How to ensure that accreditation agencies are using the right standards, and are working in the right way?

As noted above, WFME is not an accrediting authority or agency. Accreditation of medical education is normally carried out by national governments, or by national agencies receiving their authority from government. It is important that all accreditation processes are working to internationally recognised standards.

WFME is working with ECFMG, and other experts, to develop a process of assessment of accreditation agencies. The objective is to create a transparent and rigorous method of ensuring that accreditation of medical schools, world-wide, is always at an internationally accepted and high standard.

WFME has published a statement of intent about this process. 

The decision of ECFMG, that "...effective in 2023, physicians applying for ECFMG Certification will be required to graduate from a medical school that has been appropriately accredited. To satisfy this requirement, the physician's medical school must be accredited through a formal process that uses criteria comparable to those established for U.S. medical schools by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) or that uses other globally accepted criteria, such as those put forth by the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME)" gives an extra stimulus to make sure that the standards and processes of accreditation agencies are satisfactory.