A third year of the IPPC NRO Programme marked with success

The year 2017 was a third successful year for the National Reporting Obligations Programme (NRO). It was a third stable year in a row during which countries supplied above 240 new NRO reports through the International Phytosanitary Portal (IPP). To be precise 245 reports were uploaded in 2017, while 244 reports in 2016 and 246 reports in 2015. In comparison in the year 2014 only 165 reports were uploaded on the IPP.

It clearly shows that a set of measures implemented within the NRO Programme that started in the middle of 2014 has been effective.

In particular, in 2017 all NRO advocacy and awareness raising materials were translated into Arabic, French, Russian, and Spanish are available on the IPP (files indicated as: Ar, Fr, Ru, Es). In total, they consist of:

• the Guide to NROs offering guidance to IPPC contact points and IPP editors on NRO types and methods together with IPP data entry advice;

• tables listing NROs (all NROs, Public NROs and Bilateral NROs);

• 13 detailed leaflets - one for each NRO - offering concise advice and references; and

• four NRO leaflets regarding benefits of reporting, consequences of not reporting, Official Contact Points: advantages & consequences and networking.

The materials are freely accessible and contracting parties are welcome to use them. The IPPC Secretariat will continue working in that area in 2018, especially on an NRO e-learning course.