Historical background and objectives

In 1995, the GTZ (Technical Cooperation of Germany) project "Biological Control in Africa", based in Cotonou, Benin, conceived the idea of enlisting the support of the Inter-African Phytosanitary Council for spreading the philosophy of Biological Control troughout the Africa.

In the course of this cooperation with the IAPSC, several African countries expressed a strong need for harmonization of their phytosanitary legislation among other issues

Based on this need, the HAPPA project was presented and was approved by the IAPSC General Assembly in Pretoria, South Africa in 1998.

The project formally started in March 2001 when the HAPPA Project Coordinator arrived in Yaound, Cameroon. For the implementation of the project, priorities were set during a brain storming planning workshop that was organized in May 2001 in Yaounde. Beside the IAPSC Scientific Secretariat and GTZ officials, stakeholders members countries were represented by Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Central African Republic, Madagascar an Niger.

The overall objective : to ensure food security in Africa.

Development bjective : to improve, in quantity and in quality, the output of African farmers.

Project goal  : adoption by IAPSC member states of one strategy of economically and ecologically sustainable plant protection.

Activities

 To strenghten the Scientific Secretariat for the management of information and communication
 To strenghten the capacity of the Scientific Secretariat to fullfil its mandate
 To support the harmonization of national plant protection strategies in an African-wide context
 To support national plant protection organizations with information

The results of this brainstorming were presented to the AU Secretary General in Addis Ababa in June 2001.