Rabat - The Arab Civil Aviation Organization organized a workshop on "Threat assessment and risk management in the field of civil aviation security", through a visual communication from 06 to 08 April 2021.

This workshop witnessed the participation of 130 representatives of Arab member states of the organization (17 countries), representatives of African countries that are members of the African Civil Aviation Commission (15), as well as some representatives of the organization's partner countries (the Transportation Security Administration in the United States of America, the Department for Transport In the United Kingdom, and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore), and representatives of regional organizations (the European Civil Aviation Conference, the African Civil Aviation Commission, the Arab Air Carriers Organization, and the International Air Transport Association for Africa and the Middle East).

During his opening speech, His Excellency Engineer Abdenbi Manar, Director General of the Organization, highlighted the direct implications of the Corona pandemic on civil aviation security, such as the possibility of an increase in terms of internal threat by terrorists exploiting employees and workers who are subjected to financial pressures or job uncertainty and concerned about possible job dismissals and who can be lured to disclose data, sensitive and weak points of the security system.

He called on the participants in this regard to enhance awareness and spread security culture among employees and workers who are assigned to implement security measures in order to understand the security risks that their organization is exposed to as part of managing the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and implement exchange of information and best practices to face security challenges at the regional and local levels.

In her intervention, Ms. Eleanor Travers of the European Civil Aviation Conference presented the European approach based on collecting data and identifying weaknesses in the aviation security system, through aviation security quality control activities, for the purpose of risk management and particularly in light of the outbreak of the Corona pandemic. She also highlighted the positive relationship between the culture of security and risk management, and the importance of cooperation in order to effectively manage risks and identify weaknesses.

Mr. William Bill Grinolds of the Transportation Security Administration of the United States of America presented the concept of threat assessment and risk management that has been put in place by the Transportation Security Administration, and the methodology adopted based on a schematic diagram of Fault Tree Analysis to define Degree of risk.

In his turn, Mr.Ben Cale from the Department of transport in the United Kingdom focused on the scientific methodology followed by the British authorities in assessing the threats and determining the degree of risk corresponding to the threat.

During his presentation, Mr. Martin Siu from Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore reviewed Singapore's approach to threat assessment and risk management.

In her turn, Mrs. Habiba Birouk, an international expert in the field of civil aviation security, reviewed thefundamentals for identifying and addressing security threats and vulnerabilities, as well as the guidance materials made available by the International Civil Aviation Organization and the skills required in order to apply an aviation security risk management approach, identify and make appropriate decisions to raise or lower the level of security measures in Airports.

This workshop falls within the framework of the activities of the Arab Civil Aviation Organization and aims at contributing to the spread of a security culture in line with the ICAO initiative to consider the year 2021 as the “Year of Security Culture”.