From 8 to 12 July, over 60 National Liaison Officers (NLOs) and National Liaison Assistants (NLAs) from more than 30 countries and territories in Asia and the Pacific gathered at IAEA Headquarters in Vienna for a week-long workshop. The NLO meeting was organized to enhance the impact and efficiency of the numerous activities being implemented in the region through the Agency’s technical cooperation (TC) programme and to share their experience in impactful programme delivery.
2018 was a particularly successful year for the TC programme in the region, said Jane Gerardo-Abaya, Director of the Division for Asia and the Pacific. Thirty-eight countries and territories received technical cooperation support, over 800 experts participated in training courses, nearly 700 specialists took part in fellowships and scientific visits, 36 regional training courses were organized, more than 1000 expert and lecture assignments delivered, and over 1600 meeting participants were supported, she added.
To better understand how IAEA staff and Member State counterparts achieved such a high rate of implementation in 2018, an exchange of experiences and perspectives formed the basis of the week-long meeting. “The Asia Pacific region has a very active technical cooperation programme, with a broad scope of thematic areas and countries. This workshop is a great opportunity for us to further increase the impact of our activities in the region by learning from each other’s journey to successes, demonstrating that substantive progress can be achieved from modest beginnings,” said Gerardo-Abaya.
The NLOs and NLAs presented summaries of their experiences, describing the journeys that led to the achievements in the management of their national TC programmes.
Participants heard examples from their peers, such as Vansopanha Lek, the National Liaison Officer from Cambodia. “With TC support, Cambodia established its first National Cancer Care Center. This enabled us to set up our current national cancer therapy treatment programme. Following this achievement, we look forward to making plans for the future in the field of cancer therapy,” he said.
Hadj Slimane Cherif, the National Liaison Officer of Oman, shared a success story from his country. “Our Ministry of Health has adopted a new policy to screen travellers from malaria endemic places, using molecular diagnostic methods acquired through IAEA TC projects. This will eventually lead to Oman becoming a malaria-free country,” he added.
A compendium compiling recent achievements and accomplishments realized with the support of the IAEA’s TC programme, was made available to all of the attending national counterparts. “The examples and lessons learned catalogued in the compendium will serve to guide, inspire and maximize the participation of Member States in the programme,” said Gerardo-Abaya.
