Specialized Teams

Being an inter-governmental agreement, AFRA translates into concrete cooperative undertakings the Member States political commitment to regional cooperation and to mutual assistance under the umbrella of TCDC or south-south cooperation. AFRA’s spirit reflects Member States desire to share the available nuclear facilities and expertise, to exchange information and experience and to facilitate the transfer of know-how to those Member States where the expertise is needed. During the first five-year term, AFRA has focused on regional capacity-building to enable scientists in all its Member States to acquire the necessary capability which could stimulate the exchange of information and experience and facilitate the transfer of know-how from the advanced countries to the countries where the expertises is needed. Efforts were therefore directed towards the optimal use of the infrastructure, including the design and enforcement of new procedures and rules. At the beginning of the following five-years, the AFRA programme was audited by a group of experts who made some recommendations, including the necessity to re-orient the programme effort to need-driven and solution-oriented activities that can optimize the utilization of available regional facilities and expertise and rationalize the programme’s strategies (objectives) by generating a new thematic approach to development issues. Several initiatives have been taken to implement these new orientations, among which the establishment of specialized teams to respond at request and on “when needed basis”.