PROGRESS REPORT NOV 2008 – JAN 2009

A         Summary – Brief

1.         The period was taken up mainly by the holiday festive season of the month of December when activities slow down to a minimum.

2.         There was however a continued push for interested African States to join the AFRO-CAA.

           (A summary of activities is given below).

B          Meetings

Meetings were held as follows:

1.         Kenya’s continued interest in joining the AFRO-CAA was furthered by meetings held in Nairobi with Transport officials in November.  It was agreed that follow-up, will be held in February or March 2009.

2.         Contacts were re-established with Senior Officials of the Transport Department of South Africa regarding membership with the AFRO-CAA follow-up meetings are scheduled for early 2009.

3.         The AFI meeting held in November was attended in Durban South Africa.  Discussions were held with the following officials:

Her Excellency Madame Baleka Mbete

Deputy President of South Africa

·         She opened the meeting and welcomed all participants on behalf of the South African Government and wished all a good meeting in Durban

Honourable Minister Jeff Radebe

Minister of Transport (South Africa)

·          He welcomed all Delegates and said this was an important meeting for Africa.

Director General

Department of Transport  (South Africa)

·          The Director General was the Master of Ceremonies and led the meeting professionally.

Hon. Minister Helmuth Angula

Minister of Transport (Namibia)

·          He was impressed at how African Countries were progressing on Aviation Safety.

Dr. H.O Demuren

Director General Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority

Chairman of the AFRO-CAA Board

·          Dr. Demuren,  who is the Chairman of the AFRO-CAA,  also attended the meeting and gave several speeches.

B.T Mutenga

ICAO – SADAC - Namibia

·          The Representative for SADAC on the ICAO Council attended the meeting and was happy with the results.

Mr Ignatuis Sama Juma

Director General of Cameroon Civil Aviation Authority

·          The Director General of the Central Regional Head Quarters of AFRO-CAA also attended.

Chris Kuto

President of AFCAC

·          The President of AFCAC welcomed all Delegates on behalf of AFCAC.

Jonathen Mukawaveri

SADAC

 ·          The SADAC Manager attended the meeting and commended the results.

Capt. Harry Eggerschwiler

AFRO-CAA

 ·          Capt. H Eggerschwiler attended the Durban meeting and was encouraged by the increased number of  Regional Head Quarters personnel from AFRO-CAA who attended.

·          The meeting was excellently organized by the South African Government, Department of Transport.

Tefera Makonnen

ICAO - Ethiopian Representative 

·          Mr. Makonnen from ICAO attended the meeting and he was surprised that so many countries had sent their Delegates.

C         Programme Follow-up/Marketing

1.                  Plans were drawn up for a quarterly magazine to be             distributed to all AFCAC Member States.

2.         Implementation plans are scheduled for discussion          in          in Windhoek for early 2009.

D         SADAC, EAC, IATA, ECA, AFRAA

            No meetings were held

E          MOUs Development

            Several key African States requested the MOUs and are studying    s           them in detail.

F          AFCAC/NEPAD/ICAO

            No new meetings were held.

G         Legal

            1)         Member States required more time to study proposed                              proposed ACARS to issue their comments.

H         Funding

1)         Two major firms one in Brussels and one in Washington DC continued to express a firm interest in securing long term funding for the AFRO-CAA project.

2)         The Secretariat had just about secured the funds necessary to engage the 2 firms and concrete steps are expected from February 2009.

I           Any other Business

Visits are scheduled to South Africa, Kenya, Brussels and USA between February and April 2009.