CANSO Africa ATM Safety Peer Review Initiative

Safety is the industry’s number one priority and CANSO Members are leveraging regional partnerships to meet global safety goals.

The CANSO Africa ATM Safety Peer Review Initiative is a joint initiative between African air navigation service providers (ANSPs) to improve aviation safety across Africa. The initiative was launched in February 2015 following an agreement between ICAO and CANSO on the need to address critical safety issues in ATM. It works by encouraging African ANSPs to work in partnership to assess safety management systems (SMS) and other operations requirements, share experiences and learn about measures for improvement in safety and operational performance.

What issues does it address?

The Africa region faces a variety of ATM issues, primarily safety-related. In some ANSPs there is lack of proper infrastructure and maintenance, inadequate training and development of the operational staff and a lack of standardised policies and procedures or means to evolve and implement best practice in safety management.

The CANSO Africa ATM Safety Peer Review Initiative was established to address these issues, bringing to the forefront the need for a standardised, measurable, sustainable approach to improving safety and other operational issues across the region. Created for ANSPs by ANSPs, the initiative goes far beyond conducting simple safety audits, leveraging the power of partnership and peer-to-peer learning to improve ATM performance across the region.

How does it work?

Small groups of ANSPs assess and evaluate the safety management systems (SMS) of each participating ANSP based on the CANSO Standard of Excellence in Safety Management Systems, CANSO Safety Management System Implementation Guide and the related CANSO SMS questionnaire, in accordance with ICAO’s Annex 19 Safety Management and Safety Management Manual (Doc 9859). This review process identifies gaps and specific areas for improvement. Together the ANSP peer review group will then determine the best, most appropriate action to take.

This unified approach to implementing best practice helps to harmonise safety standards, enhance data analysis and safety risk management, and improve safety performance measurement across the region.

Which organisations are taking part?

Five different review groups have been established and together are in the process of conducting the review process.

Team 1: ASECNA, Air Traffic & Navigation Services (ATNS), Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana (CAAB) and Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority

Team 2: CAAUganda, Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority, Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority (Rwanda CAA) and Burundi Civil Aviation Authority (Burundi CAA)

Team 3: Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Roberts F.I.R and Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA)

Team 4: Aeroportos de Moçambique, E.P., Zambia Airports Corporation Limited

Team 5:  ONDA, (group members to be finalised by ONDA)