In Central African countries, a dramatic increase in the spread of transboundary pests and diseases in recent years has affected food crops, causing significant losses to farmers and threatening food trade and nutritional security in the subregion. In the phytosanitary field, countries are at various levels in terms of official regulations, skills, human resources qualification and infrastructure, which is not favourable for the protection against cross-border plant pests and diseases. Given the disparity or non-existence of phytosanitary regulations in CEMAC states, coherence of policies and regulations would facilitate trade between these countries and other countries outside the sub-region.

As a component of CEMAC's regional phytosanitary program, the purpose of this PPG is to develop a project proposal whose objective will be to (i) apply the IPPC's Phytosanitary Capacity Evaluation (PCE) tool in six beneficiary countries to assess their overall phytosanitary system, including their needs in terms of updating their phytosanitary legislation; and (ii) to carry out a programme to harmonize the phytosanitary legislation at the sub-regional level.