UNCTAD´s Special Programme for Least Developed, Landlocked and Island Developing Countries is organizing a regional workshop in Rwanda next week to help least developed countries (LDCs) participate more in the global economy.
The workshop is aimed specifically at supporting LDCs in the "Integrated Framework", or IF, process. The IF was established in 1997 by six multilateral institutions (IMF, ITC, UNCTAD, UNDP, World Bank and the WTO) that agreed they could complement one another´s efforts to respond to the trade-related problems of the LDCs. The objective is to help this group of 50 countries, which the UN designates as the world´s poorest, expand their participation in the world economy while also contributing to rapid and sustainable growth with poverty reduction.
The workshop, prepared in close collaboration with the core IF agencies and thanks to the support of donors, will be held in Kigali from 18 to 21 October. It is being hosted by Rwanda´s Ministry of Commerce, Industry, Investment Promotion, Tourism and Cooperatives.
The target audience is officials from LDCs just embarking on the IF process: Angola, Cambodia, Chad, Guinea, Lao, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda and Yemen. The participants - focal points on the IF and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) prepared by each country as part of its national development plan - will include officials from the ministries of trade, planning and finance involved in the formulation and implementation of national trade and development policies. The six IF core agencies and interested donors will also be attending. Acting as resource persons will be IF focal points from LDCs that have already gone through the IF process, local donor facilitators and experts from the core agencies.
The workshop will focus on building LDCs´ capacity for ownership of the IF process, providing a forum for the exchange of experiences, lessons and best practices on country-level preparations for IF management and implementation. It will enhance understanding of trade mainstreaming in national development strategies and foster closer communication and collaboration among LDCs participating in the process. How to improve IF institutional arrangements and coordination at the national level, and enhance national ownership of the process, will also be discussed.
Evaluations of the Integrated Framework have shown that ownership by the beneficiary countries is crucial to its successful implementation. IF countries need support as they prepare for the launching of the process, starting with the Diagnostic Trade Integration Studies (DTIS) used to mainstream trade into national development policies. Such support should involve action at the earliest stage, which is what the workshop is intended to do. Discussions will provide input to an IF manual being prepared by UNCTAD for new IF countries and all other stakeholders.
