The IF is a joint initiative of the IMF, ITC, UNCTAD,
UNDP, the World Bank, and WTO. It seeks to increase the benefits that
Least-Developed Countries (LDCs) derive from trade-related technical
cooperation available from these Agencies, as well as from other sources.
The IF aims to:
- Ensure that trade-related technical assistance activities are
demand-driven, effective, and country-owned;
- Enable each agency involved to increase its efficiency and
effectiveness in the delivery of these activities;
- Keep under review trade-related technical assistance activities in
each LDC; and
- Provide comprehensive information to development partners and to the
private sector about LDC needs and about relevant technical assistance
work of the six IF Agencies.
A review on the IF highlighted its the value as a
platform for inter-agency coordination to assist the LDCs in meeting the
challenges of managing globalisation, particularly as regards poverty
reduction. As a preliminary step, the IF promotes the formulation of
"Pro-Poor Trade Sector Strategies," fully mainstreamed in each
country's national poverty reduction strategy, through the World-Bank
supported Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP).
Both the IF and the EPRP seek to harness the trade
sector as an engine for poverty reduction. The IF's approach is to
mainstream trade into country development plans and to develop
comprehensive trade integration strategies encompassing all constraints to
trade and including a programme of trade-related technical assistance
projects to be considered for funding. This objective is broad in
strategic focus and therefore entails a wide range of technical
cooperation measures for LDCs.
On its part, the EPRP focuses on concrete
result-oriented projects dealing with specific products and communities,
which fall within the overall framework laid out as part of the IF
process. Furthermore, while the IF covers LDCs only, the EPRP is also
active in other developing countries and economies in transition for which
poverty also constitutes a major concern.
The EPRP's specific contribution lies in its practical
and business oriented approach for strengthening backward linkages for
export-led poverty reduction. Within this programme, appropriate
methodologies and tools for enhancing capacities at the micro- and meso-
levels are also developed to achieve higher leverage and to promote the
inclusion of poor small holder producers into the export value chain on a
broader national level.
