OECD/WTO Aid for Trade at a Glance

Monitoring the Aid for Trade Initiative

Trade can be a powerful engine for economic growth and poverty reduction, but harnessing its power is difficult for many developing countries. This is particularly true for the least-developed countries, where there is often a lack of capacity - in terms of information, policies, procedures, institutions and infrastructure - to integrate and compete effectively in global markets. To address these capacity constraints, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has led the call for more and better aid for trade. Recommendations have been made to strengthen both the demand-side and the donor response, while working to better bridge the gap between these at the country, regional and global level. The WTO and OECD periodically put a spotlight on aid for trade to monitor what is happening, what is not, where improvements are needed and where aid for trade is having the desired effect. Read more

News

Fourth Global Review of Aid for Trade

8-10 July 2013, WTO Headquarters, Geneva

The Global Review of Aid for Trade, the pre-eminent forum for discussing trade and development issues will bring together 36 Ministers, the EU Commissioners for Trade and for Development, the Heads (or Deputy Heads) of International Governental Organisations, including the World Bank, UN Developement Programme, the Regional Development Banks (i.e. the African Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Islamic Development Bank), with the private sector will discuss how aid for trade can help firms in developing countries to connect to value chains.

OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría will launch the joint OECD/WTO flagship publication Aid for Trade at a Glance: Connecting to Value Chains during the opening session. The report summarises the findings of an OECD/WTO survey of the private sector (700 firms with 500 from developing countries) and the public sector (80 developing countries, 40 donors, and 9 providers of South-South co-operation).

In addition, sector studies on aid for trade and value chains have been produced in:

Joint OECD/WTO publication Aid for Trade in Action has been released. Read more OECD/WTO work on aid for trade.

The OECD will also present its results framework Aid for Trade and Development Results which is based on case studies of national management systems in Bangladesh, Colombia, Ghana, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands and Vietnam.

Key engagement partners such as China and India will also play an active role at the Global Review. Panels will discuss, amongst others, how value chains can work for development, how to engage the private sector, how to promote investment in trade, and how to improve CSR. The economic growth and trade dimensions of the post-2015 agenda will also be discussed, while DAC Chair Erik Solheim, with ministers from China and Indonesia, will talk about the future of Aid for Trade in a changed environment for trade and development (i.e. the topic of the January 2013 OECD Policy Dialogue on Aid for Trade).

» What is aid for trade? (video, 8min)

2011 Aid-for-trade flows at a glance

(Click the image to access dynamic graphs)

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