History of World Council For Quality

At the World Quality Forum in Cancun, Mexico, a group of experts agreed to initiate the process to create the World Organization for Quality (WCFQ) and to form a global knowledge network through regional and international organizations. In view of these considerations, the Declaration of Cancun was agreed and signed on May 30, 2003, which contains the proposals to: I) Initiate the process for the creation of the world organization for quality; II) Proceed to the consensus for the realization of this project; III) Form a global network of knowledge, through the interaction of regional organizations and international bodies.

In Chile, the Mexican model for evaluating quality in municipal management was analyzed, which made it possible to develop the "Agenda Desde Lo Local" inspired by the UN's Local Agenda 21. To disseminate this model internationally, it was linked to ISO 9001 standards. In 2005, ISO approved the workshop that resulted in the "IWA 4" guide for implementing quality management systems in local governments.

Considering the existence of "IWA 4" to be applied in local governments, it was proposed to link it with the purpose of the World Quality Organization. At the Veracruz Workshop, the World Council For Quality (WCFQ) was officially established, represented in different regions by quality experts. It was proposed to promote, disseminate and enrich "IWA 4" in a World Network for Quality in Governments, under the WCQ. It was decided that this network would be global, regional, national or provincial, including local and regional governments, and other organizations and individuals. A Regional Alliance for Latin America was formed to support the network, headed by INLAC and composed of FEMICA, AISO, OLAGI and FUNDIBEQ.

Delivery of the first ISO 18091 document to Alain Briden, ISO Secretary General and Kevin MacKinley, ISO Deputy Secretary General at ISO headquarters in Geneva by Carlos Gadsden, ISO 18091 Project Leader, Carlos Madrazo, President of the Mexican Senate's Commission on Federalism and Municipalities, and the Mexican Ambassador to the World Trade Organization. This document was approved by international agreement at the Workshop in Veracruz, Mexico, in May 2005 and outstanding contributions from WCFQ members such as Nigel Croft and Carlos Gadsden have been the basis for the 4 subsequent documents 2005, 2009, 2014 and 2019 in what was the first international quality standard in government.

On May 17, 2007 the Constitutive Act of the Mexican Civil Association of International scope called World Council For Quality (WCFQ) was signed and on June 11, 2007 the first General Assembly of WCFQ was held, appointing the new Board of Directors chaired by Jack West, the president from 1997 to 2005 of the U.S. TAG for ISO/TC 176 and main U.S. delegate to the committee of the International Organization for Standardization responsible for the ISO 9000 series of standards.

Through the work of experts within ISO, the use and importance of maintaining ISO "IWA 4" was confirmed, which was translated into 9 languages: Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, and "IWA 4" was adopted as a national standard in 12 countries: Bolivia, Botswana, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Slovenia, Spain, Holland, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Peru and Ukraine.

As part of the actions of the alliances, WCQ decided to adopt the "IWA 4" as a local management model for an International Reliability Award based on its Annex B with 39 public policies that every government should not fail to have in order to be considered reliable with its citizens. Different WCQ experts actively participated in the proposal to incorporate the "IWA 4" as an international standard before ISO, as a result of the implementation experience in local governments in Mexico. After nearly ten years of work on the document and its update hand in hand with ISO 9001, ISO 18091 was published in 2014.

In 2016, the first meeting of ISO 9001, Technical Committee 176 WG 04 organized by its convenor Dr. Carlos Gadsden and FIDEGOC, the Participa Foundation and the Spanish Association for Standardization (AENOR) was held in Madrid with the collaboration of the Madrid City Council to proceed with the update of the international standard 9001:2015 and the new Agenda 2030, which was just coming into force in 2016 with the participation of numbers WCFQ members in person and online.

In 2019, after three years of work (2016-2018) in ISO Technical Committee 176, Working Group 04, a total of 77 experts representing 34 countries participated in sessions in Hong Kong, Madrid, Rotterdam, Mexico City, Bali, Milan and the Azores ISO 18091 was updated based on ISO 9001:2015 and the indicators were aligned based on the 17 SDGs of the 2030 Agenda was approved with the votes of 64 countries in favor, 23 abstentions and 3 negative, representing 96% of positive votes.

The World Council for Quality (WCFQ) and the International Foundation for the Development of Trustworthy Governments (FIDEGOC), promote and support the Latin American Network of Trustworthy Governments (RED LAGOC) a space of commitment of regional and local governments of Latin America and collaborative work between government, business, academia, citizens and civil society that allows a TRUSTED institutional strengthening, SUSTAINABLE economic growth and INTEGRAL social development in LATIN AMERICA and are Internationally Recognized as Trusted by the WCFQ because they implement the international standard ISO 18091 with the commitment to innovate in public management to measure and evaluate through indicators the continuous improvement in the fulfillment of the objectives of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

WCFQ updates and incorporates new processes and evaluation mechanisms for local and regional governments in the implementation of the ISO 18091 Diagnosis in order to grant International Reliability Recognition according to the 4 established levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold, being this Recognition a prerequisite for local and regional governments to be part of the LAGOG Network and WCFQ's Global Network of Reliable Governments.