Requirement: definition (ISO/UNDP 53001)
A requirement (French: exigence) is a need or expectation that is stated, generally implied or obligatory. In an ISO 53001 audit it comes from three sources: the standard itself, the organisation's legal and contractual obligations, and the rules the organisation has set in its own management system.
Updated: · edition covered: ISO/UNDP 53001:2026
In an ISO/UNDP 53001 audit
Every audit finding points to a specific requirement. The auditor must be able to say which one is not met, citing the subclause of the standard, the law or the internal rule concerned. The standard's own requirements sit in clauses 4 to 10; clauses 1 to 3 are not audited as such.
The auditor also checks that the organisation has identified the legal obligations touching its priority SDGs, for example on equal pay or on reporting. The auditor does not stand in for a regulator, but examines how those obligations are tracked. See the ISO/UNDP 53001 standard.
Rules the organisation sets itself
Once the organisation writes a rule into its system, that rule becomes auditable. A policy promise to assess all strategic suppliers within the year turns into a requirement, and missing it can be a nonconformity even though the standard set no such deadline. The auditor therefore reads internal commitments closely, since they define part of what will be verified.
See also
- Conformity: definition (ISO/UNDP 53001)Conformity (French: *conformité*) is the fulfilment of a requirement.
- Audit criteria: definition (ISO/UNDP 53001)Audit criteria (French: *critères d'audit*) are the set of requirements used as the reference against which evidence is compared.
- Interested party: definition (ISO/UNDP 53001)An interested party (French: *partie intéressée*) is a person or group that can affect the organisation's decisions, be affected by them, or perceive itself to be affected: employees, customers, suppliers, neighbours, funders, authorities.