As part of the contact tour being conducted in Eastern Africa, Rwanda Standards Board will be visited by International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC AFRC-Africa Regional Centre) on Monday 13th June, 2016. The visit includes meetings with:
o     The National Electrotechnical Committee  officers (President and Secretary);
o    A meeting with NEC members consisting of a presentation of the situation of the NEC and a presentation of IEC-AFRC, discussion on cooperation framework and issues between NC and the Regional Centre;
o    And visits of key stakeholders

About the IEC and its Africa Regional Centre Millions of devices that contain electronics, and use or produce electricity, rely on IEC International Standards and Conformity Assessment Systems to perform, fit and work safely together. Founded in 1906, the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) is the world’s leading organization for the preparation and publication of International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies. These are known collectively as “electrotechnology”. The IEC also administers four conformity assessment systems inherent to its scope of activity. IEC provides a platform to companies, industries and governments for meeting, discussing and developing the International Standards they require. All IEC International Standards are fully consensus-based and represent the needs of key stakeholders of every nation participating in IEC work. Every member country, no matter how large or small, has one vote and a say in what goes into an IEC International Standard. Close to 20,000 experts from industry, trade, government, test and research labs, academia and consumer groups participate in IEC Standardization work. It consists today of 167 countries distributed as follows:
• 60 full members
• 23 Associate Members
• 84 participants in the Affiliate Country Programme

48 countries inAfrica are involved in IEC, namely:
• 4 IEC Full Members (Algeria, Egypt, Libya and South Africa)
• 4 IECAssociate Members (Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco, Tunisia)
• 40 countries participating in the Affiliate Country Programme (see Annex A)

Until November 2015, the IEC had four regional centres based in Boston (USA), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Singapore (Singapore) and Sydney (Australia). Considering to the strong involvement of African countries in IEC, the need to strengthen their ability to participate fully in IEC work and to facilitate the application of IEC International Standards, IEC Regional Centre for Africa (IEC-AFRC)has been inaugurated recently. IEC-AFRC's mission includes:

• Providing training and mentoring to assist African countries in adopting and using IEC International Standards and Conformity Assessment Systems.
• Encouraging more African countries to join the IEC as a Member or Affiliate.
• Supporting African countries in their participation, no matter their level of commitment

For the year 2016, the Regional Centre has planned primarily to contact various countries to collect their feedback in order to offer services that meet their needs.