UNCTAD Sustainability Score for National Trade Facilitation Committees is built on the idea that the prospects of an NTFC to last can be assessed based on a series of determining factors that strengthen a Committee’s capacity to be operational in the long term. It does not calculate whether a Committee is well or badly set up, organised or is successful in implementing trade facilitation reforms. The Score tries to predict the chances an NTFC has, to be sustainable in time.
The data used to calculate the Score is taken from the answers given by the chairperson or the secretariat of each NTFC to a specific UNCTAD survey, as part of their process to update their country profiles in UNCTAD Knowledge Database for National Trade Facilitation Committees.
UNCTAD Sustainability Score for NTFCs takes into consideration seven groupings of factors: scope of work, official set up, NTFC structure, membership, funding, outcomes and communication. Hypotheses on the influence of each factor on the operations of an NTFC have been formulated based on UNCTAD’s extensive research and wide-ranging experience supporting NTFCs.
In the UNCTAD Sustainability Scores for National Trade Facilitation Committees, a country can get up to 100 points.
The final Score for each country could be ranged in three levels as such:
- Less than 50% – The prospects for this NTFC to be sustainable in time are weak. It is recommended to analyse which key features of the NTFC could be strengthened immediately to redirect this situation and reinforce the capacity of the NTFC to be operational on the long run.
- From 51% to 79% – The prospects for this NTFC to be sustainable in time are good. NTFC within this range of the score are however recommended to use UNCTAD Sustainability Score for NTFC to identify its weaknesses and address them without delay.
- From 80% to 100% – The prospects for this NTFC to be sustainable in time are very good. NTFC are still invited to have a look at UNCTAD Sustainability Score for NTFC to identify any possible weakness that could be addressed.
More detailed information about how the score is calculated can be found here.
If you have any questions about UNCTAD Sustainability Score for National Trade Facilitation Committees, you can contact tf@unctad.org
