{"id":13953,"date":"2026-06-20T12:31:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:31:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/response-plan-against-viral-pandemics-and-other-cassava-diseases-in-drc-to-be-operationalized\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T21:34:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:34:04","slug":"response-plan-against-viral-pandemics-and-other-cassava-diseases-in-drc-to-be-operationalized","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/response-plan-against-viral-pandemics-and-other-cassava-diseases-in-drc-to-be-operationalized\/","title":{"rendered":"Response plan against viral pandemics and other cassava diseases in DRC to be operationalized"},"content":{"rendered":"\nFrom 24 to 25 August, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iita.org\/\">IITA<\/a> in partnership with INERA, the Yangambi Faculty of Agricultural Sciences Institute, the WAVE program, Food and Agriculture Organization, with the financial support of the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, and the Foreign Commonwealth &amp; Development Office (FCDO) organized an advocacy workshop on operationalizing the national cassava disease response plan in DRC.\n\n<figure id=\"attachment_23597\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23597\" style=\"width: 820px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23597\" src=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Response1.jpg\" alt=\"Response plan against viral pandemics and other cassava diseases in DRC to be operationalized\" width=\"820\" height=\"411\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-23597\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">L-R: CBSD Project manager Dr Sikirou, INERA DG Prof Armand Mbuya, IITA DRC Country Rep Bamba Zoumana, Minister of Agriculture Excellency M\u2019zinga Birihanze, Minister of Scientific Research and Technological Innovations Excellency Mpanda Kabangu, Provincial Agriculture Minister of Lualaba Province Excellency Louise Ilunga Mweleshi, Agriculture General Secretary Evariste Bushabu, Wave Project DRC Country Rep Prof Monde, Directror of Plants Clinic of Kinshasa Prof Lyna Mukwa, CBSD Project Post Doc Fellow Dr Clerisse Casinga, Agriculture Uvira District Officer Mrs Esther Basimika.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nThe workshop aimed to come up with and implement a coordinated operational tool to deal with the alarming cassava situation in DRC in an emergency. The following recommendations emerged from this workshop: (1) Establishing various structures for operationalizing this plan, (2) Strengthening the capacity and empowerment of facilitators for ownership and sustainability of actions; and (3) Making available effective communication channels addressing the targets.\n\nThe national response plan promotes the establishment of an Emergency Operations Center (EOC\/COU) that the Ministry of Agriculture will endorse. Its mission is to:\n<ul>\n \t<li>Prevent and respond to epidemic risks of cassava viral diseases.<\/li>\n \t<li>Coordinate cassava viral disease control interventions.<\/li>\n \t<li>Plan any rapid intervention in the event of an epidemic of cassava mosaic disease (CMD), cassava brown streak disease (CBSD), and cassava root necrosis disease (CRND) <em>[maladie des necroses racinaires du manioc (<\/em><em>MNRM)]<\/em>, including the mobilization of human, financial and material resources.<\/li>\n \t<li>Implement activities pertaining to prevention, mitigation, detection, monitoring, and evaluation before, during, and after the epidemic.<\/li>\n \t<li>Ensure data collection, consolidation, and analysis.<\/li>\n \t<li>Exchange information on cassava viral diseases and their control, prevention, phytosanitary measures, and results obtained.<\/li>\n \t<li>Harmonize the views of all EOC stakeholders.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThe COU will be under the management of the Ministry of Agriculture under phytosanitary regulations in DRC, and in accordance with the law on fundamental principles of agriculture requiring \u201cThe State, in consultation with the provinces and agricultural professionals, defines and implements the policy of surveillance and crop protection.\u201d\n\nAt the regional and international levels, the COU is respectively in line with the prescriptions of the African Union\u2019s strategic crop protection frameworks and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC).\n\nThe COU will be supervised by a steering committee set up by ministerial decree. The committee comprises IITA, WAVE, the Plant Protection Directorate (DPV), FAO, INERA, the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences of the University of Kinshasa, and the Plant Clinic of Kinshasa (CPK). IITA will be responsible for surveillance and diagnosis and communication (mobilization, awareness, and dissemination).\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From 24 to 25 August, IITA in partnership with INERA, the Yangambi Faculty of Agricultural Sciences Institute, the WAVE program, Food and Agriculture Organization, with the financial support of the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, and the Foreign Commonwealth &amp; Development Office (FCDO) organized an advocacy workshop on operationalizing the national cassava disease response plan in DRC.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":13954,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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