2nd Informal Multidisciplinary Advisory Group Meeting on Transport Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis

BACKGROUND

At the 82nd session of the UNECE Inland Transport Committee (Geneva, February 2020), the Committee: “Requested the secretariat, in close cooperation with the Bureau, with the support of interested governments and key stakeholders to conduct necessary research on provisions in existing frameworks and new needed areas of work to promote cooperation between transport authorities in the field of counteracting the effects of emergency situations of cross-country nature, including epidemics and pandemics, and present this information to Working Party on Transport Trends and Economics (WP.5) in September 2020 for consideration of further steps and for inclusion to its programme of work.” In response to this mandate, the secretariat called for a Virtual Informal Multidisciplinary Advisory Group Meeting on Transport Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis which took place on 9 June 2020 from 13h00 – 16h00. The deliberations of this meeting have been integrated in a working document entitled “Taking stock of the resilience of the inland transport sector to pandemics and international emergency situations” (ECE/TRANS/WP.5/2020/10) available here.  Inter alia, the working document provides a gap analysis and a list of possible recommendations for further action for consideration and possible endorsement by WP.5.

PURPOSE AND RATIONALE

This second informal meeting will gather representatives of ministries of transport, health and customs officials from across the ECE region to exchange views on the proposed recommendations for further action and endorse next steps aimed at enhancing the inland transport sector`s resilience to and preparedness for future pandemics and/or international emergency situations. 

DRAFT AGENDA

10h00-10h05 – Welcoming remarks

Mr. Piet De Wildt, Chair, Working Party on Transport Trends and Economics (WP.5)

10h05-10h20 – Introduction by the secretariat

• Presentation of Working Document 10 “Taking stock of the resilience of the inland transport sector to pandemics and international emergency situations” (ECE/TRANS/WP.5/2020/10)

Mr. Roel Janssens, Secretary, Working Party on Transport Trends and Economics (WP.5), UNECE Sustainable Transport Division

10h20-11h00 – COVID-19 responses – Updates by Governments and international and regional organisations

Selected topics:

• Further measures taken and policies implemented since the first informal multidisciplinary advisory group meeting
• Remaining challenges and obstacles in the wake of the crisis

Dr. Ninglan Wang, i.e. Head of Border Risk Dissemination Management, Country Readiness Strengthening, WHO Headquarters and Ms. Sara Barragan Montes, Consultant, IHR Coordination Function Lead, Incident Management Support Team (IMST) for the COVID-19 response, WHO Regional Office for Europe

Mr. Stefano Paci, International Transport Affairs, DG Mobility and Transport, European Commission

Mr. Oscar Oliver, Director General, Centre for Transportation Studies for the Western Mediterranean (CETMO)

Mr. Samson Bilangna (English and French), Senior Technical Officer, Compliance and Facilitation, World Customs Organization (WCO)

Ms. Gladys Mutangadura, Senior Programme Officer, UN-OHRLLS

Mr. Robert Razvan Dobre, Director for Investments and Infrastructure, Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure and Communications of Romania and Vice Chair of the Inland Transport Committee (ITC)

UIC COVID-19 update

Interventions (5-7 minutes)

Q&A

11h00-11h50 – Discussion on possible recommendations for further action by the inland transport community and the role of UNECE

Selected questions:

• What action is needed at the regulatory level to further strengthen the inland transport sector’s resilience towards future pandemics?
• Are existing international legal instruments/ Conventions to be amended/ expanded upon in order to strengthen their role in boosting the international transport community’s responsiveness to future pandemics or should new instruments be developed instead?
• How to tap the full potential of ongoing transport digitalization initiatives in the fight against COVID-19 and possible future pandemics?
• How to promote continuous regional and inter-regional dialogue on transport community pandemic preparedness issues?

Interventions (5-7 minutes):

Q&A

11h50-12h00 – Wrap-up, agreement on next steps

REGISTRATION

Registration for the 2nd WP.5 Informal Multidisciplinary Advisory Group Meeting on Transport Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis (Geneva, 8 September 2020) is open, click here to register.
Participation is possible both in person or virtually (through WebEx).
A "WebEx how-to-use guide" is available here.
Should you experience problems with the registration process please contact Mrs. Maria Mostovets
For further information and for requests to take the floor please contact Mr. Roel Janssens