IJCA - Volume 2 - Flipbook - Page 48
48 The International Journal of Conformity Assessment
African Accreditation Cooperation
(AFRAC) of which the West African
Accreditation System (SOACWAAS) is a member. AFRAC has
around 20 members, including 13
accreditation bodies.
In West Africa, Quality
Infrastructure has evolved a lot
over the past ten years, with the
existence today of the Economic
Community of West African States
(ECOWAS) Regional Accreditation
System (ECORAS), composed
in particular of the SOAC-WAAS
for the eight UEMOA States,
NiNAS (Nigerian Accreditation
Body), and GhaNAS (Ghanaian
Accreditation Body). SOACWAAS was created in 2005 by
Regulation No. 01/2005/CM/
UEMOA, on the Scheme for the
harmonization of Accreditation,
Certification, Standardization,
and Metrology activities in the
UEMOA region, revised in 2010.
This organization is essential
for the UEMOA region, which
abounds with agri-food industries
and medical laboratories. Indeed,
UEMOA industrial production
index increased by 5.4% in 2018
thanks to the improvement in
manufacturing industries (+10.2%)
driven by chemicals (+26.2%),
but also food and drink (+14.5%).
These products need to be tested
by ISO/IEC 17025 accredited
laboratories to, in particular,
ensure the health security2 of
our populations and facilitate
exports within and outside Africa.
Regarding aid in the diagnosis and
monitoring of non-communicable
diseases (e.g., diabetes, arterial
hypertension, obesity) and those
transmissible (e.g., COVID-19,
malaria, HIV, and tuberculosis),
2 https://www.unido.org/sites/default/
files/2007-11/71767_TCB_No.02.Promouvoir_
lacces_des_produits_agroalimentaires_de_lUEMOA_au_marche_de_lUnion_europeenne_0.
pdf
very few laboratories are ISO
15189 accredited.3
The objective of this article is to
highlight the importance and the
role of SOAC-WAAS accreditation
in the preservation and promotion
of the health of populations as
well as the competitiveness of
West African economies.
Among the pillars of Quality
Infrastructure, accreditation
plays an important role, making it
possible to ensure the technical
competence and integrity of
bodies offering conformity
assessment services on the
basis of recognized international
standards.
Missions of SOAC-WAAS
The mission of SOAC-WAAS
is to promote accreditation in
the UEMOA region, in particular
through the issuance of
accreditation certificates to
conformity assessment bodies
(CABs).
Organizations Accredited by
SOAC-WAAS: Advantages
and Opportunities
To date, SOAC-WAAS 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 SOACaccredited 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
3 https://www.linfodrome.com/
sante/58079-covid-19-accreditation-et-securite-des-laboratoires-de-biologie-medicale-dans-l-espace-uemoa-et-cedeao-une-structure-renforce _
free-of-charge-the-capacity-of-about-thirtytechnicians
operating in the agri-food sector.
In the field of trade, particularly
with regard to agri-food products,
the challenges related to quality
explain, today, the difficulties
of access and placing safe
West African products on the
local, regional, and international
markets. At this level, accredited
testing laboratories in the agrifood sector play an important
role in terms of assessing the
conformity of such products
with normative requirements.
These testing laboratories most
often support certification and/
or inspection bodies to certify
products’ conformity. Trade in
agri-food products is of growing
importance in the UEMOA
economies. UEMOA’s extracommunity trade is much more
oriented towards the European
Union and represents 31.4%4 of
total trade with other partners.
More than three quarters (3/4)5
of the value of exports remains
concentrated on raw materials,
in particular agricultural and
food products. Given the
requirements of international
markets, particularly European
ones, the trade in these products
is encountering major exportrelated constraints. These are,
among others, the low quality of
exported products, the lack of
professionalism of the actors,
the weakness of the professional
organizations of the sectors,
and the non-compliance of the
products with the regulatory
and commercial requirements
for export on the international
markets. These requirements,
therefore, most often constitute
Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)
and shortcomings in compliance
with sanitary and phytosanitary
4 UEMOA Trade Surveillance Report, 2016
5 UEMOA Trade Policy Review, 2017
