The IPPC Implementation and Capacity Development Committee (IC) virtual meetings ensure the continuity of its activities

Rome, 03 June 2020 - The IPPC Implementation and Capacity Development Committee (IC) May 2020 face-to-face meeting was cancelled due to the COVID-19 global crisis. To ensure continuity, the CPM Bureau encouraged the IPPC Secretariat to explore the use of virtual tools to progress the work of the committee.

The IPPC Secretariat, in consultation with the IC Chairperson, Ms Olga LAVRENTJEVA, analysed the issues to be addressed by the IC and identified relevant topics to be discussed during a series of virtual meetings (VMs), whose time will be arranged on rotation basis.

In these exceptional circumstances, the CPM Bureau extended the terms of the current IC members until the end of the November 2020 IC meeting and requested the IPPC Secretariat to invite the newly selected IC members to join in the IC discussions as observers, as their term will officially start in November 2020. The newly selected IC members are Ms Kyu-Ock YIM (Asia/Republic of Korea), Mr Nilesh Ami CHAND (Southwest Pacific/ Fiji), Mr Ahmed Abdellah ABDELMOTTALEB (Near East/ Egypt), Ms Ruth Alicia ARÉVALO MACÍAS (Chile), Mr Thorwald GEUZE (the Netherlands) and Mr Lalith Bandula KUMARASINGHE (New Zealand). The complete IC membership list is posted on the IPP.

Beforehand, two meetings were set up to brief IC members on virtual tools and an orientation session was organized to provide newly selected IC members with an overview of IC’s work. So, to deal with Implementation and Capacity Development issues, a set of two-hours IC virtual meetings was planned till the 5th of August as posted on the IPP calendar.

The first IC virtual meeting was held on 20 May 2020 to receive general updates from the IPPC Secretariat, the Bureau and how e-learning materials are being developed within the COMESA project. Participants agreed that the IPPC Regional Workshops should be delivered virtually if face-to-face meetings will not be possible due to travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 emergency. The IFU will explore alternative ways to continue to deliver ICD activities during the pandemic, while investigating stakeholders’ needs, especially those from developing countries. A second IC virtual meeting took place on 3 June 2020 and focused on a Draft Implementation Plan for Guides and Training Materials. The IC presented a first implementation plan for the Guide for Establishing and Maintaining Pest Free Areas, which will be revised and used as a template for three additional implementation plans for existing guides. It was highlighted that the success of the uptake of the IPPC guides and training materials depends on the active involvement of the IC regional representatives and different stakeholders in the delivery of the associated implementation plans.

The reports of the IC virtual meetings will be posted on the IPP at: http://www.ippc.int/en/core-activities/capacity-development/capacity-development-committee/ .