1. 1 RCARO Temporary Staff Programme 2010 Mohammad Abdur Razzak Scientific Officer Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission 15 th March-10 th June, RCARO Supervised by Dr. Jae-sol Lee and Dr. Maeng-Ho Yang, Programme Officer, RCARO RCA Regional Office Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute Republic of Korea

2. 2 Introduction to RCA (Regional Co-operative Agreement) and its Regional Office The RCA is an intergovernmental agreement among IAEA Member States of South Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific for Research, Development and Training Related to Nuclear Science and Technology. To provide enhanced visibility for the RCA and developing partnerships with other international organizations RCA Regional Office (RCARO) was established on 27 th March, 2002 in Daejeon, Korea. It was my pleasure to have joined at the RCARO as a temp staff from Bangladesh.

3. 3 RCARO Missions The RCA Regional Office was established-  To increase RCA awareness: Visibility  To promote partnerships for RCA Program: Viability To fulfill the visibility and viability RCARO publish promotional materials like-  Brochure  Success Story

4. 4 My Assignment at RCARO The RCARO assigned three major tasks to me during the period of assignment- 1. Assistance to editing of RCARO Brochure’ 2010 updated 2. Assistance to editing the third batch RCARO Success Stories prior to submission to 32 nd National Representative Meeting for approval. 3. Incorporation of Members only Homepage (MOH) to the RCARO website

5. 5 (1) Main Components of RCARO Brochure’2010 1.Introduction to RCA 2.RCA Achievements for  Meeting Basic Human Needs  Advancing Life Sciences  Benefiting from the Physical Sciences  Addressing Environmental Issues  Other RCA Endeavors on Research Reactor and Radiation Protection 3.RCA Regional Office

6. 6 (2) RCA Success Stories In the First and Second batch, a total of 9 RCA Success Stories were published in leaflet form on the achievements of relevant RCA projects. I studied the past publication of RCA Success stories to learn about the RCA projects. First Batch-2007 Title Second Batch-2008 Title (1)Contributing to search fresh water (2)Alleviating air pollution (3)Assistance to medical infrastructure (4)Assisting training at distance (5)Enhancing materials properties (1)Improving crop productivity (2)Alleviating marine pollution (3)Strengthening skills in Non- Destructive Testing (4)Exploring geothermal power

7. 7 (2) Third Batch of RCA Success Stories In the third batch, RCARO is going to publish four Success Stories on the following title: Project CodeAreaTitle RAS/0/045EnergyEnhanced Energy Analysis and Planning capabilities for RCA Member States RAS/5/044Livestock Production Improving Livestock Productivity while Conserving Environment RAS/5/043EnvironmentCombating Soil Erosion- Caused Land Degradation in Asia and Pacific Region RAS/8/091Tracer Application RCA Innovation Supporting Regional Chemical, Petrochemical and Petroleum Industries.

8. 8 (3) Incorporation of MOH (Members Only Homepage) into RCARO Homepage RCA has had two separate home pages, RCARO homepage and Members Only Homepage (in Malaysia) since 2002: MOH has mainly provided information on RCA policy meetings and RCA projects from 2001 RCARO home page provided information on some other documents not provided by MOH In RCA General Conference Meeting,Sept.-2009, it was decided to merge the MOH site into the RCARO website, according to that decision RCARO incorporated the contents of MOH into the RCARO web site.

9. 9 (3/1) An Overview of RCA Policy Meetings To accomplish the RCA’s mission, visions and strategic directions, RCA holds several policy meetings annually and multi-year basis, organize workshop, science forum and training. RCA Policy meeting can be classified as follows: National Representative Meeting (NRM) General Conference Meeting (GCM) Meeting of Lead Country Coordinators on Thematic Sectors (TSLCC) Meeting for Mid-Term Strategy (MTS) Others  Inter-regional Meeting  RCARO workshop  RCARO Science Forum

10. 10 (3/2) National Representative Meeting (NRM)  The NRM is the major annual gathering of National RCA Representatives for review of the previous year’s achievements, published as annual report, and the work plan for the year. It is held for several days in Spring (March-April) in the host Member States on a rotating basis.  In conjunction with the NRM, RCARO holds its Standing Advisory Committee (SAC) meeting which started to be held from the 27 th NRM in 2005. The SAC meeting is to get advisory input in preparation for the NRM to be held on the following day.

11. 11 (3/3) National Representative Meeting (NRM) There have been 32 NRMs held from the beginning of the RCA in 1972 to 2010. The RCARO website provides a set of documents on 10 NRMs from 22 nd NRM to 31 st NRM. Information related to these NRMs are available on the RCARO’s website as follows: Agenda List of Participants Meeting Report and Annexes Other Reference documents On the website some NRMs documents are not complete with all the listed information.

12. 12 (3/4) National Representative Meeting (NRM) No. of NRM Venue and DurationInformation UnavailableCorrection needed 22 nd Mumbai, India 28 February-3 March,2000 okay ---------- 23 rd Dhaka, Bangladesh 18-20 March, 2001 Annex-3 -------------- 24 th Seoul & Daejeon, ROK 25-29 March,2002 Annex-13, Annex-25, Annex-27 Agenda Item-6.3(b), 6.3(c),7.1 ---------------- -- 25 th Colombo, Srilanka 26-28 May,2003 Okay ---------------- --- 26 th Islamabad, Pakistan 12-15 April,2004 Annex-9 ---------------- ----- 27 th Kuala-Lumpur, Malayasia 04-08 April,2005 Annex-22 ---------------- --

13. 13 (3/5) National Representative Meeting (NRM) No. of NRM Venue and Duration Information unavailable Correction needed 28 th Bankok, Thailand 27-30 March, 2006 Annex-14 Agenda Item- 28(6) Annex-19 mentioned as Annex-20 and Annex-20 mentioned as Annex-21 on the top right corner. 29 th Sydney, Australia 20-23 March, 2007 ------------------ Title of Annex-1 should be changed to List of participants 30 th Hanoi, Vietnam 8-10 April, 2008 Annex-12,23 Annex-24,25 ----------------- 31 st Tokyo, Japan 21-24 April, 2009 Annex-1-30 Attachment document (31/6) is mentioned as (31/3) on the top right corner.

14. 14 (3/6) General Conference Meeting (GCM) The GCM is another annual gathering of RCA for interim review of the work progress for the year. It is held for a day in September in Vienna International Centre (VIC), just before the General Conference of IAEA. In conjunction with NRM, RCARO holds its Standing Advisory Committee (SAC) meeting, in a similar way as the NRM, to get advisory input on the RCARO matters, in preparation for the GCM. There are 38 GCM have been held from the inception of RCA to 2009. Documents on 10 GCM, from 29 th GCM to 38 th GCM, are available on the RCARO website. Information related to GCM on the RCARO website are as follows: Agenda List of Participants Meeting Report Annexes Other Reference Documents On the RCARO website some GCMs documents are not complete with all the listed information.

15. 15 (3/7) General conference Meeting (GCM) No. of GCM DurationInformation Unavailable 29 th 20 th September,2000Okay 30 th 16 th September,2001Okay 31 st 18 th September,2002Annex-1 to Annex-12 32 nd 17 th September,2003Okay 33 rd 22 nd September,2004Annual Report Part-1 Annexes-1-12 34 th 23 rd September,2005Annex-VI (a) mentioned as Annex-25 on the top right corner 35 th 15 th September,2006Okay 36 th 14 th September,2007Okay 37 th 26 th September,2008All of the Annexes 38 th 11 th September,2009Most of the Annexes

16. 16 (3/8) Meeting of Lead Country Coordinators (Thematic sectors/Projects)-TSLCC TSLCC and Year Information unavailable TSLCC’2006 Annex-3, 4, 5 TSLCC’2005 Annex-1, 2, 8 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. TSLCC’2004 Report and All Annexes Except Five Annexes TSLCC’2003 Annexes-3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 TSLCC’2002 Final Report and all of the Annexes, I could not mention the exact number of Annexes with title as the main report was not available.

17. 17 (3/9) Meeting for Mid-Term Strategy (MTS) The mid term strategy has been formed to review the projects in a longer time frame. RCA is revised for every six years, the previous one have been established for 2006-2011. The Mid-Term Strategy working group meeting was held in October 2009 with a view to revise associated issues for the following term 2012-2017.

18. 18 (3/10) Others  Workshop for RCA Working Staff of Member states, 14-17 June -2004, Daejeon, Korea-----Okay  RCA Environment Workshop:  Developing Future RCA Environment Strategy, 20-22 February 2006, INTEC, KAERI, ROK---Okay  Preproject Review Meeting on RCA-UNDP (K) Environment Project, 23-24 February, 2006, INTEC, KAERI—Okay  Workshop on RCARO Future Strategies-24th July-2007, Korea----Okay  Workshop on the Future Activities of RCARO for Sustainable Development, 30 November- 5 December, 2008, Jeju, Korea----- Annex-3- Presentation of Mr. Jae-Sol Lee, Programme Officer, RCARO (Unavailable)  RCARO Workshop on the Partnership Promotion and Sustainable Development, 7-9 July, 2009-Jeju, Korea.—Okay  RCA 30th Science Forum, 25th March, 2002, Seoul- Korea: Okay  UN - ESCAP Meeting: 19-21 November, 2002 –Thailand (May be incomplete)

19. 19 (3/11)Others cont……..  Regional Meeting on Advanced Mechanisms in Technology Transfer, 20-24 October, 2003- Jakarta, Indoneshia. Okay  New Horizons: Nuclear Energy in a Changing World, IAEA Scientific Forum, 16-17 September, 2003. Okay  Presentation on RCA at 5th FNCA by Dr. Prinath Dias, RCA coordinator, IAEA, March 2004, Japan. Okay  Inter-Regional Quadripartite RCA/AFRA/ARCAL/ARASIA Forum, 2004, Vienna: Following Annexes are unavailable Annex-1- Mr. B K Kim’s Remarks Annex-2- A List of Participants Annex-4- Comments of AFRA’S Annex-5- AFRA’S Presentation on NDT Annex-6- ARCLA’S Presentation on Helicobacter pylori. Annex-7- RCA’S Presentation on the achievements in agricultural programme.

20. 20 2) Documents on RCA Projects Over the past years a lot of projects have been conducted in the frame of RCA program. The RCA projects are usually programmed for 2 years per cycle and assigned with RAS code for each of them upon approval. RCA projects are being conducted on the following category:  Agriculture  Human Health  Environment  Industry  Others-  Energy and Nuclear power  Radiation Protection  Research Reactor Utilization  Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC)  Electronic Networking Outreach (ENO)

21. 21 Information available on the RCARO Web site related to RCA Projects  RCA Projects with RAS Code  Project name with associated years  Project Leader/Coordinator  Documents related to project proposal  concept paper  logical framework matrix  Report of the meetings on project coordination  Documents on the project progress or final report

22. 22 Sector wise RCA Projects cycle YearAgricultureHealthIndustryEnvironmentOthers 1999- 2000 5034, 5035 5036 5037 5038 6027 6028 6029 6033 7008 4018 8077 8055 8086 8087 8076, 8087 8080 8082 8083 8084 0025, 9018, 9024 0028 0029 4016 4019 2001- 2002 5034, 5041 5035, 5042 5037 5038 5039 5040 6027 6028 6029 6033 6035 7008 8085 8086 4018 8089 8019 8076, 8090 8080, 8092 8082, 8093 8083 8084 8087 0025, 4020 0028, 4016 0029, 4019 0033 9018 9024 2003- 2004 5035, 5046 5039 5040 5041 5042 6029, 6039 6033, 6041 6036, 7012 6038 8085 8090 8091 8094 8096 7011, 8097 7013 8092 8093 8095 0035 0038 4022 9018

23. 23 Sector wise RCA Projects cycle YearAgricultureHealthIndustryEnvironmentOthers 2005- 2006 5040 5043 5044 6029, 6041 6033, 6042 6038 6040 8098 8099 8100 7013 8095 80097 0041, 9032 9018, 4024 9029, 0035 9031 2007- 2008 5043 5045 5046 6029, 6042 6038, 6048 6040, 6049 6041 8105 8106 8107 7015 7016 8104 0045 0048 4026 9024 2009- 2011 5045 5046 5050 6038 6048 6049 6053 8109 8110 8111 7016 7019 8108 9042

24. 24 Summary of Issues on the MOH Data Incorporation Malaysia was responsible to preserve the documents on RCA meetings and projects as it was the host of RCA Members Only Homepage but on the 38 th GCM it was recommended that both the RCA Members Only Homepage (MOH) and the RCA public Website should be hosted by the RCARO. But at the time of extracting information from the MOH it was seen that some information are unavailable too and some are need correction which I mentioned in the table specifically. As the detailed and easy availability of information is the criteria of a good website so to make the RCARO website enrich in information missing document should be recovered.

25. 25 Lessions Learned From RCARO  Understanding about the operation of RCARO for the enhancement of RCA  Understanding about important Meetings and congresses related to RCA activities  Team spirit prevailing at the RCARO for work towards sustainable development activities  Appropriate system of writing meeting directory and project proposal  Understanding about RCA, IAEA-RCA, and IAEA-TC projects  Interpersonal relationship and communication

26. Thank you