IAEA Board of Governors Meeting, Agenda Item 4: Program Performance Report for 2018-2019

U.S. statement as delivered by Alternate Permanent Representative Louis L. Bono
Vienna, Austria

Good Afternoon and Thank You Madam Chair,

We commend the IAEA’s continued efforts during the 2018-2019 biennium to strengthen the results-based approach it adopted in 2000 and has applied since then to the planning, implementation, assessment, and accountability of IAEA programs. In particular, we welcome the new reporting on where results have achieved their intended targets, where they have fallen short, and on actions being taken to address these shortcomings.

We commend the Agency for its continued effort to increase the number of countries that have finalized a Country Program Framework (CPF), a critical strategic tool for medium-term planning and results-based management. We note that in the years 2018 and 2019, an additional 49 CPFs were finalized and signed, bringing the total number to 110. Recognizing the need to support participation by new Member States in the TC program, we support Agency efforts to build awareness of and participation by developing countries in these assistance programs. The Agency’s effort to support multilingualism in its publications and its outreach to Member States is particularly important in this area.

In nuclear safety and security, we observe progress in issuing new or revised safety documents and streamlining peer review and advisory services. We appreciate the Agency taking a more holistic approach to capacity building and assistance, which should improve the sustainability of these efforts. Relatedly, we welcome the new framework for Integrated Nuclear Security Support Plans, which helps the Agency to better identify each Member State’s needs and demonstrates increased efforts to coordinate across the Agency and to remain in sync with the CPFs. We also appreciate the continued focus on support for Member States to implement the Amended Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and to prepare for its Review Conference.

We commend the Director General’s emphasis on inter-Departmental coordination and collaboration, which reinforces the Agency’s “one-house approach” in program management. We look forward to continued efforts to strengthen Agency activities on cross‐cutting issues such as resource mobilization and gender equality.

Regarding safeguards, we are pleased once again to see the successful completion of the MOSAIC project to modernize the Safeguards Department’s information systems, which should help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of safeguards for many years to come. We also welcome the reported progress in implementation of State-level safeguards approaches, and we look forward to progress in with the SLAs for all states with safeguards agreements.

Of course, any results-based management approach must always remain a work in progress. We support the recommendations in this report for continued work towards a full accountability framework with increased transparency, more performance indicators, and a more objective measurement of progress and performance against expected results.

Finally, we note that every previous PPR has been accompanied by a more detailed, supplementary compilation of additional information and statistics. We observe that the additional information was not provided this year in advance of this Board meeting and hope that this information will be forthcoming soon, and that it will be provided in advance of the Board’s discussion of this report in future years.

With these comments, the United States takes note of the Program Performance Report for 2018-2019.

Thank you, Madam Chair.