Frequently asked questions

The GQII is a versatile tool that can be applied in different ways depending on the user's role and purpose. QI bodies can use the GQII as a practical management tool — drawing on country rankings and individual indicators for strategic planning, target-setting, and progress monitoring. The data also provides a solid, internationally comparable evidence base for reporting to overseeing ministries and other stakeholders. Policy-makers can be sensitised to the importance of quality infrastructure through the GQII's country rankings. Seeing where their country stands relative to peers and competitors makes a compelling case for investing in and strengthening national QI systems. Technical cooperation agencies and development banks can apply GQII indicators at the start of a project to establish baseline data, and then track selected indicators over time to measure project outcomes and demonstrate development impact. Researchers can draw on the GQII's open, structured dataset to conduct impact studies — for example, exploring the relationship between quality infrastructure and trade performance, global value chain integration, innovation, or other economic and social outcomes. Because all GQII data is publicly available and published in downloadable Excel format, users can verify rankings, adapt the data to their specific needs, and build their own analyses on top of the index.

The GQII is designed for a broad range of users with an interest in quality infrastructure (QI) data and its role in trade, development, and competitiveness. Representatives of QI bodies and regional and international QI cooperations will find the index valuable for benchmarking their national QI system against other countries and as a basis for reporting to the ministries that oversee them. Policy-makers engaged in economic development, industrial policy, innovation, and competitiveness can use the GQII to better understand the complex relationships between quality infrastructure and trade or development indicators, and to inform decisions on how to strengthen national QI systems. Programme and project managers of international development agencies and development banks can use the GQII to identify development needs, monitor progress in QI development over time, and assess the starting point for QI-related projects. Social and economic researchers will appreciate the open, structured dataset as a basis for analysing correlations between QI and broader economic outcomes, such as global value chain participation or innovation capacity. Entrepreneurs and consumers can use the GQII to gain a clearer picture of the quality, safety, and reliability of products and services in different countries, as reflected by the strength of national QI systems. In short, anyone seeking transparent, comparable, and reliable data on national quality infrastructure systems worldwide will benefit from the GQII.

The GQII is based exclusively on freely accessible data published by institutions or cooperations of the quality infrastructure. The data source on metrology is the BIPM website, including the KCDB and the accreditation bodies’ figures on accredited calibration laboratories. The latter data are downloaded from the AB websites or entered directly into a form by the ABs.

The GQII is not a survey but uses published data. However, since the accreditation body or its regional and international collaborations do not publish statistical data on individual countries, the GQII team collects published data from the ABs’ websites. In addition, the ABs receive an EXCEL sheet in which they can enter their figures.

All data collected is published on the internet on this webpage. At the same time, the calculation formula of the ranking is described in the GQII reports. When would you recommend its use? The GQII can be used for different purposes. For example, it can be used to look at data at the beginning of a QI project and monitor it as it progresses. The GQII2021 contains further possible applications What is the business model of the GQII, and how can it be ensured that the GQII exists in the long term and is regularly updated? The GQII is primarily based on the commitment of Mesopartner and dedicated professionals who want to contribute to data transparency in the field of quality infrastructure. At the same time, the various versions of the GQII have been financially supported by German international cooperation and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt. The future of the GQII depends mainly on the extent to which the institutions of quality infrastructure and international development cooperation support it. At the same time, the effort involved in data collection could be significantly reduced if the international quality infrastructure institutions and development cooperation provided their data in a disaggregated and machine-readable form.  How does the GQII deal with the innovations in the field of validation and verification? In previous editions of the GQII, we had also considered ISO 14065 for verifying validating bodies. The system remains valid until 2024 but is currently in a transition phase. Until 30 June 2024, validating verification bodies accredited to ISO 14065:2020 must also demonstrate compliance with the requirements 17029:2019. However, from 30 June 2024, ISO 14065:2020 will become a subordinate standard to ISO 17029:2019, and ISO 14065 will be combined with ISO 14064-3:2019. ISO 14065 will then become a level 4 standard. In the GQII 2023 report, we will include calculations of the coverage of ISO 17029 accreditations alone. However, if an AB currently has ISO 14065 accredited verifying validating bodies but does not yet have ISO 17029 accreditations, we will continue to assess it as equivalent this year. What is your experience with the index? Since its first publication in 2011, the GQII has experienced increasing interest. Policymakers are particularly interested in the ranking and correlations with trade and development indicators. This data allows them to understand better and promote the complex phenomenon of QI. At the same time, QI Bodies use the index for benchmarking with other countries and as a basis for their reports to the ministries overseeing them. International development cooperation agencies are also interested in the information provided by the GQII, as it enables them to monitor development needs and progress.

The quality of the data used in the GQII depends on the sources. The QI organisations have prepared and published the data more for validation than statistical purposes. Also, there needs to be data for essential measures such as the number of harmonised standards per country. One data source used is the ISO Survey. It provides information on disseminating ISO management standards per country and economic sector. Unfortunately, ISO does not make the data sources transparent. The data used in the GQII is well-curated and informative. Nevertheless, there is always a need for interpretation of the data.

The data used for the GQII are dynamic, regularly updated by the QI organisations, and published on websites. Even if, for example, the accreditation bodies report the number of accredited CABs to their regional and international organisations, these still need to be published in a form disaggregated by country or AB. For the GQII, the data is collected over a period of time (usually from May to August of the current year). Since the indicators generally change little in a year, this type of counting is sufficiently accurate for the global ranking. In future, however, it would be desirable for the QI institutions to agree on a point in time in the year for which the data are collected and published.

For the GQII, we only record the accreditations valid at the time of the count. Frozen or revoked accreditations are not considered. What are the differences between certificates, sites and organisations in the context of accreditation and conformity assessment? Accreditation certificates, sites, and organisations/bodies are related concepts in conformity assessment and accreditation. Let’s break down the differences between these terms: 1. Accreditation Certificates: An accreditation certificate is a formal document that verifies and acknowledges that a particular entity, such as an individual, institution, program, or service, meets specific standards and criteria set by a recognised accrediting body. Accreditation is a process of evaluation and assessment by these accrediting bodies to ensure that the entity meets established quality and performance standards. Accreditation certificates provide tangible evidence of compliance with these standards and can enhance credibility, trust, and recognition within the industry or field. 2. Sites: In the context of accreditation, a site refers to a physical location or facility where certain activities, services, or programs are conducted. Accreditation might involve evaluating an organisation and a specific site where particular services are offered. For example, in the healthcare sector, a hospital might seek accreditation for specific departments or services like radiology or laboratory testing, and each of these sites would need to meet the relevant standards. 3. Organisations: An organisation is a structured entity encompassing individuals, resources, and operations working together to achieve specific goals. In the context of accreditation, an organisation usually refers to an entity such as a university, hospital, laboratory, certification body, or any other establishment that offers services, programs, or products. An organisation’s accreditation involves assessing its operations, governance, and compliance with established standards to ensure its high quality and competence. In collecting data for the GQII, we only collect the number of accredited organisations. We always speak of an organisation when it has its own legal identity. We use the terms “organisations” and “bodies” as synonyms. Accreditation refers to capabilities and processes defined in standards (for example, the ISO 17000 series) but never to the organisation as a whole.

The requested information can be found on the ABs’ websites. In GQII, we only collect information that is freely available. At the same time, it could be more straightforward to map the data from the website to the categories of our form. This is especially true for the data on cross-border accreditation. We, therefore, ask all ABs to enter their data into the DataSheet to avoid mistakes. Does the GQII only cover accreditations of ABs from countries that are signatories of ILAC’s MRAs or IAF’s MLAs? No. The GQII was developed to measure quality infrastructure development worldwide, focusing on developing and emerging countries. We record all accreditations that are based on ISO and IEC standards. However, to reflect the different levels of recognition, we weigh the number of accredited CABs. The number of signatories of MRAs from ILAC or MLAs from IAF is fully considered. For ABs that have signed only one regional MRA/MLA, we weigh the number of accredited CABs by 0.5 and all others by 0.1. In this way, we want to recognise the developmental progress of countries just starting to build a national accreditation system. What is the recommended date of the submitted data? If you do not have any specific date, our AB will send the latest data. We collect the data in the middle of the year, from June to August. As the number of accredited CABs generally changes over shorter periods, we do not set a specific date. We also want to facilitate the reporting of ABs. In this respect, we request the ABs to share the current numbers of accredited CABs in the provided EXCEL file.

The GQII team only uses publicly available data. However, the accreditation bodies contribute by inserting their published data into the GQII EXCEL template. This ensures that the data is recorded correctly. It also reduces the effort to capture and publish the data at a central reference point. Our contribution is to compile data from different websites and publish them together. GQII requires that when users share our data with others, they do so under the Creative Commons licence, (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/,)reference the data source when publishing and share the data under the same terms.

We follow the standard ISO 3166 – Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions when referring to each country or economy. According to the short name lowercase definition, we refer to “Taiwan (Province of China)”; see: https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:code:3166:TW.(https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:code:3166:TW) We know this term is controversial and that APAC, IAF and ILAC use “Chinese Taipei”. However, since we in GQII are guided by the ISO 3166 standard and refer to all QI institutions, we will continue to use the ISO 3166 term.

The GQII and the QI4SD Index are complementary initiatives that approach quality infrastructure measurement from different angles. The GQII, developed by Mesopartner, focuses on measuring the development status of national QI systems through data on metrology, standardisation, accreditation and conformity assessment services. The QI4SD Index, compiled by UNIDO for INetQI, places greater emphasis on QI's contribution to sustainable development across the SDG framework. Since 2023, Mesopartner and UNIDO have been collaborating closely to align methodologies, share data and avoid duplication. Both initiatives are committed to open, high-quality QI data as a public good. Mesopartner, PTB and UNIDO have agreed to explore integrating the two indices into a single, unified global index that combines the GQII's comprehensive QI measurement with the QI4SD's sustainable development perspective. Until that integration is complete, the two indices remain distinct but mutually reinforcing tools. Users are encouraged to consult both when assessing a country's quality infrastructure landscape and its contribution to sustainable development goals.