IPPC Implementation and Capacity Development Committee concludes May 2023 Meeting
Posted on Mon, 26 Jun 2023, 08:49
Rome, 23 June 2023. The Implementation and Capacity Development (IC) met in Rome on 15-19 May to review the progress of the IC's workplan and address the implementation issues highlighted at CPM-17 this year. This was the first IC meeting following the IPPC Secretariat Call for IC members launched in 2022 and the confirmation of new IC member nominations at CPM-17, signaling the start of a new IC term for 2023-2026.
Osama El-Lissy, International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) Secretary - opened the meeting by expressing excitement at working with the IC and with the new members onboarded, to continue addressing plant health issues and challenges and capacity needs to promote and better implement the IPPC, ISPMs, and CPM recommendations. The IPPC Secretary specifically thanked the outgoing members for their outstanding expertise and dedication over the years that has resulted in the development and delivery of excellent IPPC capacity development materials.
As part of the new IC 2023-2026 term, the committee elected Dominique Pelletier for a second term as IC Chairman and Thorwald Gueze was elected as the Vice Chairman. IC members committed themselves to be part of CPM Task Force on Topics, the CPM Focus Group (FG) on Climate Change and Phytosanitary Issues, the CPM FG on Safe Provision Food and Other Humanitarian Aid, the POARS Steering Committee, and IC Teams but also to follow up on specific Implementation and Capacity Development topics.
As part of the review of CPM-17 decisions relating specifically to the scope of the IC workplan, the revision of two IPPC guides, namely the guide on National reporting obligations and the Manual of good practices for participating in the IPPC Commission on Phytosanitary Measures meeting, were identified as a high priority. However, the development of the Knowing and understanding the IPPC - plant health or protection officer training curricula (2017-054) was delayed until 2024. Additionally, reflecting the threat of the Fusarium Tropical Race 4 (TR4) to the global banana industry, CPM-17 requested the IPPC secretariat to take a global coordination role for this pest, and the IC agreed to reinforce the membership of the IC team on Fusarium TR4, and to include related activities as priority 1 in the IC list of topics. These changes are reflected in the 2023 IFU work plan.
With a focus on capacity development at the regional and national levels, the secretariat provided updates on the organization of the IPPC regional workshops. The IC made recommendations to revise the Guidelines for IPPC Regional Workshops, to ensure that participants use the platform of the regional workshops to raise issues and topics of concern for the region. The committee encouraged the IC regional representatives to be fully involved in the organizing committee for the 2023 IPPC Regional Workshop in their region.
The IC noted the acknowledgment expressed at CPM-17 for developing high-quality guides and training materials and thanked the secretariat for their excellent support and collaboration. The IC also expressed gratitude to respective contracting parties and donors for their translation efforts to ensure that the outstanding IPPC guides and training materials are available in all UN official languages. In line with the discussions at CPM-17, the IC emphasized the need to continue promoting and communicating the IPPC guides and training materials to ensure that NPPO staff across the contracting parties can easily access the available resources for the whole phytosanitary community to use. The progress reported by the secretariat on efforts to restructure and revamp the International Phytosanitary Portal (IPP) was welcomed by the IC, and the members expressed enthusiasm about the revamped structure and pages, looking forward for the component pages to get increased visibility.
To generate ideas ahead of the 2023 Call for Topics, the IC conducted a group exercise to identify gaps in the resources available for implementation and capacity building within the framework of the IPPC and ISPMs. The IC members will share the identified ideas with their regional IPPC representatives to be considered as possible submissions for the Call for Topics.
The IC May 2023 Meeting was partially opened for external observers that included the Committee Linking Entrepreneurship-Agriculture-Development (COLEAD) and the European Union. The observer from COLEAD stated that she discovered a lot of relevant IPPC resources on plant health throughout the meeting. She proposed COLEAD’s technical support with organization of events or presentations during CPM sessions, as well as willingness to support the translation of some IPPC guides and training materials that are of relevance to the COLEAD work into French.
Sharing his observations, the observer from the European Union noted the importance of pursuing together the efforts and work on ISPMs and implementation and capacity development for healthy plants and safe trade. The observer stated that the European Union intended to continue supporting the IPPC in the area of implementation, noting that funds could be made available from next year (2024).
On closing the IC May 2023 meeting, Thorwald Geuze, IC interim Chairperson, thanked all those attending for the fruitful discussions, enthusiasm, and dedication to contribute to the enhancement of the phytosanitary capacities of the IPPC Contracting Parties across the world for healthy plants and safe trade in plants and plant products.
The May IC meeting report is available at this link.
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