The Regional System of Accreditation of ECOWAS participated in workshops held by the African Accreditation Cooperation to strengthen its members and pool of peer assessors

The African Accreditation Cooperation (AFRAC) held in June 2018 in Nairobi, Kenya, two trainings:

• From June 22 to 23, 2018: Training in ISO IEC 17025 which the new version was also published in 2017: this standard relates to the general requirements for the competence of calibration and testing laboratories

• From June 24 to 26, 2018: Training in ISO IEC 17011 which the new version was published in 2017: this standard relates to the requirements for accreditation bodies, accrediting conformity assessment bodies.

The Regional System of Accreditation of ECOWAS (ECORAS) was represented at these workshops by the Director General of the West African Accreditation System (SOAC), Mr. Marcel Gbaguidi, also an AFRAC peer assessor in analysis and testing. According to him, "these workshops have been of particular importance because they make it possible to be aware of the challenges that arise from the publication of the new versions of standards ISO IEC 17025 and ISO IEC 17011 for peer assessors, but also for laboratories and for accreditation bodies ". He also pointed out that "these two workshops helped to understand the way forward for carrying out peer assessments in the spirit of the new standard ISO 17011 which introduces specific concepts such as risk analysis and the process approach; the workshop also discussed the importance of having a transition plan for laboratories and accreditation bodies to move from the old version of the standards to the news ".

On the sidelines of these workshops, the African Accreditation Cooperation held in Nairobi, Kenya, from June 27 to 30, 2018, a series of mid-term meetings in preparation for its next general assembly scheduled for September 2018: Technical Committee Workshop (June 27, 2018) ), Marketing Committee Workshop (June 28, 2018), Mutual Recognition Agreement Committee Meeting (June 27-28, 2018), Executive Committee Meeting (June 29, 2018). The Regional System of Accreditation of ECOWAS was represented at these meetings by the West African Accreditation System and the Nigeria National Accreditation Service (NINAS).

It should be noted that the African Accreditation Cooperation obtained international peer recognition in May 2018. This important result now enables African accreditation bodies to directly request their international recognition from AFRAC.