ITC kept three objectives in sharp focus throughout 2003.
They were:
- to remain a provider of specialized trade-related technical
assistance and grow within its niche by intensifying, rather than
diversifying, activities;
- to combine its expertise increasingly with that of others in
technical assis-tance "consortiums" and continue to innovate in its
technical assistance approaches; and
- to work towards achieving greater impact and increasing
efficiency through continued streamlining of administrative
processes.
Sustaining delivery
Technical assistance delivery rose by 70% over the past three
years. To help ensure that this growth is sustainable, ITC uses a
number of approaches. It has joint programmes, it works with
national partners and it offers "modular" programmes from which
beneficiaries can mix and match elements to their needs.
Sustainable platforms for delivery include:
- the second phase of the Joint ITC/UNCTAD/WTO Integrated
Technical Assistance Programme in Selected Least Developed and
Other African Countries (JITAP);
- the Business for Development initiative following the WTO
Ministerial Conference in Cancún;
- increasing participation in the Integrated Framework;
- the ITC/Trade Facilitation Office Canada Programme for Building
African Capacity for Trade;
- the new modular programme to promote trade in services;
and
- expanding activities in national and sectoral export strategy
design.
More and stronger partnerships
ITC participated more in technical assistance consortiums and
searched for partnerships proactively.
Organizations with which ITC collaborates include UNCTAD and WTO,
World Bank, International Monetary Fund, UN Development Programme,
Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs
(
seco), United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) and the State Department, the Netherlands'
Centre for Import Promotion (CBI), GTZ (the German technical
cooperation agency), Commonwealth Secretariat,
Agence
intergouvernementale de la francophonie (Intergovernmental
agency for French-speaking countries), UN Industrial Development
Organization and World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO).
On the horizon is a major breakthrough with the European Commission
for collaboration in Asia.
Innovative content and delivery
ITC has continued to innovate in what it delivers and how
it delivers, for example with new approaches to global programmes
in export-led poverty reduction, e-commerce and South-South trade.
Under the World Tr@de Net Programme and the Executive Forum, ITC
stepped up efforts to promote business advocacy and create
effective public-private partnerships to better formulate export
strategy and trade negotiating positions.
Web-based tools for strategic market analysis continued to set
standards around the world and are now used in more than 130
countries. At the same time, ITC improved efficiency in project
planning and monitoring with the full installation of the
computer-based Integrated Management Information System. The ITC
Project Portal, a first in the UN system for daily monitoring of
delivery and project implementation, is attracting substantial
attention among other UN agencies in Geneva and New York.
Focus on competitiveness
These achievements illustrate the basic premise that guides ITC
technical cooperation today - that ITC must go beyond the narrowly
defined area of trade promotion. For programmes to have impact in a
complex trade environment, they must address competitiveness and
what it implies for countries, sectors and firms. ITC specializes
in addressing the competitiveness of firms: the capability to
produce and deliver, in a timely manner, a product or service at a
quality and price that the market demands.
It continues to invest in developing tools and programmes and is
striving to maximize synergies between them. Building alliances
with other technical assistance providers whose programmes can be
complemented remains a high priority.
This reinforces ITC's niche of delivering practical, down-to-earth
technical assistance. The demand for ITC's type of support has
grown tremendously since the WTO Ministerial Conference in
Doha.
Ambitious but realistic targets
Given the high level of demand, its 40 years of experience and the
solid support of the donor community, ITC is using the opportunity
of its 40th anniversary to set new and ambitious - yet realistic -
targets for the future. On its agenda for 2004 and beyond
are:
- continued double-digit growth in annual delivery;
- new initiatives under the Second Window of the Global Trust
Fund;
- partnerships with the European Commission beyond those in
Asia;
- partnerships with the African Development Bank;
- increased synergy between ITC technical experts and those
responsible for country needs assessment;
- additional streamlining and computerization of operations;
and
- honest and realistic ways of measuring the impact of ITC work
at field level.
Developing local trade development skills and knowledge is key to
achieving sustainable impact, and ITC focuses its field activities
here. The organization is engaging fewer international consultants.
Instead, it is paying more attention to involving national
counterparts and local experts, including many trained by
ITC.
Building local capacities and local ownership through "learning by
doing" is cost-effective but more time-consuming, because it
requires heavier involvement of ITC headquarters staff to implement
and monitor projects. However, indications are that this approach
does have a greater impact for sustainable development. ITC intends
to continue on this track.
Challenge of assessing impact
Today's challenge is to develop a rational system to
measure the impact of trade-related technical assistance. ITC has
made some advances but is not yet satisfied. It hopes that the
joint evaluation team at work will provide concrete guidance on how
to strengthen ITC's approach to this issue.
Similarly, ITC is looking forward to the results of the OECD's
(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) work to
develop a common evaluation framework for trade-related technical
assistance and capacity building. ITC partners - both providers and
recipients of technical assistance - are invited to participate in
this venture.
40th anniversary
For its 40th anniversary, ITC is proposing a number of activities
that look at the past as a source of inspiration for the future.
Five are summarized below:
- An informal Technical Session at the annual meeting of ITC's
Joint Advisory Group (JAG, 26-30 April), illustrating typical ITC
in-country activities through presentations by beneficiaries of
technical assistance programmes.
- A half-day Open House at ITC headquarters, also on the occasion
of the annual meeting.
- Two special publications of Trade
Forum magazine, one documenting success stories from
the past 40 years of ITC's history and role in trade development,
and the other featuring key trade development issues facing
exporters today and ITC's related efforts.
- The launch of a new fellowship programme in international
trade.
Fellowship programme on track
On 26 April, ITC signed an agreement with AIESEC
(International Association for Students in Economics and Commerce),
a 50-year-old association of business students active in 84
countries. The agreement creates the ITC-AIESEC Fellowship in
International Trade, which allows business graduates from the
developing world to come to ITC for three to six months of
intensive training in trade development techniques. The students
will be sponsored by private companies which want to invest in the
development of these talents and in their own recruitment efforts
in the developing world.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) will sponsor the first two trainees. Both
fellows will combine their ITC training with internships at HP. HP
and ITC have held preliminary discussions on a broader partnership,
including some community-based initiatives in Africa. These ideas
will be pursued with other trans-national corporations in the
months ahead. ITC will also invite its traditional donors to extend
the fellowship concept to include young and promising staff of
trade support institutions.
This article is adapted from J. Denis Bélisle's opening
statement at the 37th session of ITC's Joint Advisory Group, on 26
April 2004.