Qualification

Any AFRA Member State that believes that one or more of its institutions are capable of fulfilling the overall and specific objectives of Regional Designation Centres (RDCs), is invited to submit their application(s) according to the relevant fields of specialization. The procedure for recognition of an AFRA RDC is briefly elaborated below.

Application

The interested Centre should fill both the Application form and the Specific Questionnaire for the field of specialization. Centres should provide sufficient detail in their response so as to enable effective evaluation of their abilities.

Approval

Two copies of the completed applications and questionnaires together with any relevant documentation must be submitted to the country National Coordinator of AFRA for clearance. The documentation shall then be forwarded to the IAEA before the specified deadline. The formal authorization certificate regarding legalities of management and accuracy of information transferred shall be attached to these documents.

Technical Assessment

The application forms submitted by various Member States will then be reviewed by the AFRA Programme Management Committee (AFRA-PMC) and sent for technical assessment of the information provided.

Pre-selection

Based on the outcomes of the assessment as reported, the AFRA-PMC will make a pre-selection for different Centres and arrange for specialized auditing teams or experts to perform audits on these Centres.

Audits

A specialized audit team will visit the pre-selected Centre and perform audits according to selective criteria based on the responses to the questionnaires. For the auditing of AFRA RDCs, preference shall be given to regional expertise for auditing the preselected Centres. However, if deemed appropriate, non-regional experts could be sought. Meanwhile, the IAEA staff should not participate in the auditing of the preselected Centres to avoid any possible impartiality in the decision-making related to the appointment of RDCs.

Nomination

Based on the outcome of the audit reports, the AFRA Technical Working Group Meeting (AFRA TWGM) recommends to the Meeting of AFRA Representatives the formal designation of the qualified Centres as AFRA Regional Designated Centres (RDCs) in the particular fields of specialization.

Appointment

The appointment of RDCs will be made by at the Meeting of AFRA Representatives each year.

Action Plans

Following the appointment of the Centre as an AFRA RDC, an action plan will be developed and submitted to the AFRA-PMC by the RDC Focal Point.