Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 10 • Number 37 • 8th November 2006
WTO Members Need More Time To Examine Technical Assistance Plan For 2007
Many Members said they were satisfied with the WTO Secretariat’s plans for trade-related technical assistance in 2007, at a 3 November meeting of the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD). However, sources report that they were unable to adopt the ‘Technical Assistance and Training Plan’ for 2007 (WT/COMTD/W/151), since some African countries, which are among the major targets of such assistance, indicated that they would need more time to study it and make comments. Members are expected to consider the document again at the next CTD session, scheduled for 28 November.
The WTO Secretariat drafted the plan and circulated it to delegations in October. At the recent meeting, Members also discussed evaluations of trade-related technical assistance (TRTA) efforts, focusing principally on an external review by three civil society organisations and an ‘audit’ by the Secretariat of technical cooperation provided in 2005 (WT/COMTD/W/148).
The plan for 2007 works from the premise that training, technical assistance and capacity building are central to the development dimension of the multilateral trading system, and that the suspension of the Doha Round negotiations will not alter Members’ need for such aid. It focuses on the need to enhance Members’ capacity to implement their existing multilateral commitments, as well as to participate in negotiations.
Negotiating and implementing commitments overlap with some of the recommendations made by the WTO’s Aid for Trade Task Force, though that panel’s wider mandate led it to also prescribe funding for building infrastructure and supply-side capacity in developing countries.
The technical assistance plan stresses that it will be flexible based on recipients’ needs. For example, training efforts will be related to the eventual outcomes of the ongoing discussions on Aid for Trade and to the operationalisation of the recommendations for enhancing the multi-agency Integrated Framework for trade-related technical assistance to least-developed countries (LDCs). The plan itself could be adjusted as those initiatives take shape, it adds.
TRTA plan calls for focus on quality, recipients’ needs
The WTO’s general objective will remain to help Members profitable integrate into the multilateral trading system, and to take part in trade negotiations. In light of their pressing trade development needs, LDCs will be priority recipients of such aid.
Technical assistance ‘products’ in 2007 will broadly cover a range of general WTO-related training courses in Geneva and in recipient regions, as well as more specialised and advanced training, both in Geneva and specific countries. They will also aim to buttress academic support for capacity building, to improve facilities for training and technical assistance, and to promote e-learning. The Secretariat also envisages outreach activities for parliamentarians and civil society groups, as well as support for academics, doctoral students, and universities. It will continue its trainee and internship programmes.
The newest annual framework for technical assistance attempts to incorporate lessons learned from previous years, as well as views that Members expressed in formal and informal consultations. It emphasised the importance of integrating training and technical cooperation, explaining that the need to maximise synergies between the two motivated the establishment in 2003 of the WTO’s Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation (ITTC), which coordinates TA work.
Plan responded to external review’s findings
The Secretariat identified priorities for 2007 with guidance from the main recommendations of the first ever independent ’strategic review’ of WTO technical assistance. It was carried out in 2005 and 2006 by the Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS), the Latin American School of Social Sciences (FLACSO), and the North-South Institute (NSI).
These priorities included the quality of the TA activities, the methodology of training; making the training materials more accessible; basing assistance on systematic needs assessment; strategic cooperation with other agencies; better participant selection; the development of follow-up activities; stronger use of e-training; and the exploration of effective ways to outsource some training activities on WTO basics.
The strategic review had focused on three main issues — the WTO’s comparative advantage in offering TRTA vis-à-vis other agencies; the relevance of such assistance to Members and to participants, and the efficiency and management of WTO TRTA. The three organisations, which closely examined nine recipient countries, submitted their 158-page report (WT/COMTD/W/152) to the Secretariat in July.
Among the review’s conclusions was that the need to maintain neutrality "had limited the WTO trainers’ willingness to discuss policy flexibility within the WTO rules and the implications of alternative negotiating proposals." Many of the TA recipients surveyed felt that "WTO training was oriented more to building national officials’ capacity as effective rule takers than as effective negotiators and rule-makers."
The review urged the WTO to move from a relatively Geneva-centric model to a more regional and in-country approach for TRTA. It suggested that the WTO could grant the Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation the power and autonomy necessary to ensure that non-WTO organisations and people can be brought in to provide the sort of TRTA that the WTO cannot provide due to its neutrality mandate.
The independent assessment also revealed that recipients widely agreed on the WTO’s expertise with regard to multilateral rules, procedures, and the state of play of negotiations. However, several questioned its competence with regard to issues such as development dimensions, negotiating techniques and analytical skills, and knowledge of national and regional specificities.
The Secretariat’s own audit of technical cooperation work, for its part, found that progress had been made at adapting TRTA activities to better match the needs and expectations of recipients, but that more remained to be done. It suggested that Trade Policy Review missions could be used to better assess country’s needs, potentially by including personnel from the Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation.
The Technical Assistance and Training Plan for 2007 specifies that the key accountability mechanisms for results will remain internal evaluations by TA providers and the technical cooperation audit. It acknowledged that it had not had time incorporate the findings of the strategic review, which had called for a move beyond self-evaluation. The Secretariat suggested that the plan might be changed based on Members’ discussions in the CTD.
Funding situation "more critical than ever"
The plan appealed to Members to come forward with funding, noting that pledges and contributions into the WTO’s fund for TRTA activities in 2006 fell short of the requirements. "The situation is more critical than ever before," it said, since no funds from 2006 will be available to pay for implementing the TA plan at the beginning of 2007.
Once the CTD approves the TA plan and a sum for how much it will cost, the WTO budget committee will work with the General Council to secure funding for its implementation.
ICTSD reporting.