Times Of Swaziland: ‘RAPID ECONOMIC GROWTH MAY EXHAUST RESOURCES’

‘RAPID ECONOMIC GROWTH MAY EXHAUST RESOURCES’
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Mhlengi Magongo on 09/06/2022 08:07:00


MBABANE – Eswatini will today be joining the world in commemorating the World
Accreditation Day.
This was mentioned by the Southern African Development Community Accreditation
Service (SADCAS) Regulatory and Quality Infrastructure officer Phindile Dlamini
yesterday.
Dlamini said the Theme for this year is,’’Accreditation,  sustainability in
economic Growth and the environment. She said the theme highlights how
accreditation supports nine of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development
Goals (SDG) through the provision  of  a  trusted  platform  for  defining, 
developing  and  verifying requirements  for  products  and services  while 
helping  to  ensure  and  demonstrate  that  products and  services  meet 
specified requirements.
Dlamini said it could also be through environmental protection performance,
helping manage climate change, developing  the  circular  economy  or  providing
 tools  to  measure  performance. “Accreditation and conformity assessment are
constantly reviewing and evolving to ensure that the right tools are available
to support the SDG both now and moving forward,” she said. The officer also
mentioned that the prioritisation of sustainability in economic growth and the
environment is echoed in the SADC Vision 2050, which was approved during the
40th SADC Summit held in August 2021.
She said among other objectives it  strives  for an  industrialised  regional 
economy  that  sustainably  exploits  its  natural  resources. Industrialisation
 was  one  of  the  main  drivers  of  economic  growth  and  sustainable 
development. Dlamini added that manufactures  needed  to  ensure  products  were
 of  consistent  high  quality,  comply  with  technical regulations  and
standards, and meet specifications. She said accreditation enabled consumers,
suppliers, purchasers and regulators to have confidence that products placed on
the market were safe and meet the manufacturers claims made about them.
“Rapid  economic  growth  may  exhaust  resources  and  create  environmental 
problems  for  future generations,  including the depletion  of  natural 
resources,  global warming and to  support  sustainable economic  growth, 
countries  worldwide  were  shifting  from  a  linear  to  a  circular 
economy,” she said. The officer mentioned that a circular economy disconnects
economic activity from the consumption of finite resources by focusing on
repair, reuse, remanufacturing and recycling, thus reducing the production of
waste and the use of resources.
She said Accreditation  bolsters  regulations  that  implement  principles  of 
circular  economy  by  assessing  and verifying the claims of conforming
companies and organisations. “World Accreditation Day 2022 enables the
International Accreditation Forum, the International Laboratory Accreditation
Cooperation and their members to highlight how accreditation is delivering
sustainability in economic development and the environment,” she said.