ICAO, Kazakhstan Drive Multilateral Assistance Effort to Resolve Local Aviation Safety Concerns

 

​MONTRÉAL, 28 April 2016 – The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) announced the successful resolution of a Significant Safety Concern (SSC) in Kazakhstan last week, following a comprehensive multilateral assistance effort coordinated under the UN agency’s ‘No Country Left Behind’ initiative.

 

“By resolving this matter through coordinated capacity-building, and with support from donor States and International Organizations, ICAO and Kazakhstan have helped to further improve the safety of operations in its territory without any negative impacts on the capacity and efficiency of local air services,” remarked ICAO Council President Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu. “Our work under the ‘No Country Left Behind’ initiative is designed to ensure that all States and regions achieve and fully benefit from ICAO-compliant global air transport connectivity.”

 

ICAO’s assistance effort in Kazakhstan to resolve the persisting SSC was jointly led by its European and North Atlantic (EURNAT) Regional Office and the ICAO Technical Cooperation Bureau. It was implemented through a pre-agreed plan developed in conjunction with the State and supplemented by training through experts contributed by Portugal, Turkey, Singapore, Ukraine and the ICAO Air Navigation Bureau.  Funding for the assistance programme was also collaborative, with contributions coming from Kazakhstan, the ICAO EURNAT Office and the ICAO SAFE Fund.

 

The recently-rectified aircraft operations SSC was originally identified during a 2009 ICAO audit of Kazakhstan’s aviation safety oversight capacities, conducted under the ICAO Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP). That audit also revealed an aircraft airworthiness SSC, which a subsequent USOAP Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM) in 2014 identified as being satisfactorily resolved.

 

“ICAO very much recognizes and appreciates the States and Organizations which contribute resources to these efforts, and which collaborate with us on improving civil aviation safety and other sectoral goals,” stressed ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu. “By driving progress on ICAO’s Strategic Objectives through cost-effective collaboration we are helping States to benefit from safe, secure and efficient air transport services, which in turn provides important support for the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 and its ambitious Sustainable Development Goals.”