PURPOSE

The primary purpose of this manual is to introduce and describe the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) Continuous Monitoring Approach (CMA) (hereafter also referred to as the Programme), including its history and evolution, programme concept, principles, policies, procedures and methodology. The intended readers and users are the participants and stakeholders of USOAP, including, but not limited to, ICAO Member States (hereafter referred to as Member States or States), recognized international and regional organizations, and members of the USOAP team, from management to auditors, subject matter experts and assessors.

This manual is also an essential guide for USOAP support staff, either at ICAO Headquarters or in the Regional Offices (RO), in the planning, preparation, conduct and reporting of USOAP CMA activities.

This fifth edition of Doc 9735 introduces updates and changes to the Programme since 2013. They include the following:

a) addition of Annex 19 – Safety Management to USOAP coverage and the introduction of the State Safety Programme Implementation Assessment (SSPIA) as a new USOAP activity;

b) implementation of the recommendations of the Group of Experts for a USOAP CMA Structured Review (GEUSR), which was established in 2018 pursuant to a decision of the 39th Session of the ICAO Assembly (27 September to 6 October 2016);

c) implementation of certain recommendations of the ad hoc USOAP CMA Advisory Group (USOAP-AG), which was established in 2019 pursuant to a recommendation of the Thirteenth Air Navigation Conference (AN-Conf/13) (9 to 19 October 2018) and endorsed by the ICAO Council (C-DEC 216/5) at the fifth meeting of its 216th Session (27 February 2019);

d) introduction of new or modified USOAP activities in response to the disruption of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic;

e) general programmatic improvements based on State and stakeholder feedback as well as experience and lessons learned; and

f) update stemming from the 41st Assembly of ICAO (27 September to 7 October 2022).

For readers and users ease of reference, information about SSPIA is described in Chapter 5.