IJCA - Volume 2 - Flipbook - Page 47
2023 | Volume 2, Issue 1
47
DOI: doi.org/10.55459/IJCA/v2i1/MG.KK.AD
Accreditation of Agri-Food and Medical Laboratories in
the UEMOA Region: An Opportunity for the Promotion of
Sustainable Public Health
By Marcel Gbaguidi, Resident Representative and Director General of the West African Accreditation System (SOACWAAS); Kafui Codjo Kouassi, Associate Professor in Biochemistry – Nutrition and Conformity Assessment/University of
Lomé (Togo); and Amadou Diop, SOAC-WAAS National Accreditation Focal Point in Mali
-ABSTRACTIn an increasingly changing and demanding world, Quality
Infrastructure is an instrument that is both important and essential
in a context marked by health, environmental, economic, and social
issues. Among the pillars of Quality Infrastructure, accreditation plays
an important role, ensuring the technical competence and integrity
of bodies offering conformity assessment services, such as testing,
medical testing, calibration, certification, inspection, and validation/
verification based on recognized international standards.
The objective of this article is to highlight the importance and role of
the Système Ouest Africain d’Accréditation/West African Accreditation
System (SOAC-WAAS) in preserving and promoting the health of
populations and the competitiveness of West African economies.
Given the importance of accreditation, the West African Economic and
Monetary Union (UEMOA) that gathers eight countries (Benin, Burkina
Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo)
created, in 2005, SOAC-WAAS, a multi-economy accreditation body.
The latter is the only authorized accreditation body for the eight UEMOA
member states. Its mission is to deliver and promote accreditation in
the community area, particularly through the issuance of accreditation
certificates to conformity assessment bodies (CABs). To date, SOACWAAS has accredited forty-six (46) conformity assessment bodies,
including four (4) calibration laboratories, three (3) certification bodies,
and thirty-nine (39) testing laboratories. Among the SOAC accredited
testing laboratories, one (1) is in the field of forensics and ten (10) are
medical laboratories. Fourteen (14) testing laboratories and the three
(3) accredited certification bodies are operating in the agri-food sector.
This result, which is certainly insufficient for the entire UEMOA region,
is still encouraging and contributes to the preservation of health and
protection of the population, particularly with regard to accredited
agri-food and medical testing laboratories.
Keywords: Accreditation, laboratories, public health, Agri-food, UEMOA, ECOWAS
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Introduction
In a constantly changing and
demanding world, Quality
Infrastructure is an instrument
that is both important and
essential in a context marked by
health, environmental, economic,
and social issues. Quality
Infrastructure corresponds to the
entire institutional framework
required to establish and
implement standardization,
metrology, accreditation,
and conformity assessment
services based on internationally
recognized standards.
These international standards
include the following: ISO IEC
17065 for the accreditation of
product certification bodies; ISO
IEC 17020 for the accreditation of
inspection bodies; ISO IEC 17025
for the accreditation of testing
and calibration laboratories; and
ISO 15189 for the accreditation
of medical laboratories. The
implementation of the
requirements of these standards
by accredited conformity
assessment bodies (CABs)
guarantees consumer health,
as well as product safety and
suitability for use. Unfortunately,
on the African continent,
accreditation is one of the weak
links of Quality Infrastructure.1
Given its important role, African
leaders created in 2010 the
1 Development of Accreditation in Africa
(AFRAC, 2020)
