With the support of IAEA, National Coordinators to the African Regional Cooperative Agreement for Research, Development and Training Related to Nuclear Science and Technology (AFRA) attended the 34th Technical Working Group Meeting (TWGM) held since the Agreement’s establishment in 1990. From 18 to 22 June, the assembled IAEA staff and AFRA National Coordinators (NCs) reviewed programme activities of the last year and shared updates on the development of a new Regional Cooperative Framework (RCF) for 2024—2028.
Hosted by the Government of Algeria and by the Algerian Atomic Energy Commission (COMENA), the TWGM brought together 30 National Coordinators, as well as the AFRA Chair and Chairs of two of AFRA’s management committees—the Programme Management Committee (PMC) and the Human Resource Development Committee (HLSC).
Alongside Hua Liu, IAEA Deputy Director General, and Shaukat Abdulrazak, Director of the Technical Cooperation (TC) Division for Africa, the meeting was opened by remarks from the AFRA Chairman, Fidele Ndahayo, by AFRA National Coordinator for Algeria, Mohamed Mahlous, and by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Abdelkrim Aouissi.
Central to the deliberations of the meeting participants was the development of a new RCF, a document which aims to address the needs of African Member states at the regional level and to produce greater alignment between the IAEA regional programme for Africa and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.