The General Directorate of the Arab Civil Aviation Organization, headed by His Excellency Eng. Abdenbi Manar, Director General of the Organization, and Engineer Mr. Mohammed Rejeb, ACAO’s safety and air navigation expert, participated on Wednesday2 and Thursday 3 December 2020 in the eighth meeting for regional cooperation arrangements in the Middle East with the aim to prevent and manage public health events in Civil Aviation (CAPSCA-MID / 8), organized by the International Civil Aviation Organization's regional office in the Middle East, in cooperation with the WHO Regional Office (WHO -EMRO).
Sixty-one experts and representatives from fifteen countries and eight international and regional organizations participated in this meeting: the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the State of Kuwait, the State of Libya, the Kingdom of Morocco, the Sultanate of Oman, the State of Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Republic of Sudan, The Syrian Arab Republic, the United Arab Emirates, the Republic of Yemen, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the United States of America. Representatives of the following international and regional organizations also attended the meeting: the Arab Civil Aviation Organization, the Arab Union, the International Air Transport Association, the Airports Council International, and the International Federation of Air Pilots Associations (ACAO, AACO, IATA, ACI, IFALPA).
The presentations and discussions of this meeting focused on the objectives and methodology of the CAPSCA Collaborative Arrangements’ Program for the Prevention and Management of Public Health Events in Civil Aviation, the global and regional reactions of countries and organizations to the Public Health Management (PHM), the second edition of the CART documents, and the CAPSCA Handbook on Testing and Cross Border Risk Management, as well as the Eastern Mediterranean Region initiatives to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The meeting concluded with the adoption of recommendations urging countries to implement the recommendations of the CART team and the guidelines included in the take-off document, and to update their implementation data continuously for the Response and Recovery Implementation Center(COVID-19 CRRIC). They also concluded on the implementation of the procedures contained in the ICAO Manual on testing and Cross-Border Risk Management, and on the use by their experts of ICAO's training packages, as well as to benefit its international airports from the CAPSCA technical assistance missions.
The recommendations of the meeting also stressed that the amendment and suspension of risk mitigation measures should be based on a comprehensive risk assessment to be conducted in a systematic and regular manner, as well as on the exchange of updated data between national authorities in a proactive and transparent manner on the items related to injury, public health and capacity of health services, public health and social measures.