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Riva elected as New IAF Chair

 In News

Emanuele Riva is the new President of IAF, the International Accreditation Forum, the worldwide association of accreditation bodies. This is the first time that Italy holds this position.

Riva, who takes the place occupied for two terms by Xiao Jianhua (CNAS), comments on the appointment: “A great opportunity for our country, which will be a protagonist in global strategies for sustainability and the movement of people and goods.”

Italy is first in Europe and second in the world for management system certifications, and first in Europe for the certification of people.

Emanuele Riva

Emanuele Riva, Deputy General Manager of Accredia and President of IAF (Photo: Accredia)

The IAF works to harmonise worldwide accreditation rules so that the certificates issued by accredited certification bodies are recognised throughout the world and guarantee the quality, fitness for use and safety of products, services and professionals on the market. Founded in 1993, under the impetus of the WTO, with the aim of improving and regulating non-trade barriers between the member countries of the World Trade Organisation, today the IAF has 87 accreditation bodies, representing 104 countries. Italy is represented by Accredia, the single national accreditation body appointed by the Italian government to accredit certification, inspection and verification bodies, testing laboratories and calibration laboratories.

Emanuele Riva, who will be at the helm of IAF for the next three years, is currently Deputy Director General and Director of Accredia’s Certification and Inspection Department, a member of EA’s Governing Council, and has been Vice President of IAF from 2015 to date.

Emanuele Riva

Emanuele Riva, Deputy General Manager of Accredia and President of IAF (Photo: Accredia)

In Accredia since 2003, he has been Department Director since 2013. During these years, Riva has represented Accredia and Italy, working with various international accreditation and technical standardisation bodies, such as IAF, EA (European Accreditation), ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and INAB (The Irish National Accreditation Board).

According to the recent ISO Survey 2021, the most authoritative source on the global diffusion of management system certifications (quality, environment, safety, etc.), Italy, with over 90 thousand ISO 9001 quality certifications, ranks first among European countries and second worldwide.

“I am very honoured to represent my country in such an important world organisation as the IAF, and for this I thank Accredia and all the countries that have supported Italy. This appointment is a reason for satisfaction for the work done so far and increases the prestige and reputation of our country in the world bodies,” commented Riva. “There are many challenges on the horizon: from post-pandemic management to the definition of shared and uniform rules at international level on issues that are fundamental to the lives of citizens, businesses and public administration, such as sustainability, health, security and digitalisation. Also important is the project for a worldwide database of management system certifications, and the project to merge IAF and ILAC, the two global players in the accreditation field. But also crucial will be the work to ensure homogeneous certifications and verification procedures common to all countries, so as to simplify life for companies, and the collaboration with institutions and stakeholders of the global infrastructure for quality,” Riva continued.

“For Italy, this is a great opportunity, since our country will be a key player at the tables where strategies are decided on the issues at the heart of the global agenda,” Riva concluded.

Accredia is the single national accreditation body appointed by the Italian government. Its task is to certify the competence of laboratories and bodies that verify the conformity of products, services and professionals to reference standards, facilitating their circulation at international level. Accredia is a private, non-profit association that operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Economic Development and carries out activities in the public interest, guaranteeing institutions, businesses and consumers.

Accredia has 68 members representing all stakeholders in accreditation and certification activities, including 9 Ministries (Economic Development, Environment, Defence, Infrastructure and Transport, Interior, Education, Labour, Agriculture, Health), 7 public bodies of national importance, the 2 national standardisation bodies, UNI and CEI, 13 business and labour organisations, associations of certification and inspection bodies and of accredited testing and calibration laboratories, consultants’ and consumers’ associations and companies providing public utilities such as Ferrovie dello Stato and Enel.

Accredia is a member of the EU and international accreditation networks and is a signatory to the relevant Mutual Recognition Agreements, by virtue of which the laboratory tests and certifications of Accredia-accredited bodies are recognised and accepted in Europe and worldwide.

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