2018-美洲的优质基础设施——战略路线图（英文版）-5mb

Summary of the Quality Infrastructure of the Americas Strategic Roadmap

Core Content

The Quality Infrastructure of the Americas (QI of the Americas) is a strategic initiative aimed at enhancing the development and improvement of Quality Infrastructure (QI) systems across the region. It is designed to support inclusive and sustainable industrial development and trade, both within and between countries, by leveraging existing regional collaborations among standards, metrology, and accreditation organizations.

The Strategic Roadmap outlines five key steps to guide the evolution of QI in the Americas, tailored to the varying levels of maturity across countries. It emphasizes the importance of a coordinated, systematic, and efficient approach to QI development, ensuring that all countries benefit from a unified and sustainable quality framework.

Main Objectives

The Roadmap seeks to achieve the following specific objectives:

• Ensure all countries in the Americas have access to a Quality Infrastructure (including standards, metrology, accreditation, and conformity assessment) that supports progress towards the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Ensure the QI is appropriate for national needs in terms of trade, innovation, consumer safety, and sustainable development.
• Ensure the QI is internationally recognized and aligned with global standards and conformity assessment processes.
• Encourage participation and contribution to existing international, regional, and sub-regional QI initiatives.

Key Steps

1. Capacity Building for Less Mature Countries:

   • Promote discussions on the responsibilities and authorities of QI components.
   • Support the formulation of results-based project proposals to attract donor funding.

2. Development of National Quality Policies:

   • Assist countries without a National Quality Policy (NQP) in developing such a policy and its legal framework.
   • Engage all relevant stakeholders to define national priorities for future investments and regional collaboration.

3. Resource Sharing and Investment:

   • Identify opportunities to share resources and investments that benefit all three QI components (standards, metrology, and accreditation).
   • Include the provision of web-based meeting facilities and other essential IT infrastructure.

4. High-Level Strategic Discussions:

   • Facilitate strategic dialogues among regional and international organizations (e.g., COPANT, SIM, IAAC, UNIDO, OAS, UNDP, IDB, and the World Bank).
   • Develop a consistent, unified strategy to address the specific needs of QI components at the regional, sub-regional, and national levels in a cost-effective manner.

5. Proposal Preparation for Funding:

   • Encourage the preparation and submission of detailed proposals to funding agencies.
   • Focus on improving the overall QI in the region and supporting individual national "quality infrastructure journeys".
   • These projects can be region-specific, sub-regional, country-specific, or sector-specific (e.g., food, healthcare, agriculture), and may involve multiple QI components.

Key Organizations and Initiatives

The Quality Infrastructure Council of the Americas (QICA) is a regional collaboration among the three main organizations:

• COPANT (Pan American Standards Commission): Focuses on standardization.
• SIM (Inter-American Metrology System): Specializes in metrology.
• IAAC (Inter-American Accreditation Cooperation): Concentrates on accreditation.

These organizations were formed in 2013 under the UNIDO General Conference in Lima, Peru, and further formalized their collaboration through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in 2014 in Guatemala City. The QICA aims to create a formal structure for joint projects, information sharing, and cross-functional training and development, allowing for greater synergies than individual organizations could achieve alone.

Country Maturity Categories

Based on a qualitative analysis of QI data, countries in the Americas are categorized into three maturity levels:

1. Low Maturity: Countries with little or no effective QI.
2. Medium Maturity: Countries that have some QI components in place and are actively participating in regional initiatives.
3. High Maturity: Countries with active involvement in international, regional, and sub-regional QI initiatives.

These categories help identify gaps and weaknesses in QI systems and guide targeted improvement efforts.

Strategic Importance

The Quality Infrastructure is essential for:

• Promoting economic growth.
• Supporting trade through harmonization of standards, testing, and certification.
• Enhancing consumer safety and product quality.
• Facilitating progress towards the SDGs, particularly SDG 9, which focuses on resilient infrastructure, sustainable industrialization, and innovation.

Conclusion

The Strategic Roadmap is an evolving planning tool that aims to support the vision of QICA and the development of QI systems in the Americas. It provides a framework for collaboration, capacity building, and resource sharing, and is designed to be adaptable to different national contexts. The ultimate goal is to create a robust, inclusive, and sustainable QI system that benefits all countries in the region and aligns with global priorities.