The Arab Accreditation Cooperation (ARAC) held its 6th Annual Meetings in Amman
The Arab Accreditation Cooperation (ARAC), which aims at coordinating and developing the accreditation infrastructure in the Arab region, held its sixth Annual Meetings in Amman, Jordan, from the 10th to 18th September 2018.
More than 60 participants from Arab accreditation bodies and stakeholders took part in these meetings, where significant achievements were made, including election of new Executive Committee members, approval of annual action plans and discussion of strategic matters. On the margin of these annual meetings, several regional workshops and meetings were organized, with a focus on ISO/IEC 17025:2017, ISO/IEC 17020, ISO/IEC 17065, ISO/IEC 17011:2017 and European Accreditation (EA)-1/13 A:2016.
Moreover, a ceremony sponsored by H.E. Dr. Tariq Hammouri, Ministry of Industry and Trade in Jordan, was organized to celebrate ARAC international recognition by the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and the International Accreditation Forum (IAF). This major achievement is the result of intensive and thorough work of ARAC members, supported by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Arab Industrial Development and Mining Organization (AIDMO) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) during the phase one of the project “Support the implementation of the regional Arab Standardization Strategy with focus on the regional coordination on accreditation”, implemented from 2011 to 2016.
The second phase of the project started in June 2018 for a duration of 24 months, with a total budget of USD 3 million. This phase will be aiming at ensuring that ARAC, as a regional cooperation body, is legally incorporated, technically and financially sustainable and internationally recognized. The project will also support up to 4 ARAC members to become ARAC Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) signatories.
Learn more about ARAC: http://www.arac-accreditation.org
For more information: Mr. Rafik Feki (R.Feki [at] unido.org)
