Lucien Kouame Konan

For more than 35 years, Konan has been working on various aspects of the phytosanitary field. As former Chair of the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM) from 2018 to March 2023, he notably and successfully led the virtual CPM-15 and -16 sessions during the difficult years of the pandemic, as well as the return to in-person session at CPM-17 last month.

Konan has long been involved in the activities of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC). He served as the IPPC Official Contact Point for Côte d’Ivoire while serving as Phytosanitary Inspector, Deputy-Director and Director of the Direction de la Protection des Végétaux, du Contrôle et de la Qualité (DPVCQ), the NPPO of Côte d’Ivoire. He successfully managed the country’s phytosanitary system and the control/containment of several plant pests in the country. Konan has played an instrumental role as representative of the African Region to the CPM Bureau in the last eight years.

Moreover, he was a member of the CPM Subsidiary Body on Dispute Settlement as well as CPM working groups including the French Language Review Group, National Reporting Obligation, the Capacity Development Working Group and many others.

Konan’s career began while he was a junior phytosanitary inspector for the Department of Plant Protection of the Ministry of Agriculture in Côte d’Ivoire, after receiving a bachelor’s degree in Agronomy from the School of Agriculture in Rennes, France and from Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire in 1985. He was awarded a long-term fellowship by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and later earned a Master’s Degree in Integrated Pest Management and a Ph.D in Entomology and Plant Protection at the Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada.

The tireless and dedicated man that he is, Konan also works as a consultant and researcher for several institutions in the areas of plant protection, environment and phytosanitary inspection, phytosanitary measures and regulation. He shares his long experience as Lecturer at the Department of Biological Sciences of the Université Nangui Aborogua in Abidjan.

Reflecting on the impact of the pandemic on IPPC’s mission, Konan shares, “The corona virus pandemic has shown that immense challenges still lie ahead to better implement the Convention so that it can effectively safeguard agriculture and facilitate safe trade. We have seen that technology can play a great role in overcoming these challenges.

“However, we can only be successful by joining hands in helping each other. We, therefore, need capacities that are commensurate with the challenges we face, and that means capacity-building at all levels”.