Strengthening Civil Aviation Through Technical Cooperation

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Strengthening civil aviation in developing countries in the aviation field is a major objective for ICAO’s Technical Cooperation Bureau (TCB). Improving aeronautical infrastructure and services and environment protection is expected to bring better human, social and economical conditions – in focusing on the empowering civil aviation institutions, the goal is to enable States to better face the continuously changing aviation environment.

A spotlight on the TCB’s recent efforts in the area of training:

AFGHANISTAN: July 2016 marked the beginning of the implementation of a technical cooperation project aimed at building capacity in Afghanistan through the training of national personnel. The first phase of this project, funded by the United States, calls for training over 30 Fire Crash and Rescue Service personnel and over 40 Air Traffic Controllers.

The training is conducted in an ICAO TRAINAIR PLUS accredited academy in India, supported logistically by UNOPS and coordinated through ICAO’s Technical Cooperation Bureau (TCB). Subsequent phases of this project will see more Afghan nationals benefit from similar training. The project serves as a powerful illustration of the virtues of close collaboration between different entities in the aviation community. This is how ICAO plays a pivotal role in the development of the skills and experience of aviation professionals.

LATIN AMERICA: Another case of a successful capacity-building initiative is the partnership between TCB and Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA) from Spain. For many years, under this technical cooperation project, seminars and workshops have been organized in Latin America covering a number of important topics. For example, one of the seminars held in Cartagena, Colombia last year dealt with “Development of Regional Airports”. Over 50 participants benefitted from this training activity.

Professionals from the region are eligible to apply for fellowships to participate in these events. Moreover, AENA, in collaboration with TCB, has awarded a number of bursaries for professionals to undertake graduate level studies at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in Spain.

These are just two examples of TCB’s commitment to work with organizations around the world to promote training for aviation professionals worldwide. In fact, since its creation over 60 years ago, capacity-building and training have been pillars of TCB’s core activities when providing assistance to ICAO Member States. TCB offers many mechanisms and services that States can use to meet their capacity-building and training needs.

FELLOWSHIPS: Through TCB, States can nominate nationals to undergo training through our Fellowships Programme. This way, selected candidates receive training in internationally recognized universities or training centres. States can nominate candidates through the Developing Countries Training Programme (DCTP), which is provided in partnership with internationally respected training centres in India, the Republic of Korea and Singapore.

In the past four years, TCB has awarded over 2500 fellowships across the globe (including over 700 fellowships under the DCTP). Professionals who have benefited from this training have returned to their national authorities and contributed significantly to the development of their State’s air transport industry.