Maximizing the impact of implementation and capacity development work in the IPPC community

22 November 2019, Rome – The fifth meeting of the IPPC Implementation and capacity development committee (IC) was held between 18 and 22 November 2019 at FAO Headquarters in Rome, Italy. Participants discussed strategic issues and work plans; and reviewed several phytosanitary projects in terms of implementation and capacity development. The IC also agreed to work on a roadmap for achieving key results related to the draft IPPC Strategic Framework 2020-2030.

Pest Outbreak Alert and Response Systems

Participants discussed activities related to the Programme on Pest Outbreak Alert and Response Systems to ensure it aligns with the IPPC strategic objectives. They highlighted the need to coordinate with other activities and projects; and agreed that some National Reporting Obligations (NROs), especially pest reporting would need to be enhanced to feed into this system.

Programmes for Global Plant Health Surveillance and e-Commerce

Recently the CPM Bureau clarified that the Programmes for Global Plant Health Surveillance and e-Commerce were under the oversight of the IC. The IC reviewed activities in these two high priority areas which are still needing additional resources to fully deliver the proposed work plans.

Reporting on implementation and capacity development projects

The IC reviewed the following types of phytosanitary projects related to implementation and capacity development: those the IPPC Secretariat was managing or contributing to (both new and current), those the IC is the Steering Committee for and those submitted by other organizations . Observers from the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Imperial College of London, the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) and one FAO sub-regional office gave feedback and shared their project management experiences. The IC endorsed three new projects to be managed by the IPPC Secretariat:

• The phytosanitary component of a FAO project to support Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) trade facilitation programme (2019-2023) covering phytosanitary capacity to perform pest risk analysis, to prepare for issuing ePhytos and to manage pest outbreaks;

• The EU project to support the IPPC Strategic Framework: Commodity and pathways standards, Pest Outbreak Alert and Response Systems and e-Phyto (2020-2022); and

• The EU project supporting the implementation of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) which includes support to developing countries to participate in meetings as well as support for the development of two draft standards and two implementation resources (2020-2022).

IC reviewed implementation challenges

The IC reviewed potential challenges for implementing draft standards that were identified by the Standards Committee (SC) in the standard setting process. Of particular interest were the challenges identified during the Revision of ISPM 8: Determination of pest status in an area (2009-005) which the SC and IC agreed could be addressed by the new Pest Status Guide (2017-048), currently under developed. Additionally, the IRSS study on Requirements for National Plant Protection Organizations (NPPOs) if authorizing entities to perform phytosanitary actions may provide some insight to help contracting parties better understand some of the issues raised during consultations of the related draft standard.

Priority topics

The IC reviewed the List of Implementation and Capacity Development Topics to maximize resources and agreed to recommend to the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM) to change the priority of three topics and to add one new topic.

The IC also agreed that the development of the following IPPC guides should be initiated as a top priority:

• Plant Pest Surveillance, Guide-revision (2017-049)

• e-Commerce Guide (2017-039)

• ISPM15 Guide (This guide could cover several topics)

The report of the meeting will be posted on the IPPC website at: https://www.ippc.int/en/core-activities/capacity-development/capacity-development-committee/

Additional photos taken during the IC November meeting are available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/182442121@N04/albums/72157711848292823