UK secretariat becomes accredited member of the Alliance
25 November 2008
The UK secretariat has been successfully accredited following an extensive evaluation and review process. The International HIV/AIDS Alliance in China has already been formally endorsed by the accreditation system, meeting the high quality standards required to be part of the Alliance group.
The accreditation system has been designed both to guide the admission of new linking organisations to the Alliance and to guarantee quality across its existing organisations and programmes.
The Accreditation Committee based its decision about the secretariat on a positive evaluation report from a field review team made up of Alliance staff and consultants. The team assessed the secretariat at the end of October against the 38 standards of the accreditation system. Over 180 documents were presented to the review team as evidence.
The chair of the board of Alliance linking organisation AMSED in Morocco, El Mostapha Lamqaddam, was part of the field review team. He said of the experience: “It was a very exciting exercise; the secretariat staff took the process seriously and put a great deal of effort into it.”
During the process, a number of detailed observations and recommendations were made by the review team to improve the secretariat’s working practices. As a result, an interdepartmental group at the secretariat that was formed to complete the accreditation self-assessment tool will take forward work in a number of areas, including the development of an operational plan for the office, ongoing documentation of programme development guidelines, and the development of a comprehensive finance manual for internal use. Additionally, some policies and procedures that have not yet been fully implemented will be reviewed. The group agreed that the process was very valuable and the secretariat example was a good reflection of the capacity building benefits of the accreditation process.
“Everyone at the secretariat is delighted with the result and we hope this will give a clear signal to Alliance linking organisations and country offices to engage in the accreditation process and ensure quality throughout the Alliance family,” said Alvaro Bermejo, Alliance executive director.
Reji Chandra, executive director of Alliance linking organisation Palmyrah Workers Development Society (PWDS) in India was also part of the review team. “I am taking back a lot from this process to my organisation,” he remarked, “and we certainly will benefit from applying the accreditation methods to improve our work and systems.”
