The forty-second executive session of the Trade and Development Board will discuss UNCTAD´s annual report on activities in favour of Africa (TD/B/EX(42)/2) on 12 July 2007.
This report presents a panoramic picture of what the organization does in support of African countries and the New Partnership for Africa´s Development (NEPAD) process. These activities fall under two broad categories: policy research and analysis on Africa´s development challenges; and advisory services and capacity building.
Policy research and analysis on Africa´s development challenges
The report entitled "Economic Development in Africa - Doubling Aid: Making the ´Big Push´ Work" argues that while a "big push" designed to instigate a virtuous circle of higher investment, income and savings is necessary for poverty reduction, policies by aid donors and recipients alike are crucial for Africa´s success, the impact of aid cannot be separated from national policy autonomy or from the quality of aid. Based on past successful aid experiences, the report argues for a new aid architecture with a much larger multilateral component in order to deal with the present "chaotic" state of the aid system, which suffers from high transaction costs, politicization, lack of transparency, incoherence, unpredictability, and too much demand on weak recipient institutions.
The 2006 Least Developed Countries Report, in addressing developing productive capacities in least developed countries (LDCs), analyses key constraints facing these countries in this area. The report argues that the basic causes of underdevelopment and persistent mass poverty in the LDCs are widespread unemployment, underemployment and low labour productivity, and that the sustainability of economic and social progress in these countries ultimately depends on building sound productive capacities.
Advisory services and capacity building
In the area of international trade, the second phase of the Joint Integrated Technical Assistance Programme (JITAP), a partnership project with ITC and WTO, will conclude in July 2007. An evaluation of the programme, which covered the first group of African beneficiary countries undertaken by international consultants, recommended the continuation of JITAP into a third phase.
Other trade-related technical assistance activities include support on trade negotiations and trade negotiating capacity, African intra-regional trade, assistance in trade in services and trade preferences, competition law and policy, and support for South-South trade cooperation. Also implemented were activities related to trade, environment and development; commodities; and services development. Other areas include: debt management; international investment (including investment policy reviews); enterprise development; and capacity building in trade facilitation, including customs and transport.
