IAF and ILAC have launched the 2025 World Accreditation Day (WAD) poster contest, to select a design for the official WAD 2025 poster. WAD, which takes place yearly on 09 June, highlights how accreditation benefits businesses, industry, regulators and consumers. The 2025 theme is Accreditation: Empowering Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

SMEs are essential to the global economy, driving innovation, creating jobs and supporting local communities. However, these businesses often face challenges such as limited resources, competition and difficulty accessing markets. One tool that SMEs can use to address these challenges is conformity assessment, which can provide assurance that their products, services, processes or procedures meet specified requirements. Accreditation of a conformity assessment body confirms that the body is competent and reliable, providing confidence in its results.

Through accredited conformity assessment, SMEs can demonstrate their commitment to quality, safety, sustainability, and compliance with recognized best practices. This can strengthen their reputation and consumer confidence, helping SMEs to attract and retain customers. Additionally, SMEs can increase their business opportunities and market access by proving their compliance with standards and regulations.

Accredited conformity assessment can aid SMEs in identifying areas for improvement in their operations, such as enhancing product quality and streamlining processes. For SMEs seeking funding, accredited conformity assessment can improve access to financial support, by signaling lower risk to lenders and investors. It can also enable the SME to meet requirements for government grants or incentives.

The IAF Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) and ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) provide an infrastructure that allows accredited conformity assessment results to be recognized around the world. They enable the acceptance of products and services across borders, by removing the need for them to undergo additional tests, inspections or certification in each economy where they are sold.

IAF and ILAC welcome all interested parties to explore how accreditation empowers SMEs in the 2025 WAD poster contest, with a chance of winning the first-place prize of 1,500 USD or the second- or third-place prizes of 500 USD.

Individuals can submit up to three entries at https://tinyurl.com/ypdbyhpd by the submission deadline of 02 January 2025, 23:59 UTC. The contest rules, including instructions for how to submit entries, are available here.

Read about last year’s winner and runners-up here.