The 19th coordination meeting of the ARCAL Technical Coordination Board (OCTA) took place in IAEA Headquarters in Vienna from 14 to 18 May 2018. The OCTA meets each year to assess Member State proposals for the regional programme of the forthcoming IAEA technical cooperation programme cycle.
National Coordinators of ARCAL, representing Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela, and a representative from Spain, worked together to identify regional priorities and to select project proposals for the 2020–2021 TC cycle. Participants focused on identifying common regional challenges that could be addressed in a cohesive, coordinated and effective manner, and discussed the benefits of establishing IAEA collaborative centres to create synergies and harmonize national nuclear capacities.
Of the 68 proposals submitted to the OCTA, ten were selected to proceed through to the design phase. These ten project proposals are focused on food safety, human health, energy, radiation technology, and strategic planning.
The meeting served as a platform to analyse the progress made by the ARCAL regional programme in 2017. Several projects carried out with the ARCAL framework were acknowledged as being of particular importance for the region, including one to strengthen civil and industrial infrastructure using non-destructive testing. Participants noted the high implementation rate of 90.2% in the Latin America and the Caribbean region.
The National Coordinators also agreed on new communication and partnership strategies, with the goal of achieving greater visibility, and of enabling Member States to create synergies with institutions both within and outside the region.
A new monitoring and evaluation plan was formulated, which will contribute to the assessment of project impact in a reliable and timely manner, and in line with IAEA quality standards.
