History of IAEA Technical Cooperation
For five decades, the IAEA has been fulfilling its mandate to "accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health, and prosperity throughout the world". From the beginning of the IAEA, technical assistance (later renamed technical cooperation) emerged as the Agency's major programme and maintained this position until the late 1960s.
The programme's focus during the first 30 years was to help developing Member States build up human capabilities and create the institutions and facilities that would enable them to introduce and enlarge the role of nuclear technology or apply nuclear techniques in a safe and effective manner.
The early technical assistance programme financed from the IAEA's own funds was a collection of relatively small projects with a duration of no more than twelve months; larger multi-year projects were funded by UNDP. As contributions to the Technical Cooperation Fund increased and the benefits of having larger projects became evident, the IAEA, in the late 1970s, introduced multi-year projects into its own programme.
In the early 1980s, the IAEA began to evaluate systematically what impact its technical cooperation projects were having in the beneficiary countries. The Agency concluded that the Secretariat had responded effectively to the challenge of a rapidly growing programme and that the projects were contributing to the transfer of technology. By the end of the 1980s, it was, however, clear that the phase of capacity and infrastructure building was largely completed and the time was ripe to shift the focus of the programme. A review of technical cooperation activities, particularly of policy and strategic matters, ensued over the mid-1990s. The effort sought to ensure that the programme would have a cost-efficient, direct, and measurable impact on the high-priority economic or social needs of the country being assisted; an impact well beyond the institute through which the activity was carried out. This review matured into the TC Strategy, which to date defines the programme's strategic goal, expected results, and management steps necessary to achieve these results.
In the wider context of the IAEA's work, and with respect to the substantive goals as outlined in the Medium Term Strategy , today's Technical Cooperation Programme is the main mechanism underpinning one of the Agency's three strategic "pillars" - technology transfer.
