Under its 1957 statute, IAEA is authorized, among other things, to facilitate the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, including the production of electric power, by supplying materials, services, equipment and facilities to its member states, particularly considering the needs of the developing countries. About 90 countries receive technical assistance, mostly through over 1,000 projects in IAEA’s technical cooperation program. IAEA’ s technical cooperation program funds projects in 10 major program areas, including agriculture, the development of member states’ commercial nuclear power programs, and nuclear safety. The average cost of a member state’s technical assistance project is about $60,000. IAEA provided about $800 million in technical assistance to its member states from 1958 through 1996, for equipment, expert services, training, and subcontracts (agreements between IAEA and a third party to provide services to IAEA member states). IAEA’s training activities include fellowships, scientific visits, and training courses. Egypt was the largest recipient of IAEA’s technical assistance overall. About 44 percent of the assistance was spent for equipment, and—from 1980 through 1996—about half of the funds were provided for assistance in three program areas—the application of isotopes and radiation in agriculture, general atomic energy development, and safety in nuclear energy. For 1997 through 1998, IAEA approved $154 million more in technical assistance for its member states. Technical assistance projects are approved by IAEA’s Board of Governors for a 2-year programming cycle, and member states are required to submit written project proposals to IAEA 1 year before the start of the programming cycle. The proposals are appraised for funding by IAEA staff and IAEA member states in terms of the projects’ technical and practical feasibility, national development priorities, and the projects’ long-term advantages to the recipient countries. Because IAEA’s full-scope safeguards, as embodied in the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), emerged after IAEA was established, all IAEA member states in good standing are eligible for the same privileges, including receiving technical assistance. IAEA does not bar technical assistance for member states that do not have IAEA’s full-scope safeguards or are not parties to the NPT. For example, Pakistan, Israel, and Cuba receive IAEA’s technical assistance but do not have full-scope safeguards and are not parties to the NPT. U.S. participation in IAEA’s technical cooperation program is coordinated through an interagency group—the International Nuclear Technology Liaison Office—which is chaired by the Department of State and includes representatives from the Department of Energy (DOE), the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA), and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The United States also maintains a presence at IAEA through the U.S. Mission to the United Nations System Organizations in Vienna, Austria. U.S. contractors from Argonne National Laboratory and the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council support U.S. training and fellowship activities for the program. In addition to developing and coordinating U.S. policy towards IAEA’s technical cooperation program, the interagency group (1) proposes and recommends U.S. support for specific projects—known as “footnote a” projects—only in IAEA member states that are parties to the NPT or other nuclear nonproliferation treaties;(2) selects courses and participants for U.S.-hosted IAEA training courses and places IAEA fellows at U.S. institutions, such as national laboratories and universities; (3) facilitates purchases of U.S. equipment on behalf of IAEA; (4) recommends U.S. experts and consultants to represent the United States at IAEA meetings, conferences, and symposia; and (5) recruits U.S. nationals to provide expert advice to IAEA and to staff IAEA’s operations. In addition, according to a U.S. Mission official, almost 200 U.S. nationals are employed by IAEA. U.S. officials and representatives of other IAEA major donor countries told us that the principal purpose of IAEA’s technical cooperation program is to help ensure that IAEA member states, many of whom are developing countries, support IAEA’s safeguards and the NPT. Most of the member states participate in IAEA primarily for the nuclear technical assistance it provides. In the past, the United States and other major donors raised concerns about the effectiveness and efficiency of the technical cooperation program. However, since 1992, IAEA has been implementing improvements to the program that the United States and other IAEA member states strongly support. While the United States and other IAEA major donor countries believe that applying safeguards is IAEA’s most important function, most developing countries believe that receiving technical assistance through the technical cooperation program is just as important, and they participate in IAEA primarily for the technical assistance it provides. State Department, ACDA, and NRC officials told us that the principal purpose of U.S. participation in IAEA’s technical cooperation program is to help ensure that IAEA member states, many of whom are developing countries, support IAEA’s nuclear safeguards system and the NPT. A State Department document noted that the United States regarded support for the technical cooperation program to developing countries as the “price tag” for safeguards. At an October 1996 meeting, IAEA’s Director General told us that the opportunity to receive technical assistance dissuades member states from engaging in the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Representatives from four IAEA major donor countries—Australia, Canada, Germany, and Japan—told us that they generally agree with U.S. views that technical assistance is necessary to ensure that developing countries support safeguards and the NPT. However, representatives from six developing countries that have benefited from IAEA’s technical assistance—Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Pakistan, and South Africa—told us that their countries participate in IAEA primarily because their participation enables them to receive technical assistance.According to the representatives from India, Pakistan, and South Africa, IAEA would simply become an international “policing” organization for monitoring compliance with safeguards if IAEA did not provide technical assistance. A U.S. Mission official stated that several member states, including India and Pakistan, would be likely to withdraw from IAEA if its technical assistance were severely scaled back. According to IAEA officials, IAEA carries out its dual responsibilities and manages the competing interests of its member states by maintaining a balance in funding between providing technical assistance and ensuring compliance with safeguards. As figure 1 shows, in 1996, IAEA spent about $97 million on safeguards and about $89 million on technical assistance, accounting for approximately 30 percent and 27 percent, respectively, of IAEA’s total expenditures of about $325 million. Technical assistance ($89.0) Other programs ($67.2) In the past, officials in the United States and other IAEA major donor countries had concerns about the effectiveness and efficiency of the technical cooperation program. A 1993 State Department cable stated that the United States had long been concerned that “footnote a” projects were devoid of significant technical, health, or socioeconomic benefit to the recipient country. Some of the evaluations that we reviewed indicated other deficiencies in the technical cooperation program. For example, an October 1993 special evaluation review of lessons learned from completed evaluation reviews noted that inadequate project plans and designs resulted in implementation problems and delays in 30 percent of the technical assistance projects reviewed from 1988 through 1993. Some of the negative effects IAEA cited that resulted from insufficient project planning included (1) approving a 2-year project without obtaining sufficient evidence about its feasibility; (2) planning research reactor activities that did not yield significant results because they were premature or ambitious in relation to local resources; and (3) conducting nuclear physics projects in Africa that lacked clear results and benefits to the recipient country. IAEA officials in the Department of Technical Cooperation told us they have not prepared a comprehensive report on the accomplishments of the program since its inception in 1958. Although IAEA has provided its member states with detailed descriptions of all of its technical assistance projects, it did not assess the success or failure of these projects in the past. According to the head of IAEA’s Department of Technical Cooperation’s Evaluation Section, evaluations of projects’ impact were not required because IAEA was focusing on the efficiency of projects’ implementation. Moreover, IAEA stated that in 1993, the technical cooperation program’s priorities shifted from implementing research and infrastructure-building activities efficiently to designing projects that have an impact on the end-user and provide nuclear science and technology activities that contribute to national development. IAEA noted that it is unrealistic to expect impact analyses of projects designed and implemented according to standards that did not embody measures of impact at the time. In the year 2000, IAEA plans to review the program’s performance against the criteria for success contained in IAEA’s strategy for technical cooperation. We reviewed 40 reports prepared by IAEA’s Department of Technical Cooperation’s Evaluation Section and summaries of four audits of the program prepared by IAEA’s Office of Internal Audit and Evaluation Support, which covered the period from 1985 through 1996, to determine whether they contained assessments of the program’s effectiveness. We found that most of the 40 reports and audit summaries did not assess the impact of specific technical assistance projects, and no performance criteria had been established to help measure the success or failure of the projects.