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Global Advocacy

The global advocacy category covers services that are designed to promote the use of trade as a development tool and to encourage sup­port for developing countries’ efforts to improve their trade capacity building. This includes analysis and dissemination of trade-related information, promoting understanding of the relationship between trade and development, and supporting policies. Some agencies pro­vide information on and support for the interactions between their more specialized interests and trade.

ebrd

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development(ebrd)

Summary of activities included in this category
Conferences and Events
uneca

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa(uneca)

Summary of activities included in this category
Multilateral Trading System
African Trade Week

Legal and Regulatory Framework

Assistance under this category includes helping countries to bring their own regulations into conformity with international rules, more general help to improve their legal institutions, and training officials to deal with such rules. A number of the agencies specialise in par­ticular areas, rather than trying to provide expertise on the legal rules in all sectors. For several, the aim is to balance trade-related obli­gations with other national (or international) interests.

ebrd

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development(ebrd)

Summary of activities included in this category
Support for accession to the WTO GPA
uneca

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa(uneca)

Summary of activities included in this category
Trade negotiations
Support to the process of CFTA negotiations
Model law on infrastructure financing
Trainings

Supply Capacity

In line with the trade focus of this Guide, support activities to develop supply capacity are considered to be those that aim to increase the availability of goods and services for export. There is no easy distinction between this and building more general capacity to pro­duce, and this distinction is becoming less pertinent as borders open and competition in local markets from imports increases. Some agencies do not make this distinction in their projects.

ceb

CEB Inter-Agency Cluster on Trade and Productive Capacity(ceb)

Summary of activities included in this category
Export
Loans and grants
Equity operations
Project financing
ebrd

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development(ebrd)

Summary of activities included in this category
Agribusiness
uneca

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa(uneca)

Summary of activities included in this category
Training
The United States of America’s African Growth and Opportunity Act
Agriculture - Industrialization
ICT observatory

Compliance support infrastructure and services

Assistance in this category is closely related to that under the Legal and Regulatory Framework, but places more emphasis on building the institutions in developing countries to implement such legal frameworks, and less on the details of compliance. It is an area where the specialised agencies again have the main role

ebrd

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development(ebrd)

Summary of activities included in this category
Trade integration of enterprises through improved standards

Trade Policy Development

Agencies’ assistance to trade policy development is generally provided in four areas: design and implementation of trade policy; specific developing country issues in trade (such as commodity exports and preferences); support in trade negotiations; and assistance in man­aging the interactions between trade and other policies.

ebrd

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development(ebrd)

Summary of activities included in this category
Support for accession to the WTO GPA
uneca

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa(uneca)

Summary of activities included in this category
Technical support to African policymakers

Trade promotion capacity building

This category includes both direct support to exporters and the building of institutions in-country which will provide such support. It is different from many of the other categories in its direct relationship to the private sector.

ebrd

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development(ebrd)

Summary of activities included in this category
SME support under the EBRD’s Small Business Initiative

Trade Facilitation

This category covers the development, harmonization, and implementation of the rules and procedures which govern how goods cross borders.

uneca

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa(uneca)

Summary of activities included in this category
Capacity Building