ABOUT NTF IV

The Netherlands Trust Fund IV (NTF IV) - Export Sector Competitiveness Programme is based on a partnership agreement between the Dutch Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI) affiliated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and the International Trade Centre (ITC). The agreement was signed in September 2017. NTF IV builds on and continues the successful cooperation between ITC and CBI. This cooperation has been embodied in a series of programmes called Netherlands Trust Fund I (NTF I), which ended in 2009, the Netherlands Trust Fund II (NTF II) which ended in June 2013 and the Netherlands Trust Fund III (NTF III) which started in July 2013 and ended in June 2017.

NTF IV aims to enhance export competitiveness of selected sectors in selected countries through an integrated approach to sector competitiveness built around one outcome – generation of export revenues - and the four following intermediate outcomes:

• Validated plan for sector and enterprise development in place
• Export capacity of male and female owned SMEs increased sustainably
• Capacity of trade & investment support institutions improved in providing sector development support services to SMEs along the sector value chain
• Business linkages and technical partnerships/collaborations expanded

ITC will implement NTF IV through four individual country/sector projects linked to joint advocacy at the global level, especially on women. CBI and ITC have selected the four country/sector combinations building on jointly defined selection criteria including country requests, market demand, CBI/ITC and Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs priorities, feedback from Dutch Embassies and other donors on how Netherlands assistance can best be prioritized and comparative advantages of ITC and CBI.

The proposed NTF IV county/sector combinations are:

• Myanmar: Consolidation of Kayah state tourism and extension to a new state
• Uganda: Export development of IT and IT-enabled services.
• Mano River Union/Sierra Leone: Value chain development of cocoa and associated crops
• Senegal: Export development of IT and IT enabled Services.