The 17th National Accreditation Focal Points (NAFPs) Annual meeting on the 23 November 2023 at Premier Hotel OR Tambo, Johannesburg, South Africa. The meeting was attended by ten (10) NAFPs and three (3) SADCAS staff: SADCAS CEO, Ms Eve Christine Gadzikwa, Training Administrator- Mr Mogae Molaoa and Communications and Public Relations Officers- Mr Boniface Badubi. National Accreditation Focal Points from Botswana (1), Eswatini (2), Lesotho (2), Malawi (2), Namibia (2), Seychelles (1) attended the meeting. The meeting was fully funded by PTB Germany.
The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss to discuss challenges affecting NAFP’s effectiveness, to exchange information and ideas to effectively promote accreditation and training courses in their member states and to agree on workable strategies to strengthen working relations between SADCAS and the NAFPs.
A total of thirteen (13) resolutions were recorded during the meeting which was chaired by the SADCAS CEO, Ms Gadzikwa. The meeting was interactive and productive with NAFPs fully committing to step up their promotion and marketing of SADCAS in their respective member states.
The Communications and Public Relations Officer, Mr Badubi facilitated a Marketing and Communications Training to enable the NAFP’s to gain effective communication skills to promote accreditation services and empower them on stakeholder engagement.
NAFPs who are appointed by their respective governments are mainly responsible for the promotion of accreditation and marketing of SADCAS services within their respective countries. NAFPs are at the frontline of accreditation communication and marketing SADCAS service offering.