Lima Accord
(Engineering Programs in Latin America/Caribbean)
Overview: The Lima Accord effort started in September 2014 as part of the 1st IEEE Region 9 Latin American Accreditation Body Summit, which was held in Lima. The Lima Declaration, which was a signed pledge of the accrediting bodies to work toward the Lima Accord, followed in September 2015. In 2016, representatives from the accrediting bodies did the hard work of drafting the accord, soliciting feedback and culminating in the final Accord which was signed on 6 September 2016 in Lima, Peru. In November 2017, the Second Annual Meeting of the Lima Agreement was held in the city of Mérida, Mexico, with the purpose of defining the Agreement's Rules and Procedures and beginning with the definitions of the graduation attributes that would be the basis for engineering training that will be promoted by accrediting agencies in the region. In November 2018, the Third Annual Meeting of the Lima Agreement was held in the city of Santiago de Chile. On this occasion, the main aspects related to the administration of the Agreement were discussed, and the discharge attributes document was also reviewed in depth, a document that was unanimously approved by the members of the Agreement.
Participants and Signatories: The Lima Accord is open to all accrediting agencies and associated organizations in Latin America and Caribbean territories and countries. The seven signatories of the Lima Accord have joined together for the primary purposes of contributing to the improvement of undergraduate engineering education in Latin America and the Caribbean through the mutual recognition of accredited engineering programs that prepare graduates for professional practice.
- Agencia Acreditadora olegio de Ingenieros de Chile (Chile)
- Agencia de Acreditación de Programas de Ingeniería y de Arquitectura (Costa Rica)
- Caribbean Accreditation Council of Engineering and Technology (CACET)
- Consejo de Acreditación de la Enseñanza de la Ingeniería Superior, A.C. (Mexico)
- Instituto de Calidad y Acreditación de Programas de Computación, Ingeniería y Tecnología (ICACIT - Peru)
- Sistema Nacional de Evaluación, Acreditación y Certificación de la Calidad Educativa (SINEACE - Peru)
- Agencia Centroamericana de Acreditación de Programas de Arquitectura y de Ingeniería (ACAAI - Panama)
Mission and Goals:
The Lima Accord is a multilateral agreement amongst Latin American and Caribbean organizations that are responsible for the accreditation of undergraduate engineering programs within their respective jurisdictions. This affiliation accord is voluntary. Signatories are committed to the development and recognition of good practices in the delivery of engineering programs and have decided to work together so that once their programs obtain accreditation, the substantial equivalence of these programs can be recognized amongst the signatory agencies and thereby enabling the mobility of engineering professionals and the mutual recognition of the engineering qualifications under the current scenario of the globalization of careers.
