AFRA Committees meeting held from 12-16 November 2023 in Aswan, Egypt.

The African Regional Cooperative Agreement for Research, Development and Training Related to Nuclear Science and Technology (AFRA) Committees meeting was held in Aswan, Egypt from 12 to 16 November 2023. The AFRA Committees updated the AFRA Strategic Action Plan, Guidelines and Operational Procedures documents in line with the Action Plan and Political Declaration adopted by the AFRA High-Level Policy Meeting (HLPM) held in Cairo, Egypt, in December 2022 and the recommendations of the recent AFRA Technical Working Group Meeting held in Algiers, Algeria in June 2023.

The opening session was attended by Members of the three AFRA Committees, Government officials and invited guests, representatives of the Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority and TCAF staff. The meeting was officially opened by the Governor of the Aswan Governorate, Mr. Atiah Ashref Abdel Bary who welcomed the participants to Aswan and thanked the IAEA for the technical assistance provided to African Member States to address their socio-economic priorities.

In his opening remarks Mr. Shaukat Abdulrazak, DIR-TCAF expressed his gratitude to the Government of Egypt for hosting this meeting and for the excellent meeting arrangements. He reiterated the importance of AFRA committees’ meetings in proposing measures and actions to further enhance the AFRA Programme to help African Member States maximize the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology for their development.  Mr. Abdulrazak further stated that “The AFRA programme is designed to supports the socio-economic development, collaboration, sustainability, and self-reliance in Africa”.

In his opening statement, Dr Abdelhamid Mellah, AFRA Chair thanked the Government of Egypt for hosting this annual meeting and called on “members of the AFRA Committees to reaffirm their commitment to AFRA's strategic objectives”.

The five days meeting resulted to a comprehensive review of the AFRA strategic action plan, procedures, and operational guidelines. This includes, the new AFRA governance, the new structure of AFRA committees and their composition, indicators for the impact assessment of the AFRA programme. The AFRA committees also made some recommendations to further enhance the coordination, management and delivery of the AFRA including measures to expand the funding base of the AFRA programme, harmonization of training fees, visibility of AFRA, development of national strategy/plan for Human Resource Development (HRD) and the complementarity between national and regional projects. 

The deliberations and decisions of AFRA committee built on the AFRA’s ongoing efforts to enhance ownership, sustainability, and implementation of the AFRA programme to address the Member States priority needs as outlined in the AFRA Regional Cooperative Framework 2024-2028.