Report of the Working Party on the Programme Plan and Programme Performance: Review of the technical cooperation activities of UNCTAD and their financing

The Trade and Development Board

1. Takes note with appreciation of the technical cooperation activities carried out by the UNCTAD secretariat in cooperation with the beneficiaries and development partners;
2. Takes note of the decrease in extrabudgetary contributions in 2022 after the record high in 2021, and takes note with satisfaction of the significant increase in funds mobilized through “Delivering as one” funding mechanisms;
3. Reaffirms the role of UNCTAD technical cooperation as one of the three fundamental pillars of UNCTAD, and stresses the importance of coordination among those pillars for coherent and mutually reinforced assistance;
4. Requests UNCTAD to pursue its efforts in providing member States with demand-driven, innovative and responsive technical assistance, in line with its mandate and the UNCTAD technical cooperation strategy, and requests the secretariat to present the streamlined UNCTAD Toolbox currently under preparation by the next session of the Working Party;
5. Encourages UNCTAD to further strengthen its interdivisional approach to develop and implement comprehensive products on priority themes with the aim of reaching the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals pertinent to trade;
6. Encourages UNCTAD to pursue further its efforts in engaging in United Nations development system reform with enhanced collaboration with the United Nations resident coordinator system, in cooperation with partner agencies from the United Nations Inter-Agency Cluster on Trade and Productive Capacity, as well as to promote and to disseminate technical cooperation and assistance provided by UNCTAD programmes in developing countries, including through domestic and regional agencies and organizations;
7. Stresses the importance of sufficient and predictable funding to ensure effective technical cooperation, and encourages countries in position to do so to provide UNCTAD with multi-year contributions, including to the trust fund for the least developed countries, to increase the sustainability of UNCTAD technical assistance, underlining the importance of results-based management and the relevance of non-earmarked funding, while reaffirming the need to continue improving the application of good governance, transparency and accountability.