Director General Opens National Liaison Office Meeting and Launches New Technical Cooperation Achievements Report

On 25 November, ahead of the IAEA Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Science, Technology and Applications and the Technical Cooperation (TC) Programme, over 160 National Liaison Officers from 122 countries gathered at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna in regional groups to review the implementation status of the technical cooperation programme, receive updates on the flagship initiatives, and plan and design projects for the next technical cooperation cycle.

The event was opened by IAEA Director General Mariano Grossi who highlighted the importance of such exchanges. "These exchanges can help in the efficient implementation of the IAEA technical cooperation programme," Mr Grossi said.

In addition to providing an overview of the IAEA's latest initiative, Atoms4Food, the Director General also launched a three-volume report during the NLO Meeting, Prospects and Achievements of the IAEA Technical Cooperation Programme in the 21st Century. The report, summarizes the achievements realized through the TC programme during the past two decades in around 150 countries, including at least 35 least developed countries.

This is the second time that NLOs from all regions have met in person to participate in a combined meeting-the first was at the 2017 International Conference on Technical Cooperation.