Search the Resource Guide

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.

iaea

International Atomic Energy Agency(iaea)

Summary of activities included in this category
Global Advocacy
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.

iaea

International Atomic Energy Agency(iaea)

Summary of activities included in this category
Legal and Regulatory Framework
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.

iaea

International Atomic Energy Agency(iaea)

Summary of activities included in this category
Assistance to improve production methods
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

iaea

International Atomic Energy Agency(iaea)

Summary of activities included in this category
Assistance to meet global standards and international regulations

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.

uneca

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa(uneca)

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

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

E-commerce Services & Digital Economy

This category includes capacity building activities directed to development of e-commerce from the perspective of the physical and regulatory factors, for example reducing barriers to trade across distance via electronic marketplaces, development of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure, and regulatory frameworks. 

uneca

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa(uneca)

Summary of activities included in this category
Capacity Building

Physical Trade Infrastructure

Like Supply Capacity, this is a category where the boundary between trade support and more general support to production or develop­ment is not clearly defined. Some agencies try to allocate spending on individual projects partially to trade and partially to other purposes; others focus on the principal purpose of a project or a type of activity.

iaea

International Atomic Energy Agency(iaea)

Summary of activities included in this category
Physical Trade Infrastructure
uneca

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa(uneca)

Summary of activities included in this category
Risk analysis