The 11th meeting of the IYPH international steering committee held virtually to track progress of delivering the International Year of Plant Health

Rome, 12 October 2020- The 11th meeting of the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH) International Steering Committee (ISC) was held virtually to advance the delivery of the IYPH action plan. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Ralf Lopian, the IYPH ISC Chairperson. Altogether 40 members and observers from IYPH ISC, FAO regional offices and the IYPH Secretariat participated at the meeting.

The IPPC Secretariat provided an update for the progress made regarding the proposal for an International Day of Plant Health (IDPH). The FAO Committee on Agriculture (COAG) endorsed the proposal at their 27th session on 1 October. The proposal will now be submitted to the 165th FAO Council in December 2020. The IYPH ISC agreed that the Chair of the IYPH ISC shall, together with Zambia who tabled the proposal of the IDPH, send a letter to the IPPC contracting parties and the Chairs of the seven FAO regional groups to ask for their support for the proclamation process.

The IYPH ISC also discussed the IYPH budget and decided that an analysis should be made on how the IYPH finances would be affected should the International Plant Health Conference be held virtually instead of in-person in Helsinki. The IYPH Secretariat provided an update on the IYPH communications. Two IYPH Ambassadors and one Champion have now been appointed to promote the international year. The IYPH Secretariat is reaching out to other nominees as well to cover rest of the FAO regions. Regarding the social media outreach, the viewing potential of the IYPH posts now reaches over 191 million social media users.

The IYPH ISC also agreed that Finland and the Secretariat should analyze three different scenarios for organizing the Helsinki conference, meaning whether to organize it fully in-person, fully virtually or as a hybrid option that combines the two.

The study on the impacts of climate change on plant health is moving forward according to the schedule, and will be published, with a summary for policy-makers, in spring 2021. All the seven FAO regions are represented among the authors for the study.

The report of the 11th meeting of the IYPH ISC will soon be available at https://www.ippc.int/en/ph/iyphisc/