The 2018 Mid-year Meeting of the IPPC Secretariat Held in Rome Italy

The 2018 Mid-year meeting of the IPPC Secretariat was held on 6 July 2018 at the FAO HQs in Rome, Italy. The main objectives of the meeting were to review the major achievements of the IPPC Secretariat for in the first half of 2018, as well as to review the plan of the core activities for the second half of the year and actions to promote further the annual theme of the IPPC Secretariat Optimization of Financial Management.

The meeting was chaired and opened by Mr. Jingyuan Xia, the IPPC Secretary. Team Leaders Mr. Avetik Nersisyan (SSU), Mr. Brent Larson (IFU) and Mr. Shoki AlDobai (IST), made briefings on their respective team achievements for the first semester and planning for the second semester. Other presentations were delivered on the progress report of Task Force for the Resource Mobilization (TFRM) by Mr. Marko Benovic, on the major achievements of ePhyto project by Ms. Laura Vicaria Lopez, and on the overview of the Standardized items for IPPC Communication and Advocacy by Mr. Mirko Montuori. All staff actively shared their views and provided valuable suggestions on improvement of the IPPC Secretariat s work and performance.

The IPPC Secretary, Mr. Xia concluded the meeting by summarizing the major achievements of the first half of 2018, core planned activities for second half of 2018 and Optimization of Finance Management, as follows:

1. Major achievements made in the first semester 2018. Ten outstanding achievements for the IPPC Secretariat were highlighted amongst many others:

1) The 2018 IPPC annual theme Plant Health and Environmental Protection was promoted through series activities organized during the CPM-13, including keynote address by the CBD Executive Secretary, a special topics session and an IPPC-CBD joint side event.

2) The IPPC Governing Bodies meetings were successfully organized, such as the CPM-13, two FC meetings and three Bureau meetings as well as one SC meetings and one IC meeting. The sustainable funding mechanism for IPPC Work Programme was supported, and the IPPC strategic planning for 2020-2030 was promoted.

3) The standard setting was enhanced with five new ISPMs adopted and two DPs noted at the CPM-13. Four standards drafted in 2017 were reviewed in the May SC meeting, and two draft standards were approved by the May SC-7 meeting for submission to the 1st consultation period in 2018.

4) Standards implementation was strengthened by establishing the IC working mechanism and three IC Sub-groups (IRSS, DAS and SCTF). Three projects (3rd cycle of EC-IRSS, the IPPC-China project on Capacity Development, and the IPPC-Japan project on ePhyto) are being implemented. A good progress has been made in the preparation for the seven IPPC regional workshops and one NRO workshop for 2018.

5) IPPC Trade facilitation was promoted by developing the draft of the IPPC Action Plan on Trade Facilitation, opening the business for ePhyto hub and drafting the proposal for the short-term (five years) business model for ePhyto solution.

6) IPPC communication and advocacy were promoted by releasing 48 IPPC news; publishing 80 IPPC-related articles, the 2017 IPPC Annual Report, and the five IPPC Factsheets; and organizing 34 video interviews. Information management was strengthened by operationalizing of the new developed information management systems Participants Database and Online Registration System (ORS) and the List of Topics Database.

7) The International Year of Plant Health (IYPH) initiative was supported through approved skeleton of IYPH 2020 programme events and their associated estimated costs at the CPM-13, and the organization of the 4th IYPH Steering Committee meeting.

8) The international cooperation was promoted through furthering the partnership with EC for the possibility get new project form them, and signing a cooperation agreement between the IPPC and WCO.

9) Resource mobilization was enhanced through receiving the IPPC multi-donor trust fund from Canada, Netherland, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland and USA/NAPPO, getting the Beyond Compliance Project from STDF; and getting in kind-contribution mainly from Canada, China, France.

10) The internal management of the IPPC Secretariat was continuously strengthened through re-structuring the IPPC Secretariat based on the Enhancement Evaluation; developing a framework for 2020 Work Plan and Budget of the IPPC Secretariat on a biennial basis; and optimizing the finance management by applying the result-driven and performance-based management.

2. Core Activities planned for second semester 2018. Among many tasks and activities for the second half of 2018, there are eight key activities, including: 1) Supporting governance activities by organizing all scheduled IPPC governing bodies meetings; 2) Promoting the cooperation between Standard Setting and Implementation through strengthening the Call for Topics Standards and Implementation, and the Task Force on Call for Topics; 3) Speeding up commodity standards through establishing its focus group and organizing its first meeting; 4) Promoting standards implementation through organizing the seven IPPC regional workshops, developing the strategies and policies for PCE, and implementing the IPPC projects; 5) Strengthening trade facilitation through finalizing the IPPC Action Plan on Trade Facilitation, completing the development of the IPPC GeNS, and organizing the 2nd SCTF meeting in Shenzhen, China; 6) Promoting communication & partnership through promoting the endorsement of IYPH initiative by the UN General Assembly (UNGA), and developing the joint work plan on implementation of the IPPC-WCO cooperation agreement; 7) Expediting resource mobilization through the coordination with traditional donors and potential donors to support the IPPC MDTF, IPPC projects and IPPC in-kind contribution; and 8) Strengthening internal management through the establishment of the minimal staff team supported by FAO-RP for the basic operation of the IPPC Secretariat, developing the work plan and budget of the IPPC Secretariat for 2020, and setting up the SOP for planning, monitoring, reporting and evaluating of the IPPC Secretariat s budget.

3. Optimization of financial management of the IPPC Secretariat. The theme of the IPPC Secretariat for 2018 is set as Optimization of Financial Management with the purpose to increase the transparency, accuracy and efficiency of the use of financial resources. To achieve this goal, measures have been taken to enforce better planning, monitoring and evaluating mechanism; and better control and management of all important activities. The IPPC Secretary Xia emphasized the importance of 2018 that will be concluded with the expected endorsement of the IYPH 2020 by UNGA, and urged all staff of the IPPC Secretariat to work together with the whole IPPC community for achieving its mission to protect the world s plant resources from pests and promoting the plant health globally.