Andrea Barroso Melo Monteiro de Queiroz (Development Support Committee Chair) and Joan Brough-Kerrebyn (Technical Committee Secretary) participated on behalf of IAF in the Developing Countries in Metrology, Accreditation and Standardization (DCMAS) Network meeting on June 29, 2017. The DCMAS network, which consists of representatives from international organizations working to encourage and implement metrology, accreditation and standardization in developing economies, meets yearly to discuss issues of joint interest to member organizations.

Representatives from the International Laboratory Accreditation Forum (ILAC), International Standards Organization (ISO), International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), International Trade Centre (ITC), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), International Organizations of Legal Metrology (OIML), United Nations Economic Cooperation for Europe (UNECE), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the World Bank were also in attendance.

The key outcome of the meeting was the development of a common definition of ‘quality infrastructure (QI)’:

• The system comprising the organizations (public and private) together with the policies, relevant legal and regulatory framework, and practices needed to support and enhance the quality, safety and environmental soundness of goods, services and processes.
• The quality infrastructure is required for the effective operation of domestic markets, and its international recognition is important to enable access to foreign markets. It is a critical element in promoting and sustaining economic development, as well as environmental and social wellbeing.
• It relies on: metrology, standardization, accreditation, conformity assessment, and market surveillance.
• Subsequent to the DCMAS Network meeting, a group meeting on quality policy development took place. Participants agreed on the five key dimensions of quality policy development (coherence, optimization, governance, inclusiveness and sustainability) and proposed a set of guiding principles for the formulation and implementation of quality policy.

Based on the meeting outcomes, UNIDO will devise a guidebook for quality policy development.

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