°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ

Assisting officials from developing countries, and countries in transition, in their efforts to better understand °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ rules and procedures — and how these rules and procedure can benefit them — is among the most important aspects of the organization’s work.

Since the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ’s creation in 1995, the number of technical assistance activities has continuously increased. This increase is driven by rising demand from °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ member governments in the developing world.

Number of °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ technical assistance activities per year

The Doha mandate

When °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ members launched a new round of negotiations in Doha, they acknowledged developing countries’ increasing need for technical cooperation in order to allow them to participate fully in the negotiations. At Doha, donors — developed countries and international organizations active in trade issues — pledged to provide the needed support to developing countries.

Paragraph 41 of the Doha Declaration lists all the reference to commitments on technical cooperation within the declaration. Under this heading, °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ member governments reaffirm all technical cooperation and capacity building commitments made throughout the declaration and add general commitments:

• The Secretariat, in coordination with other relevant agencies, is to encourage °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ developing country members to consider trade as a main element for reducing poverty and to include trade measures in their development strategies.
• The agenda set out in the Doha Declaration gives priority to small, vulnerable, and transition economies, as well as to members and observers that do not have permanent delegations in Geneva.
• Technical assistance must be delivered by the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ and other relevant international organizations within a coherent policy framework.

Since the launch of the Doha Development Agenda in November 2001, activities have increased even more. This reflects developing countries’ desire to participate actively in the negotiations. It also shows the increase in sectors covered by the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ — investment, competition, trade facilitation and government transparency, for example, are four new topics.

Funding for technical cooperation has risen in line with the accelerating demand from members. Since the establishment of the Doha Development Agenda Global Trust Fund at the beginning of 2002, funding has increased to cover all activities related to the negotiations.

Reference Centres

Since 1997, the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ Secretariat has installed Reference Centres in developing countries. These allow government officials to access essential documents instantly via the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ website. °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ Secretariat officials provide governments with hardware, software and the training required to efficiently access such documents. By June 2003, 122 centres had been established in 100 countries including 54 in Africa, 16 in the Caribbean, 18 in Asia, 11 in the Middle East, 10 in the Pacific, eight in Latin America, and two in Eastern Europe.

Funding for °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ technical assistance
Million Swiss francs

Training Institute

The °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation provides junior government officials with an important foundation of knowledge in °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ matters. These training courses, held at °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ headquarters in Geneva, run as long as 12 weeks and cover the full range of °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ issues. Many trainees have returned to Geneva as ambassadors representing their countries in the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ. In 2002, 325 officials went through °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ training programmes.

Geneva weeks

In 1999, Director-General Mike Moore initiated a programme known as Geneva Week, which is a special week-long event bringing together representatives of °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ member countries who do not have permanent missions in Geneva. These sessions cover all °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ activities and include presentations by other international organizations based in Geneva, including the International Trade Center (ITC), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Geneva Week usually coincides with important activities already on the agenda including preparations for Ministerial Conferences or other negotiations. In 2002, for the first time, there were two Geneva Weeks. Since 2002, the Geneva Weeks have been funded by the regular °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ budget — previously they were funded from trust fund contributions.