Over the last seven years, the International
Trade Centre (ITC) has become more focused and its interventions more
impactful, said outgoing Executive Director Patricia Francis, addressing the 47th
annual meeting of ITC’s Joint Advisory Group (JAG) on Monday 6 May in Geneva.
A stronger focus on results and an increase
in transparency have led to a greater level of trust and confidence among ITC’s
donors and beneficiaries alike, resulting in higher delivery of trade-related
technical assistance, said Ms. Francis, whose term will end on 3 June. ‘Today
we can see the fruits of the decision to use large multi-year projects as a way
to increase the value, impact and volume of ITC’s technical assistance to
beneficiary countries,’ she said.
Turning to 2012 and 2013, she described the
economic environment as ‘fragile,’ which has led to an increase for ITC’s
services in developing and transition economy countries. Ms. Francis told
delegates that the challenge for developing countries was to better understand and
exploit the economic potential of emerging markets, where most of the economic
growth is taking place.
ITC delivered USD 40 million in
trade-related technical assistance in 2012, she said presenting the
organization’s
Annual Report
. 69%
of country- and region-specific delivery went to priority countries, in line
with ITC’s
strategic plan
to
focus on the most vulnerable economies, including least developed countries,
landlocked developing countries, small island developing states and sub-Saharan
Africa. The amount of assistance provided by ITC was lower than in 2011, in
line with earlier predictions, as several large, multi-year programmes were winding
down. The 2011 delivery volume of USD 48 million will be matched in future
years as new programmes are implemented, she said. The organization’s goal is
to maintain or increase the high ratio of priority-country delivery even as
overall volume increases, she said.
Ms. Francis drew delegates’ attention to the
external impact evaluation report of ITC’s
Ethical Fashion
Initiative
, which found that the programme’s operations in
Kenya had ‘proven impact on poverty alleviation for its beneficiaries’. The
Ethical Fashion Initiative connects the fashion business with
artisans in Africa and Haiti.
ITC has also become a well-known champion of
women’s economic empowerment, Ms. Francis said. She emphasized that through the
Women and Tradeprogramme
, ITC has mainstreamed a gender-sensitive approach
to project design and implementation. A major outcome of the programme has been
the establishment of the
Global Platform
for Action on Sourcing from Women Vendors
, which aims to
increase the share of corporate, government and institutional contracts awarded
to women-owned businesses, she said.
‘In just two years, the platform facilitated
the export of more than USD 20 million worth of goods by 200 women-owned SMEs
from the developing world,’ said Ms. Francis. ‘We continue to believe that
providing equal opportunities to women is not only the morally right thing to
do: it is also good development policy.’
Mr. Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the
World Trade Organization (WTO),
told JAG delegates that ITC remained ahead of the
curve and ahead of the multilateral trade rule book in several areas, including
trade in services, specifically tourism, as well as in value-chain analysis, the
green economy and in advocating for the economic empowerment of women.
Mr. Lamy also commended ITC’s joint work with the
WTO within the Aid for Trade agenda. ‘Here I must make specific mention of the
work on value chains, which offer an opportunity for developing countries and
the SMEs within their borders. This must continue to be a centrepiece of ITC's
work in the future,’ he said.
ITC continues to be seen by policy-makers and
policy-users around the globe as an implementer of real-world policies and as
an organization that has its fingers on the pulse of the needs and priorities
of the private sector, Mr. Lamy said, thanking Ms. Francis for her leadership
over the last few years.
Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi
,
the
Secretary General of UNCTAD, reminded JAG delegates of the importance of ITC’s work
on identifying and reducing non-tariff measures (NTMs) in international trade. Talking
of ITC’s survey in 27 countries, he said ‘these activities carried out by ITC
are a useful complement to UNCTAD’s work with official NTM data – a good
example of synergy.’
ITC Deputy Executive Director Jean-Marie Paugam
underlined the importance of resource mobilization and project generation for
ITC to maintain its momentum. The organization needs to raise USD 40 - 45
million in order to fulfil its commitments to beneficiary countries over the
coming years, he said.
Mr. Paugam highlighted the fact that the USD 600,000 ITC invested in project idea development between January 2011 and June 2012 has already generated projects with a combined total of USD 20 million in new donor funding, with a further USD 12 million worth of projects still under negotiation.
‘This is a very respectable return on investment
for our seed-funding,’ he said.‘We intend
to sustain this effort of seed-funding investment to leverage and innovate
products and services of the future.’
In addition to reviews of ITC’s programmes
and priorities, the two-day JAG meeting will also feature updates on ITC’s
performance in 2012.
ITC is the joint agency of the World
Trade Organization and the United Nations. ITC assists small- and medium-sized
enterprises in developing and transition economy countries to become more
competitive in global markets, contributing to sustainable economic development
within the frameworks of the
Aid for Trade agenda
and
the
Millennium Development Goals
.
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