Basseterre, St. Kitts, January 31, 2019 (SKNIS): As a member of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), St. Kitts and Nevis has benefited greatly from the world governing regulatory body’s policies and initiatives, says Royston Griffin, Senior Civil Aviation Officer, who appeared on the radio-television programme “Working for You” on January 30.
According to its website, “the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is a UN specialized agency, established by States in 1944 to manage the administration and governance of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention).”
“ICAO works with the Convention’s 192 Member States and industry groups to reach consensus on international civil aviation Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) and policies in support of a safe, efficient, secure, economically sustainable and environmentally responsible civil aviation sector. These SARPs and policies are used by ICAO Member States to ensure that their local civil aviation operations and regulations conform to global norms, which in turn permits more than 100,000 daily flights in aviation’s global network to operate safely and reliably in every region of the world.”
“In addition to its core work resolving consensus-driven international SARPs and policies among its Member States and industry, and among many other priorities and programmes, ICAO also coordinates assistance and capacity building for States in support of numerous aviation development objectives; produces global plans to coordinate multilateral strategic progress for safety and air navigation; monitors and reports on numerous air transport sector performance metrics; and audits States’ civil aviation oversight capabilities in the areas of safety and security.”
Mr. Griffin said that now ICAO has embarked on a system called No Country Left Behind (NCLB), the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis will benefit.
The ICAO website states that “the NCLB initiative highlights ICAO’s efforts to assist States in implementing ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs). The main goal of this work is to help ensure that SARP implementation is better harmonized globally so that all States have access to the significant socio-economic benefits of safe and reliable air transport.”
The senior civil aviation officer mentioned that the ICAO has an initiative called that Continuous Monitoring Assessment (CMA), which St. Kitts and Nevis has also benefited from.
“They used to do audit, but as of 2012 they changed it from being an audit to what we call a CMA. When we talk about CMA, we follow the pattern of an audit, but it’s what you call Continuous Monitoring Assessment,” he said. “The reason for that is because we have gone through two series of audits already so they have come back to assess. So it is a Continuous Monitoring Assessment system to see how far we are and how we are implementing the standards and recommended practices.”
Mr. Griffin stated that ICAO has already done a number of amendments. As a result, the Federation must update its legislations and programmes to ensure that it is keeping the standards of the ICAO.
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