Global phytosanitary community comes together to discuss IPPC Implementation

Rome, 26 May 2022. The Implementation and Capacity Development Committee (IC) and the Implementation and Facilitation Unit (IFU) of the IPPC Secretariat held a webinar, aimed at increasing awareness of the role of implementation within the Phytosanitary community. The webinar illustrated how NPPOs and RPPOs can contribute to the work of the IC and presented the many materials available, for free, for the whole IPPC community to use. Over 150 participants from around 60 countries attended the webinar. Simultaneous interpretation in Spanish and French, was availed thanks to the generous support from the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Ministère de l'Agriculture et de la Souveraineté Alimentaire and FranceAgriMer.

The online event started with Osama El-Lissy, IPPC Secretary, giving an overview of the IPPC, including its history, key milestones, governance mechanisms and core activities, whilst focusing on the role of the IC and IFU.

Four IC members, Ahmed Abdelmottaleb – IC regional representative for North Africa and Near East, Stephanie Bloem – IC RPPO representative, Faith Ndunge - IC regional representative for Africa and Dominique Pelletier – IC Chair and IC regional representative for North America, participated in a panel moderated by the webinar facilitator, Sarah Brunel, Acting lead for daily matter of IFU, explaining the tangible benefits of NPPOs and RPPOs getting directly involved with the work of the IC and IFU through answers to calls for IC members, calls for topics and participating in working groups amongst many examples. Faith Ngunde and Ahmed Abdelmottaleb explained specifically how NPPO staff, in the countries they represent as regional IC leads, have benefited from the many guides and training materials published by the Secretariat.

As summarized by Faith Ngunde when asked how KEPHIS (Kenya NPPO) uses the IPPC training materials, in reference to the upcoming guide and manuals on ISPM 15, she answered “Guides aid NPPOs in the implementation of specific ISPMs. We know that across countries there are sometimes differences in the implementation of standards. What the guides do is they give you a perspective that is acceptable anywhere and in terms of setting up and monitoring your systems and ensuring that the systems for specific ISPMs are compliant”.

Members of IFU, Natsumi Yamada – Agricultural Officer, Barbara Peterson – Implementation Facilitation Senior Expert and Juan Rull – International Phytosanitary Specialist, led practical demonstrations of the materials available on the IPP for the phytosanitary community to use, focusing primarily on the phytosanitary system component pages, guides & training materials and two new e-learning courses which have just been published: Surveillance and reporting obligations, in partnership with the FAO eLearning Academy and Pest Risk Analysis developed in partnership with COLEACP. Two additional e-learning courses are to be released in the coming months.

The last presentation of this event featured Fitzroy White – International Phytosanitary Specialist, illustrating Phytosanitary Capacity Evaluations (PCE), and the benefits NPPOs and partner organizations have seen in carrying PCEs, both in understanding their phytosanitary capacities and being able to design a sovereign plan to address identified gaps. As part of the presentation, two practical case studies were illustrated which showcased the benefits of carrying out PCEs in Nepal and Nicaragua.

The webinar audience was highly active, both in the Q&A and answering Zoom polls. In the evaluation online survey completed by participants, all those who replied indicated that the content of the webinar was very good or good with all sessions gaining interest and 100% of respondents wanting to attend future webinars.

The importance of the IPPC’s mission and implementation specifically was further reinforced by Osama El-Lissy in his closing remarks “We share one of the most noble missions that is safeguarding agriculture, facilitating safe trade, and ultimately feeding the world. I look forward to continuing the discussion and our journey together”.

A recording of the session is available at: https://www.ippc.int/en/news/workshops-events/webinars/introduction-to-the-ippc-implementation/

Please stay tuned for the many webinars and online events that IFU will be organizing in the coming months.

Related Information

Implementation and Capacity Development Committee (IC)

Phytosanitary System Component Pages

IPPC Guides and Training Materials

Phytosanitary Capacity Evaluations (PCE)