IPPC governing bodies meet to take stock and plan for next annual session

Rome, 28 November 2022. The Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM) Bureau, held its first in-person meeting since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic to discuss key IPPC activities in preparation for the CPM 17th session to be held in March 2023 in Rome, Italy.

The IPPC Strategic Planning Group (SPG) also met following the Bureau meeting to discuss strategic issues related to the IPPC community’s key activities.

The chair of the CPM Focus Group on the implementation of the IPPC Strategic Framework 2020-2030 Development Agenda Items (DAIs) presented an update on the group’s progress on specific DAIs such as climate change and phytosanitary issues, electronic certification through the IPPC ePhyto Solution and Pest Outbreak Alert and Response System (POARS).

Activities and initial outputs of other CPM Focus Groups, namely Sea Containers, Communications, and Safe Provision of Food and other Humanitarian Aid were presented by the Focus groups. The IPPC secretariat presented key discussion points from this year’s IPPC regional workshops and from the Technical Consultation among Regional Plant Protection Organizations (TC-RPPOs). It also reported on the activities of the International Day of Plant Health and the International Plant Health Conference.

Other emerging strategic topics were discussed such as the importance of the One Health approach and the role of the plant health community. It was agreed that the secretariat should prepare a short paper for CPM-17 (2023), drawing upon the papers and discussion from the recently concluded SPG meeting. The paper would highlight the important contribution that plant health makes in achieving the One Health agenda and would indicate possible areas that require more work, such as the potential funding of an analysis on the scope of antimicrobial resistance in the plant-production and health sector.

The role of regional plant protection organizations (RPPOs) was discussed wherein the SPG recognized that different RPPOs have different capacities, scope and remit. It was suggested that the TC-RPPOs consider what the desired functions of an RPPO should be.

The SPG also reviewed the Dispute Settlement future oversight function and agreed with the Bureau’s recommendations, particularly the role of the IPPC secretary as the primary intake point for IPPC assistance in disputes. The SPG further agreed that a subsidiary body of the CPM Bureau should be established to work closely with the secretary in overseeing this process.

The IPPC Secretary presented a new vision in relation to potential future initiatives to gather feedback from the Bureau and SPG; acknowledging that any initiatives must adhere to the IPPC strategic framework. The new IPPC initiatives were well received by the Bureau and SPG and were recommended for further discussion by the community in its upcoming meeting (CPM-17) in March 2023.

The return to in-person meetings led to a surge in synergies, robust discussions and opportunities for renewing and strengthening networks in the IPPC. Holding the annual sessions back-to-back proved to be very productive and provided important expertise and support in representing the interests of the Contracting Parties and the IPPC community.

The countless hours of work by the Bureau, SPG, and IPPC Secretariat team made these long-awaited in-person meetings a wonderful success. These enabled Contracting Parties to concretely focus on the future goals and potential opportunities that can enhance global collaboration on emerging plant health issues to be discussed at the CPM-17.

The report of the October CPM Bureau is available at this [link]6] while the SPG Report is available at this link.