Joshua Mwangi, ASLM
On 3 June 2026, the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) achieved an important milestone in our quality journey — successfully passing the ISO 9001:2015 Stage 1 Certification Audit conducted by Bureau Veritas.
This achievement represents much more than completing an audit milestone. It validates the commitment, discipline, and collective effort invested across the Secretariat to strengthen our systems, enhance accountability, improve operational efficiency, and embed a culture of continuous improvement.
Our ISO journey began with a clear commitment from ASLM’s Board and Executive Leadership: to ensure that the organization delivering impact across Africa operates with systems and standards that reflect global excellence.
Over the past months, teams across ASLM have worked together to transform this vision into reality. We established a QMS implementation structure, appointed departmental QMS Champions, conducted awareness sessions, strengthened policies and procedures, documented key processes, developed SOPs and templates, enhanced document control, and improved workflows across Finance, HR, Procurement, Administration, ICT, Sub-Recipient Management, Business Development, and Programmes.
We also trained internal auditors, completed internal quality audits, conducted Management Review processes, and implemented corrective actions — all with one objective: making quality not just something we document, but the way we work every day.
Passing Stage 1 confirms that ASLM has established the required foundation for ISO 9001:2015 certification. The audit assessed the design, documentation, governance structures, and readiness of our Quality Management System. It confirmed that we are on the right path — but it is also a reminder that our journey continues.
Our attention now shifts to the Stage 2 Certification Audit, where auditors will physically assess implementation at our offices in Ethiopia and South Africa. This next phase will focus not only on what we have documented, but how consistently we apply our processes.
As we prepare, our priorities are clear: demonstrating effective implementation of procedures, maintaining accurate records, strengthening document control, closing corrective actions, applying risk-based thinking, and showing evidence of continuous improvement across all departments.
On behalf of the QMS Team, we extend our sincere appreciation to ASLM’s Board, Executive Leadership, QMS Champions, internal auditors, and every staff member who contributed to this achievement. Your commitment, patience, attention to detail, and willingness to improve made this milestone possible.
Stage 1 success gives us confidence. Stage 2 requires renewed focus.
Quality is not owned by one team — it belongs to all of us. Every process followed, every record maintained, every improvement made, and every service delivered contributes to the strength of ASLM.
ISO certification is not the destination; building a culture of excellence and continuous improvement is the true goal.
Together, let us continue strengthening ASLM — one process, one improvement, and one quality action at a time.