The IPPC community prepares for CPM-16 through regional cooperation

ROME, 7 March 2022. In the lead-up to the sixteenth session of the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM-16) in April 2022, the Inter-African Phytosanitary Council, the Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency and the Near East Plant Protection Organization invited the IPPC Secretariat to their CPM-16 preparatory meetings to improve coordination and receive additional support from the Secretariat. Similarly, the directors of the five RPPOs forming part of the Interamerican Group for Cooperation in Plant Health (or GICSV, in its Spanish acronym), CAHFSA, CAN, COSAVE, NAPPO and OIRSA, are holding two virtual working sessions on 30 and 31 March to discuss, share views and identify common positions on CPM-16 topics, especially those considered high priority.

The regional meetings provide National Plant Protection Organizations (NPPOs) the opportunity to review the agenda and identify high-priority topics for their NPPOs and regions and prepare their position on key issues and decision items. Regional pre-CPM-16 meetings, held on a voluntary basis, also raise IPPC contracting parties’ awareness on CPM-16 discussions. The IPPC Secretariat, accompanied by several members from the Implementation and Capacity Development Committee (IC), the Standards Committee (SC) and the CPM Bureau was invited to participate in some of the regional meetings.

“The IC, SC and CPM Bureau regional representatives are able to provide preliminary information on topics that will be presented to CPM-16,’’ said Sarah Brunel, Officer in Charge of the IPPC Implementation and Facilitation Unit. "This way, contracting parties are well informed of decisions needed from them prior to CPM-16. The IPPC Secretariat's role here is to support NPPOs and RPPOs by highlighting key agenda items and decision points in the CPM-16 agenda and offering technical support to facilitate discussions and answer questions,” she added.

IC and SC regional representatives helped in facilitating the discussions and provided additional context about agenda topics, from regional perspective. In addition, the presence of the CPM Bureau representative for each region provided contracting parties guidance on the key decisions and recommendations that will be tabled during the CPM-16.

The IPPC Secretariat welcomed the opportunity to interact with IPPC contracting parties and avail itself to all contracting parties for similar sessions.

Related materials

CPM-16 Papers

Manual of Good Practices for Participating in the IPPC CPM meeting

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