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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.

iaea

International Atomic Energy Agency(iaea)

Summary of activities included in this category
Global Advocacy
unctad

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development(unctad)

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
unctad

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development(unctad)

Summary of activities included in this category
Assistance to WTO accession
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
unctad

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development(unctad)

Summary of activities included in this category
The BioTrade initiative
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.

unctad

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development(unctad)

Summary of activities included in this category
Policy advice on commodities
uneca

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa(uneca)

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