The International Engineering Alliance (IEA), the umbrella for the agreements that let engineering qualifications and credentials earned in one country be recognized in others, held its 2026 meetings in Cape Town, South Africa, from June 7 to 12. Reports published afterward by participating signatories show a new provisional member of the Washington Accord, a renewed full signatory and extensions to related professional agreements. For U.S. readers, the Washington Accord is the agreement that carries international recognition for graduates of ABET-accredited engineering programs.

The meetings

The Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) hosted the meetings, which were closed to the public. In a May 19, 2026 announcement, ECSA said it is a full signatory to the Washington, Sydney and Dublin Accords and to three related agreements for practicing engineers, technologists and technicians (IPEA, IETA and AIET). It described itself as the only African body with full IEA membership, listed Nigeria, Kenya and Mauritius as provisional Washington Accord signatories, and said it was assisting Botswana and Zambia in their efforts toward IEA membership.

Engineers Canada reported that more than 200 delegates from 49 engineering organizations in 39 countries attended. Engineering New Zealand said the sessions took place at the Century City Conference Centre.

Washington Accord outcomes

According to Engineering New Zealand's July 8, 2026 report on the meetings, the Engineering Institution of Zambia became a provisional signatory to the Washington Accord.

Engineering New Zealand also reported that its own Washington Accord signatory status was renewed after a review of its accreditation standards and processes carried out over 2024 and 2025. Full signatories go through these periodic reviews to keep their status.

The IEA's Washington Accord page lists 25 full signatories, among them ABET for the United States, which joined in 1989, along with Engineers Canada, Engineers Australia, the Engineering Council of the United Kingdom, Engineering New Zealand and ECSA. The page's provisional list includes Chile, Nigeria, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Mauritius and Myanmar.

Other agreements: Canada, the Philippines, Hong Kong

Some reported outcomes involved the IEA's agreements for experienced practitioners rather than the Washington Accord. Engineers Canada received a six-year extension, the longest available, of its memberships in the International Professional Engineers Agreement and the APEC Engineer agreement. The extension followed a periodic review by an expert panel that ran from the second half of 2025 into early 2026 and a vote by authorized members at the Cape Town meetings. Engineers Canada said its own Washington Accord periodic review will begin in late 2027, with a decision expected at the 2028 meeting.

Engineering New Zealand reported that the Philippine Technological Council became an authorized member of the International Professional Engineers Agreement, and that Engineering New Zealand exchanged signed copies of a new mutual recognition agreement with the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers.

What Washington Accord international recognition means for U.S. graduates

ABET explains the scope and limits of the accord on its mutual recognition page:

  • Only engineering programs that ABET accredits in the United States are covered. ABET also accredits programs in other countries, but those are not recognized under the Washington Accord, because each signatory's recognition extends only to programs within its own jurisdiction.
  • Coverage applies to graduates of U.S. programs from 1989 onward, the year ABET became a signatory. Other signatories may, but are not required to, recognize earlier graduates.
  • The accord does not grant a license. Signatories work to have licensing bodies in their countries accept each other's accredited programs, but each licensing body makes the final decision about an individual applicant.
  • ABET can confirm that a person graduated from an accredited program. It does not intervene in a registration decision in another country.

In practice, a U.S. engineering graduate applying for registration in another signatory country can point to the program's ABET accreditation as evidence that the education has been judged substantially equivalent, and the receiving body then applies its own rules on experience, assessment and licensure. ABET's agreements under the Sydney Accord (four-year engineering technology, from 2009) and the Dublin Accord (two-year engineering technology, from 2013) work the same way for those programs.

What comes next

Decisions on international recognition, membership and reviews are taken at the annual IEA meetings. Engineers Canada said it will attend the 2027 meeting, and its Washington Accord review is scheduled to reach a decision in 2028. Zambia joins Nigeria, Kenya and Mauritius as African bodies at the provisional stage, a group ECSA has said it is working to support. The IEA's public Washington Accord page is the reference for the current list of full and provisional signatories as it is updated after each meeting.

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