Vision, Mission, Values and Strategic Planning

Owner: International Standards Council.

Vision and mission

Mission: to accredit healthcare facilities that major accreditors do not reach — solo and micro practitioners, and facilities in limited-resource and conflict-affected settings — to the same rigorous, patient-safety-first standard applied everywhere else.

Vision: a world where quality healthcare accreditation is available to every facility capable of meeting a Non-Negotiable patient-safety standard, regardless of size, location, or resourcing.

Developed by the International Standards Council with Secretariat input, communicated on the ASF homepage and in every onboarding pack (ASF-POL-20), and reviewed every 3 years alongside ASF-POL-46.

Values

Rigour without gatekeeping; transparency by default (ASF-POL-30); patient safety as non-negotiable; continuous engagement over point-in-time judgement. Shared with staff at induction, published on france-asf.fr, and evident in the Core/Standard/Non-Negotiable tiering of every ASF standard.

Corporate social responsibility

ASF’s social responsibility is expressed through its mission itself — reaching facilities others do not — and through ASF-POL-45 (environmental footprint) and ASF-POL-44 (equitable partnership, localisation). This approach guides ethical decision-making directly: a proposed activity or partnership is weighed against whether it serves facilities others do not reach, before commercial or convenience factors.

Strategic and operating plan

A 4-year strategic plan, developed with stakeholder input (facilities, Coordinators, Monitors, donors), sets ASF’s measurable goals; an annual operating plan translates it into the year’s activities, resources, and timelines. Both are approved by the International Standards Council and progress is reviewed at each Council meeting, alongside the Risk Register (ASF-POL-17).

Chief Executive role

The Council delegates day-to-day operational management to a designated Secretariat lead (Chief Executive or equivalent), whose role, authority, and annual performance objectives are set and evaluated by the Council, consistent with the delegation structure in ASF-POL-32.