Top > Regional Affairs > Africa > TICAD > Illustrative List Of Ongoing and Pipeline Projects/Programs For African Development As a Reference Document for TICAD II > II. Economic Development : Promoting Private Sector (2.1 Private Sector Development) > Joint ITC/UNCTAD/WTO Integrated Programme of technical assistance to select least development and other African countries (JITAP)

Joint ITC/UNCTAD/WTO Integrated Program of Technical Assistance to Select Least Development and Other African Countries
Project / Program Summary

I. Basic data

Sector(s): Trade and development. Export Promotion.
Title: Joint ITC/UNCTAD/WTO Integrated Programme of technical assistance to select least development and other African countries (JITAP).
Donor country / organization: International Trade Centre (UNTAD/WTO), UNCTAD and WTO
Other donors / organizations involved: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom. Funding from these donor countries made available through a Common Trust Fund (CTF)
Beneficiary countries / regions: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Tunisia.
Implementing agencies in beneficiary countries / regions:
Ministries of Trade and Industry, National export promotion organizations, Chambers of Commerce, private sector development organizations, National Standards Boards.
Duration: 2.5 years
Starting Date: July - October 1998
Project / Program budget: US$ 10.3 million
Finance / Type of cooperation: Technical cooperation

II. Project / program description

  1. Objectives
    1. National capacity for understanding the Multilateral Trading System (MTS) and its implication
    2. Conforming to and seeking advantage from the Multilateral System
    3. Enhancing the country's export readiness
  2. Activities / contents
    About 100 to 140 activities in each country to be implemented by the three executing organization (ITC, UNCTAD and WTO) mainly as joint endeavours. The activities have been grouped in Clusters, as follows: Integrated Programme Management (Cluster 1), Support to MTS institutions (Cluster 2), Assistance to Customs (Cluster 3), Legal adjustment and Business environment (Cluster 4), Reference centres (Cluster 5), Trade Information management (Cluster 6), Networking programme partners and national networks of trainers/presemers/experts (Cluster 7), Human resource development and Improvement of MTS knowledge (Cluster 8), MTS Impact on national economy and external trade and trade policy adaptation (Cluster 9), Human resource development in national and sectorial export strategy formulation (Cluster 10), Assessment of export and market potentials (Cluster 11), Formulation of sectorial/product specific strategies to draw advantage of the MTS opportunities (Cluster 12), Trade secrets, the Export Answer book for SMEs (Cluster 13), Export financing (Cluster 14), Quality management and export packaging in MTS context (Cluster 15).
  3. Expected outcomes / impacts/
    • Greater capacity of the beneficiary countries in understanding the Multilateral Trading system and managing their participation in WTO and world trade.
    • More business friendly legal environment in line with WTO rules and agreement
    • Trading opportunities better identified.
    • Capacity to development sectorial export strategies strengthened, and strategies actually designed, for selected priority sectors.
    • Access by export enterprises to key competitiveness tool improved (trade information, quality management, skills, strategy formulation capacity, understanding of export financing requirements, etc.)
    • Networking trainers/presenters/experts in export trade and multilateral trading system.
  4. Features in line with the Agenda for Action
    • National ownership of the respective country projects.
    • TCDC
    • Capacity building for trade development in MTS context

III. Contact point:

Unit for Joint Integrated Technical Assistance Programme (JITAP), Officer for Least Developed Countries and Africa (OLDCA), Division of Technical Cooperation Coordination (DTCC) at the International Trade Centre (UNCTAD/WTO)
Palais des Nations CH 1211 GENEVA 10 (Switzerland)
Tel: (41.22)730.03.590 Fax: (41.22)730.05.70
E-mail: dagata@intracen.org or benfadhl@intracen.org

(End)
Back to Index