Proceedings of the Workshop on Sustainable Approaches for Pest and Vector Management and Opportunities for Collaboration in Replacing POPs Pesticides

The aim for this workshop was to identify opportunities for coordinating efforts among different sectors, in particular between health and agricultural sectors, and assess how such coordination could bring mutual benefits and contribute to cost savings and reduced pesticide use. This first workshop on Sustainable Approaches for Pest and Vector management and Opportunities for Collaboration between health and agriculture authorities in replacing POPs pesticides was organized jointly with FAO and WHO. Government experts and decision makers from Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam attended the workshop. The objectives of this workshop were to: review the current state of the art and explore alternative approaches to POPs pesticides in pest and vector management and identify more sustainable strategies using the principles of integrated pest management; identify opportunities provided by the collaboration of IPM and IVM programmes, as well as the constraints to such collaboration, and to identify needs (including capacity building needs) in support of IPM and IVM programmes and their collaboration; and begin developing a joint decision making process through which IPM and IVM programmes can collaborate and be mutually supportive, leading to (national) action plans for reducing/eliminating POPs pesticides as well as contributing towards an accelerated reduction in pesticide use