Major Achievements of the Task Force for Resource Mobilization of the IPPC Secretariat for 2016 and its Key Activities for 2017

With the purpose to assist the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) Secretariat in ensuring sustainable and sufficient funding in order to fulfil the IPPC strategic objectives, the Task Force for Resource Mobilization (TFRM) had a very productive 2016 year. The notable achievements were as follows:

1) Progress in developing initiative for sustainable funding of the IPPC Secretariat. At CPM-11, the IPPC Secretary urged contracting parties to continue to support the IPPC work programme. In collaboration with CPM Bureau and FC, a sustainable funding proposal was proposed in June FC and Bureau, and discussed in in October SPG. There are two clear options highlighted by SPG: voluntary assessed contributions and pay-as-you-go system.

2) Progress in receiving the IPPC Multi-donor trust fund. Contracting Parties provided strong support to the IPPC Multi-donor trust fund and the IPPC Secretariat had direct communication with many donors including Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland, and USA. Compared to 2015, contributions to the IPPC Multi-donor trust fund increased by over 40% as a result of contributions from Australia, France, Republic of Korea, New Zealand and USA/NAPPO. However, this is still lower than the desirable amount for the IPPC Secretariat to carry-out its work programme in a sustainable way.

3) Progress in applying for the IPPC projects. The IPPC Secretariat had direct communication with IPPC Project donors: The Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF), European Commission (EC), China and others. Two new projects were assigned such as an EC project on IPPC Implementation and a STDF project on ePhyto; and a new IPPC-China project on capacity development under the Framework of FAO-China South-South Cooperation Programme was pledged by the Chinese Government.

4) Progress in getting the IPPC In-kind support. The IPPC Secretariat received various in-kind (non-monetary) contributions to support its activities in the form of staff, staff time (expertise) and meetings. Those contribution mainly came from 10 contracting parties and 8 organizations.

The Key activities of TFRM for 2017 include: 1) continuous development of sustainable funding mechanism; 2) continuous communication with various donors for the IPPC MDTF; 3) more focus on extension of current projects and implementation of signed projects in 2016; and 4) effective work on the IPPC in-kind support.