Review of technical cooperation activities of UNCTAD

The Trade and Development Board,

1. Takes note with appreciation of the information provided in the report on thereview of technical cooperation activities of UNCTAD (TD/B/49/4, and Add 1-2), as well asthe Indicative Plan of UNCTAD’s technical cooperation for 2003 (TD/B/49/5);
2. Expresses its appreciation to bilateral and multilateral donors for theircontributions to UNCTAD trust funds; and invites them to continue contributing toUNCTAD, so that it can respond to increasing demand for technical assistance in areas of itsexpertise and comparative advantage;
3. Requests the secretariat to ensure adequate follow-up to the recommendationsof the internal review of procedures and arrangements governing UNCTAD technicalcooperation, requests the secretariat to initiate consultations with Member States, as soon aspossible, with regard to the implementation of those recommendations of the internal reviewwhich require consultations with Member States, and decides to review the progress in theimplementation of the recommendations on a regular basis in the Working Party;
4. Notes with appreciation the benefits accrued to beneficiary countries fromUNCTAD technical assistance activities in the areas of debt and finance, programmes relatedto international trade in goods, services and commodity issues, investment and enterprisedevelopment, and programmes carried out in the areas of services infrastructure and tradeefficiency; and requests UNCTAD to continue its efforts to provide high-quality support inthese areas;
5. Encourages the secretariat to deepen its work on WTO-related activities, andto further strengthen cooperation and coordination of its activities with other providers oftrade-related technical cooperation, in particular with regard to the Integrated Framework andJITAP, with a view to responding, on the basis of its comparative advantages, to the needsemerging from WTO-related activities;
6. Requests UNCTAD to put in place a focused approach to its activities, and bydoing so, strengthen its activities and programmes in order to meet the increasing needs ofdeveloping countries, within its mandate, in particular in areas where UNCTAD has expertiseand a clear comparative advantage;
7. Requests the secretariat, in its annual report on the review of technicalcooperation activities, to include information on the anticipated evolution of its activities, aswell as a clear indication of the strategic goals and objectives for the coming year, andaccordingly decides to discontinue the consideration of the annual indicative plan; alsorequests the secretariat to include in its annual report information on linkages between thevarious technical cooperation activities with a view to providing information to memberStates on a broad based approach that will bring together, in a coherent way, the various elements of the programmes; and in that regard, requests the secretariat to prepare ananalytical report compiling information on the Commercial Diplomacy Programme, includingresults achieved;
8. Requests the secretariat to continue to include information in projectdocuments on the relationship between project activities and the secretariat’s research andpolicy analysis with a view to ensuring integration between operational and other activities;
9. Requests the secretariat to prepare a note, in consultation with member States,on a possible UNCTAD approach to capacity building for consideration at a future session ofthe Working Party;
10. Decides to include in the agenda of the next session of the Working Party anitem on indicators of achievement, taking into consideration, inter alia, JIU reportJIU/REP/2002/2 entitled “The results approach in the United Nations: implementing theUnited Nations Millennium Declaration”;
11. Emphasizes the need to work towards achieving the international developmentgoals and targets of the Millennium Declaration and through the implementation of theProgramme of Action of the Third United Nations Conference on the Least DevelopedCountries, as relevant to UNCTAD’s mandate.

934^th plenary meeting
17 October 2002