Further Strengthening of Cooperation between the IPPC Secretariat and Brazil

The IPPC Secretary, Mr Jingyuan Xia, met with H. E. Ms Maria Laura da Rocha, the Ambassador of the Brazilian Permanent Representation to FAO, WFP and IFAD, on 9 June 2016 in FAO-HQ. The IPPC delegation was composed of the IPPC coordinator, Mr Craig Fedchock, the Agricultural Officer in Standard Setting, Ms Adriana Moreira and the Information Exchange Officer, Mr David Nowell. The Brazilian Ambassador was accompanied by Ms Gianina Müller Pozzebon (Alternate Permanent Representative of Brazil to FAO, WFP and IFAD).

The main objectives of the meeting were to brief the concept note of the IPPC-China project on Strengthening the capacity of developing contracting parties to implement the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) under the framework of the FAO-China South-South Cooperation (SSC) Programme, and to follow-up on the previous meeting on Strengthening cooperation between the IPPC Secretariat and Brazil. The IPPC Secretary took the opportunity to note that the CPM-11 approved the IPPC annual themes until the International Year of plant Health in 2020 and Brazil noted their strong support for this initiative.

Mr Xia outlined a proposal for cooperation between the IPPC Secretariat with Brazil, including four potential areas: a) to enhance capacity development of developing contracting parties through support to the IPPC regional workshops for the Latin America, Caribbean, and Africa regions; b) to facilitate the dissemination, demonstration and extension of Brazilian new technologies on phytosanitary measures to the relevant contracting parities within the Latin America, Caribbean, and Africa regions; c) to promote human resource cooperation between the IPPC Secretariat and Brazil; and d) to strengthen the communication and advocacy by the support to the main activities on the IPPC theme towards 2020, especially IYPH 2020. The Brazilian delegation responded positively and agreed to further these discussions in the near future.