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As a nonprofit organisation, the AviAssist Foundation is reliant on support from governments, corporations and foundations as well as fees for services.
The Foundation bases its activities on the Focus Areas of the Global Aviation Safety Roadmap(GASR). The GASR was produced by the Industry Safety Strategy Group (ACI, Airbus, Boeing, CANSO, FSF, IATA & IFALPA) to guide safety support activities worldwide. It works with Focus Areas that are prioritised on the basis of numerous intelligence sources. In turn, the Foundation’s work will help determine the (sub) regional maturity level of particular focus areas. This will enable tailoring any future safety support to the region.
The AviAssist Foundation works in line and co-ordination with the Comprehensive Regional Implementation Plan for Aviation Safety in Africa (ACIP) from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
The programs of the Foundation will mostly be based on the annual plan but the agenda certainly also leaves room to craft tailor made programs in line with your organisation's prime skills & resource focus.
References
The Foundation's reference projects include projects for: - Department of Civil Aviation - Zambia
- East African Wildlife Management Committee - avoiding conflict between wildlife and aviation
- European Commission Delegation in Zambia - assisting with roll out of aviation safety support program in Zambia
- European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) - organising a symposium on Regional Aviation Safety Agencies in Africa
- Netherlands Ministry of Transport, Water Management & Public Works
Programs & events
1. Aviation & wildlife management The Foundation has secured funding to support a program on lowering risks of wildlife dangers to aviation. Bird strikes are the most notable of those. The program focuses on East Africa. The Foundation has played a critical role in setting up the Interim East African Wildlife Management Committee which is foreseen to be associated with the Civil Aviation Safety and Security Oversight Agency (CASSOA) of the East African Community. Beyond the external funding, the Foundation coaches the committee in its activities.
2. Training Centre Capacity Building Program (TCCP) Many aviation training centres
in East and Southern Africa (ESAF) carry plenty of hard (technical) skills
courses in their curriculum. Such courses would e.g. address the maintenance of
navigational aids. Yet, an extensive IATA study on African aviation training
needs clearly highlighted the need for soft skills training. Such training puts
more emphasis on processes, management & communication in aviation safety
management. The Aviassist Foundation is rolling out its Training Centre Capacity
Building Program (TCCP) to address this issue in relation to safety (related)
courses. The TCCP aims to supplement ICAO’s efforts to make states self sufficient in
imparting safety training.
3. Safety Management Systems training
This program provides personnel responsible for planning, directing or managing aviation safety programs and supervisors who are required to supervise an accident prevention/risk management program with financially accessible introductory skills needed to set up a safety management system.
4. Data driven safety management program Data driven safety management has not yet influenced operations in Africa. This program will assist the start and strengthening of a practice of data driven safety management. That will allow AFI carriers to draw valuable lessons from occurring incidents and as a result prevent accidents, translating in the reduction of accident rates in the Region. The program is being developed in co-operation with one of the Foundation's corporate partners - ADSE Consulting and Engineering.
Regular Services
a. Making “best practices” and “innovations” accessible to aviation safety professionals
The Foundation will use all means available (e.g. monthly dispatches of African aviation news and website)to share “best practices” and “innovations” amongst the African aviation community.
b. Sensitise African Governments on international aviation requirements
A common misunderstanding in the aviation community is that African governments are very well aware of the international regulatory requirements on aviation safety. It is often unclear to political key players outside the aviation world what the international obligations of a state are. These political key players outside the aviation world do not necessarily know that ICAO is one of the few UN affiliated bodies that actually issues binding safety regulations. Equally, they may not be aware of increasing international pressure from for example blacklisting. As a result of that, the Directors of Civil Aviation (authorities) in many African governments have to struggle with a Cabinet and a Parliament that do not necessarily have aviation (safety) high on their list of priorities. To support their cause, the Foundation will issue a number of leaflets that may assist aviation administrations of ESAF countries in sensitising non-aviation members of government. The Foundation will start building a database of relevant contacts which it will target with such communications.
c. Widely advocate relevance of aviation safety for general economic development
To continue the breakdown of the traditional silo’s of aviation, tourism and general economic development, the Foundation will sensitise foreign diplomatic missions in the ESAF region on the relevance of aviation safety to general economic development. Also, it will sensitise other relevant organisations, such as development organisations and Ministries of Foreign Affairs of countries with co-operative programs in the ESAF region. To that end, the Foundation will continue building a database of relevant contacts which it will target with regular communications.
d. Providing intelligence on safety financing
One of the core competences of the Foundation is to provide intelligence to aviation administrations in the ESAF region on potential sources & methodologies of funding. These sources may be of assistance to aviation administrations in financing the improvement of (infrastructural) safety systems. Coming from a tradition of being highly top down managed organisations in regulated economies, thresholds are often (unnecessarily) perceived as high by staff and management of aviation authorities to open a dialogue with (foreign) funding institutions. By taking a pro-active and innovative approach that commences with a search for expertise instead of funding per se, the AviAssist Foundation has build a track record of mobilising external financial sources.
The Foundation will address specific requests by ESAF aviation administrations to assist in locating potential funding sources as well as distribute relevant general information to such administrations at its own discretion. It can also assist with the provision of independent reviews of terms of reference for safety related projects through expertise in its network. It will however not engage merely in selection of experts or consultants for projects which aviation administrations may want to undertake.
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