The IAEA, the Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences (KIRAMS), and the Ministry of Health of Mongolia have signed a landmark agreement to strengthen Mongolia’s national capacities for nuclear medicine and radiation oncology. The comprehensive agreement was signed by Mr. Hua Liu, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Technical Cooperation, Jin Kyung Lee, President of Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, and Dr. Enkhbold Sereejav, Vice Minister of Health of Mongolia, on the margins of the IAEA’s 67th General Conference, following discussions held during a recent visit to Mongolia. It defines ambitious priority areas for collaboration within the framework of the IAEA’s Rays of Hope initiative.
"We are grateful for this opportunity to further expand access to cancer care in our country," said Manlaijav Gunaajav, Secretary of the Nuclear Energy Commission of Mongolia and Head of Executive Office, during a bilateral meeting held in the fringes of the IAEA General Conference. "The main challenge we face in this area is a lack of cancer diagnostic and treatment capacity. We are confident that this agreement will help strengthen and improve our national capacity, including technological advancement, equipment and human resources development, aligning our health care services with international standards in terms of quality and accessibility," he added.
Mongolia formally requested to join the IAEA’s Rays of Hope initiative in March 2023 following a first mission to the country earlier in the year. Building on achievements from existing IAEA technical cooperation projects in the field of health and spurred on by high level discussions held during the recent tri-party meeting in Mongolia, the scope of the collaboration covers four distinct but complementary goals. With cancer cases expected to double in Mongolia within the next 20 years, the goal of the new agreement is to equip the country with a robust and sustainable healthcare infrastructure that is capable of meeting growing cancer needs.
In detail, the agreement sets out to do the following:
- Strengthen existing facilities in the field of radiation medicine in Mongolia, by supporting the provision of nuclear medicine and diagnostic equipment, such as PET and SPECT/CT, and radionuclide treatment.
- Support the expansion of radiation medicine, by collaborating within the framework of the IAEA technical cooperation programme to design and conduct a feasibility study to expand and strengthen radiation medicine capacity in Mongolia.
- Support national cancer planning in the context of the IAEA’s upcoming imPACT Review mission to Mongolia and provide overall support for the national cancer control plan, for which KIRAMS will offer technical cooperation.
- Support for the establishment of a national system to provide medical assistance for radiation emergencies in Mongolia.
IAEA support will be channelled through the Rays of Hope initiative and a proposed four year integrated technical cooperation project on cancer care in Mongolia, with the priorities for national healthcare capacity development identified and agreed upon during the tri-party mission in August.
"Direct engagement with national counterparts and on-site visits to healthcare facilities as part of our assessment mission in August have provided us with a nuanced, in-depth understanding of Mongolia's cancer care infrastructure against which to benchmark all future projects enabled under this agreement," said Gashaw Wolde, Section Head in the Division for Asia and the Pacific at the IAEA's Department of Technical Cooperation.
This tri-party arrangement marks a new step in the long history of successful collaboration between the IAEA and Mongolia, and is concrete evidence of how triangular cooperation with a third party such as KIRAMS can support Member States in their efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
