2016 Mid-year Meeting of the IPPC Secretariat held with the Theme 'Moving towards One IPPC'

The 2016 Mid-year meeting of the IPPC Secretariat was held on 15 July at the HQ-FAO in Rome, Italy. The main objectives of the meeting were to review the major achievements of the IPPC Secretariat for the first semester, to plan the core activities for the second semester, and to strengthen team building for moving towards One IPPC. The meeting was chaired by Mr Jingyuan Xia, the IPPC Secretary, with participation of the Secretariat s staff. The IPPC Coordinator (Mr Craig Fedchock) and the Team Leads (Mr Brent Larson, Mr Orlando Sosa and Mr David Nowell) made briefings on their work, respectively. The IPPC Coordinator, facilitated a team building exercise, and all the staff actively shared their views and provided valuable suggestions on the One IPPC). Finally, the IPPC Secretary made concluding remarks, highlighting three important points:

1. Major Achievements for the first semester of 2016. Among many outputs and achievements for the 1st semester, there are eight major ones as follows: a) Disseminated the IPPC theme for 2016 (Plant health and food security), by delivering a keynote address at CPM 11 (2016), and by organizing a IPPC Seminar at FAO-HQ; b) Improved services to the IPPC governing bodies, by ensuring all the meetings of the IPPC governing bodies to be held with good preparation, and all reports to be released in high quality and in timeline, and by following up closely with decisions made by CPM 11; c) Strengthened the standard setting with four ISPMs adopted at CPM 11, five annexes to ISPM 27 (DPs) adopted by the SC on behalf of the CPM, and OCS released; d) Strengthened implementation facilitation with the FAO-IPPC International Workshop on Xyllela fastidiosa organised, the STDF project 401 on PCE extended, and the STDF project 501 on ePhyto approved; e) Enhanced communication and advocacy with the new IPP Homepage released, 44 items of the IPPC Headline news issued, and 2015 IPPC Annual Report published; f) Enhanced international cooperation with the technical-related organizations (i.e. IAEA), the trade-related (i.e. WTO-STDF, WTO-SPS, and WCO), the environment-related (i.e. BLG and CBD), and the industry-related (i.e. IGTC); g) Speeded up with resource mobilization with about UD$ half million of the IPPC MDTF obtained from several traditional contributors, and US$ 2 millions of the IPPC Project supported from the FAO-China SSC (2017-2020); and h) Promoted internal management by promoting standardization of documents, by carrying out annual Work plans for the Secretariat and the Task Forces, and by organizing retreat workshop on team building.

2. Key Activities for the 2nd Semester. Among many tasks and activities for the next semester, there are eight key ones, including: a) Implementation of enhancement evaluation; b) Promotion of strategic plan for the IPPC 2020-2030; c) Service to the IPPC Governing Bodies; d) Strengthening of Stander Setting and Implementation; e) Enhancement of integration and support; f) Promotion of IPPC community activities; g) Continuation of resource mobilization; and h) Strengthening of internal management.

3. Moving towards One IPPC. At present, the IPPC is facing with three challenges, increasing in the role for contributing to the UN SDGs, increasing in request for promoting trade facilitation, and increasing in demands from CPs. At the same time, there exist three limitations with financial resource, human resource, and social impact. In such circumstances, it is absolutely necessary to move towards One IPPC by strengthening integration, cooperation and cohesion. The main content for the One IPPC is one mission, one direction, one voice, one pace. To this end, we should strengthen the team building, team working, team cohesion, and team spirit. To move towards One IPPC, every team member should acts as a good team player, all the units (teams) in the IPPC Secretariat should work in a cooperative fashion, the entire Secretariat should be harmonious in operation, and the whole IPPC community should target to the same direction.

At the end, the IPPC Secretary stressed that the year 2016 is important for the IPPC as it is the first year to implement the IPPC Theme Plant Health and Food Security for 2016 towards IYPH 2020. He also mentioned that the year 2016 is important for the IPPC Secretariat as the action plan for the implementation of the Enhancement Evaluation should be carried out. He requested all staff of the IPPC Secretariat to work together so as to bring the IPPC up to a new stage.