five main scopes for the IAF MLA: Management Systems Certification, Product Certification, Certification of Persons, Greenhouse Gas Validation and Verification, and Validation and Verification.
Sub-scopes are divided into two categories (Level 4 and Level 5), as described in section 2 of IAF PL 3: Policies and Procedures on the IAF MLA Structure and for Expansion of the Scope of the IAF MLA.
A list of scopes currently endorsed by IAF is available at the following link: https://iaf.nu/en/scopes/
Accreditation bodies, which have been evaluated by peers as competent, have signed an arrangement, the IAF Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA), that enhances the acceptance of goods and services across national borders.
The purpose of the MLA is to ensure mutual recognition of accredited certification and validation/verification between signatories to the MLA, and subsequently acceptance of accredited certification, validation and verification in many markets based on one accreditation.
Signatories must recognise and support acceptance of certificates and validation/verification statements issued by organisations accredited by all other signatories of the MLA, provided the certificates or statements are issued within the scope of the IAF MLA signatory.
This recognition and acceptance removes technical barriers to trade (TBT) by reducing redundant conformity assessment.
Accreditations granted by IAF MLA signatories should be recognised worldwide based on their equivalent accreditation programs, reducing costs and adding value to business and consumers.
If you still can't find an answer to your question, please submit your question and we will respond within 24 hours.
