Regional Aviation Safety Groups (RASGs)

 RASGs were established to improve global civil aviation safety and efficiency by applying the ICAO Global Aviation Safety Plan (GASP) principles through a collaborative and coordinated approach in partnership with all aviation stakeholders under the leadership of ICAO. RASGs serve as ICAO's focal points to promote the reduction of aviation safety risks through the involvement of all aviation safety stakeholders and the harmonization and coordination of efforts aimed at mitigating safety risks and promoting implementation of regional safety initiatives.

USOAP Continuous Monitoring Approach

ICAO initially published in 2014 "new Protocol Questions (PQs) related to safety management" to be used for audits and other continuous monitoring activities conducted under the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) Continuous Monitoring Approach (CMA). These PQs are being used to conduct voluntary and confidential assessments of SSP implementation at the request of ICAO member States. In July 2017, amended SSP-related PQs will be published by ICAO to reflect Amendment 1 of Annex 19, the 4th edition of the SMM and lessons learned to date.  Although Amendment 1 to Annex 19 does not become applicable until November 2019, select States will be approached by ICAO with a view to perform "SSP-focused audits" of these States in 2018 and 2019 on a voluntary but non confidential basis. These SSP-focused audits will be of limited scope and will use the amended SSP-related PQs. As of 2020, the USOAP CMA SSP-related PQs will be used to conduct SSP focused audits of the most mature States, which will need to meet the criteria to be established by ICAO, in line with the GASP.