Posted on Thu, 26 May 2022, 08:02
Rome, 17 May 2022. The Implementation and Capacity Development Committee (IC) of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) held a virtual open session for the first time for the wider IPPC community to raise awareness on various phytosanitary projects.
The annual IC meetings have traditionally been organized for a closed group of IC members and a limited number of invited observers including project submitters. These meetings aim to collect, analyze and share information on implementation and capacity development (ICD) projects. This year, however, the IC has agreed to open the session to the wider phytosanitary community to include national and regional plant protection organizations (NPPOs, RPPOs), international organizations and other stakeholders. This new open format session focused on raising awareness about examples of phytosanitary projects that are underway at national, regional and global levels, including projects managed by the IPPC Secretariat.
The IPPC Secretariat currently manages eight projects. The funders of these projects include the government of China, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Secretariat, the European Commission (EC), the Government of Japan, the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF), and the World Bank Group.
During this session, eight projects implemented at regional and national levels were presented by NPPOs, international organizations and national institutions. These presentations were of great interest to participants, with a wide range of content of phytosanitary areas, such as sterile insect technique, pest resistance plants, pesticide management, surveillance, diagnostic networking, integrated pest management, pest free area, and risk-based pest management.
Participants shared their experiences, engaged in brief dialogue exchanges about the topics, and held a question and answer session for clarification about the presentation.
“I believe that this session, the first of its kind, will help the wider plant health community understand the initiatives that the IPPC Secretariat is working on, particularly in implementation of the Convention, as well as in developing the capacity of our target audience. It will also establish a good tradition of organizing similar sessions in the future for the IPPC community,” said Osama El-Lissy, IPPC Secretary. It is expected that the session will continue to be held openly and will become an opportunity to exchange information on phytosanitary projects.
A recording of the session is available at: https://www.ippc.int/en/news/workshops-events/webinars/ic-meeting-open-session-on-icd-projects/
