The Government of Afghanistan is working with the IAEA to plan and design a suite of national projects for the 2016-2017 technical cooperation (TC) cycle. In an effort to identify the country's needs and capacities, a meeting was held from 2-6 February 2015 at the IAEA's Vienna Headquarters to discuss the national projects proposed by Afghanistan. Initial proposals had already been screened and discussed, and five national projects had been selected for further development as part of the 2016-2017 TC programme cycle. The February meeting was held to assist Afghan specialists to further elaborate and develop the proposed five projects, which address the following areas of activity:
- Telemedicine in radiology;
- Soil and water resources management;
- Energy planning;
- Quality control of diagnostic X ray equipment;
- Radiological monitoring for safety enhancement.
In addition to the Afghan National Liaison Officer, the meeting was attended by five project counterparts from Afghan Atomic Energy High Commission, the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Energy and Water, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, the Ministry of Higher Education, and the Aliabad Teaching Hospital.
With the assistance of the Technical Officers concerned and the Programme Management Officer, the project counterparts successfully produced complete drafts for the project designs during this five-day meeting.
His Excellency Mr Erfani, Ambassador of Afghanistan, attended the closing session of the meeting and expressed Afghanistan's strong interest in supporting the planning and implementation of the projects under the IAEA technical cooperation programme.
The draft designs will go through further internal reviews and revisions in the coming months before they are included in the 2016-2017 technical cooperation programme, which will be submitted to the Technical Assistance and Cooperation Committee (TACC) for review in November 2015.
