CPM Focus Group on Safe Provision of Food and Other Humanitarian Aid

The Focus Group on Safe Provision of Food and Other Humanitarian Aid was established by the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM-16) in April 2022.

At the CPM-18 (2024), the Commission agreed to extend the focus group mandate until CPM-20 (2026). The revised ToR is provided below.

More information about the additional tasks can be found in the CPM-18 document CPM 2024/24 here, including the review of consultation comments and revision of the draft Specification to be presented to SC prior to be presented back to the CPM-19 (2025).

Did you know that food and other humanitarian aid can carry plant pests?

All donations are more than welcome, especially in emergencies situations and to vulnerable people. Saving lives are the utmost importance for all. However, it is known that disasters impacts in agriculture threaten all three pillars of sustainable development: social, environmental, economic.

Countries have faced challenges to manage pest risk effectively during an emergency situation, for example receiving aid from other countries when natural disasters happened. It has been recognized that the provision of aid supplies could bring pests which causes long-term impacts on the economy, environment and communities.

Why manage pest risk in food and other aid?

The need to manage pest risk effectively becomes even more crucial when it comes to countries experiencing a humanitarian disaster. Once invasive pests and diseases are established in a new area, their eradication may be extremely difficult and in most cases, it entails additional resources and efforts for managing the pest outbreak. When this occurs, the consequences for countries and communities already devastated by human-induced or natural disasters may be catastrophic. In fact, if not timely managed, the entry of plant pests may further affect their economy, environment and livelihood long after recovery from the emergency.

The International Plant Protection Convention and a global recommendation:

The International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) has an adopted global recommendation to tackle pests in food aid to strengthen long-term food security and to combat humanitarian crisis. The provision of food and other humanitarian aid assists regions or countries that are at risk of food and economic insecurity as a result of conflict, crop failures, and natural disasters. The recommendation applies the principle of phytosanitary preparedness and response to the provision of urgent disaster-relief assistance and encourages recipient and exporting countries to develop adequate response plans and use guidance available in adopted standards

Further work is needed:

To support the objectives of the IPPC strategic framework 2030 to enhance global food security and protect the environment from the impacts of plant pests and, where appropriate, environmental pests, the IPPC and its Commission on Phytosanitary Measures agreed to establish a Focus Group on this matter. The main objectives are to ensure international co-operation to prevent the global spread of plant pests, understand the concerns raised by the and propose solutions for development of the standard and other supplementary tools, and outline the key principles, requirements and other aspects that an global standard on “The Safe Provision of Food and Other Humanitarian Aid” should contain.

A call for worldwide experts on food and other humanitarian aid within the IPPC’s mandate:

A call for experts is open and the deadline is until 24 June 2022. More information is available here.

The terms of reference of the CPM Focus Group is also available below on this page.

The Focus Group should have experience and expertise in one or more of the following areas:

• procurement and the supply of humanitarian aid (aid agency and government)

• plant health policy and risk management regulation

• plant health emergency response/management

• clearance of imported goods under emergency or disaster constraints

UPDATES

2024-08-08: Revised ToRs for the extended mandate 2024-2026 is provided below.

Membership list: Updated membership list provided below.

Confirmed! Next face to face meeting of the focus group will be from 07 to 11 October 2024 in Bridgetown, Barbados. It is organized by the IPPC secretariat with the strong support of the Caribbean Plant Health Directors (CPHD) team, the Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency (CAHFSA), and the National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO) of Barbados.

If you have information material or any case study that you think can contribute to this important topic, please e-mail them by 10 September 2024 to the IPPC Secretariat (Ms Adriana Moreira ([email protected] and Colleen Stirling ([email protected])).

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