Bringing plant protection matters on the national, regional and continental agendas to address food safety.

In the 70s and 80s of last century, plant protection was better recognized than today. The rising international concerns with regard to the negative impacts that toxic pest control substances may have on the environment certainly contributed to the declining interest in addition to the trend in recent years for governments to decentralize and privatize many of the public services.

Both factors had particular implications for the capacities of the NPPOs, regional pest control organizations and AU-IAPSC, with negative consequences to cope with new arising transboundary challenges and the harmonization of plant protection policies at the regional level.

Efforts are thus undertaken, to reverse this trend and to bring the significance of plant protection matters again back on the national, regional and continental agendas to become part and parcel of the One World – One Health Initiative in order to address effectively the issue of transboundary threats and issues of food safety by promoting environmentally less harmful pest management strategies.