Regulatory Assistance

PASO in partnership with the Government of New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (New Zealand MFAT) are providing strategic support to PASO Members to improve their international aviation safety and security compliance obligations under the ICAO’s Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP).

PASO is developing an integrated Pacific-wide harmonisation of the core regulatory and organisational systems supporting aviation safety for PASO Members.
Image:Tuvalu International Airport. Credit: Maloff/Shutterstock

PASO is developing an integrated Pacific-wide harmonisation of the core regulatory and organisational systems supporting aviation safety for PASO Members. Image:Tuvalu International Airport. Credit: Maloff/Shutterstock

New Zealand MFAT PASO Support Programme

Regulatory Support is being provided though the New Zealand MFAT PASO Support Programme, which started in 2018. Recognising the initial PASO success in completing a gap analysis and implementation plan for PASO Members, in May 2020 New Zealand MFAT provided an additional NZD 2.2M investment over one year (to 30 June 2021) to enable continued technical assistance to PASO Members.

The deliverables of PASO’s Support Programme are:

  1. Continue Core Funding to deliver the PASO 2018-2022 Strategic Plan, including the previous USOAP Programme and bilateral assistance to Vanuatu
  2. Executing USOAP State Implementation Plans developed as part of the USOAP Programme.
  3. Additional Services for the Cook Islands
  4. Bilateral Assistance for Nauru (Security focused)
  5. Bilateral Assistance for Kiribati (Safety focused)

PASO is now developing an integrated Pacific-wide harmonisation of the core regulatory and organisational systems supporting aviation safety for PASO Members. This Programme ultimately will set the the foundation to develop PASO as a central provider of a wider range of regulatory services.

Types of Regulatory Assistance provided

Through the USOAP Programme, PASO’s Member States will be able to access common technical resources managed by PASO to demonstrate their compliance with ICAO’s Standard and Recommended Practices (SARPs), which underpin global aviation safety oversight.

The type of assistance PASO will provide to Member States includes:

  • Legislation: Training on aviation legislation requirements, template or model legislation development (in modules) together with guidance for implementation of the legislation
  • Organisation: Example organisational structures for regulatory delivery, example delegations and model training programmes for key regulatory staff and senior decision makers
  • Policies and procedures: Policies and procedures that can be translated into a common set of procedures for Member States that aligns with PASO procedures

PASO Members will be invited to engage in the USOAP Programme to provide input into the development of the resources, and support and champion the implementation of the resources within States.

In addition, though a consultancy funded by the World Bank PASO Reform Project, PASO is providing assistance to Member States to update ICAO’s Online Framework (OLF) to demonstrate their USOAP compliance.

Last Updated on December 21, 2021