UNCTAD/TrainForTrade Port Management Programme - Delivery of Module 1, Cycle 2, Manila

​26 middle managers from the port communities of the Philippines who are enrolled in the UNCTAD TrainForTrade Port Management Programme will participate in the first of eight training modules. Participants represent 19 different Port Management Offices of Philippines Ports Authority (PPA) from the regions of Manila/Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, Visayas, Northern Mindanao and Southern Mindanao. Other participants are from Cebu Ports Authority (CPA), Manila North Harbour Port, Davao Integrated Port Services & Stevedoring Corporation (Dipsscor), Oroport Cargo Handling Services and the Authority of Freeport Area of Bataan.

The module will be delivered by senior managers from PPA who have been certified by TrainForTrade as local trainers. This strategy promotes South-South cooperation, as well as networking and exchange of best practices among member ports of the programme.  

Module 1 of the Modern Port Management Course, "International Trade and Maritime Transport" focuses on the important and strategic relationship of ports, shippers and shipping companies. It further examines the factors that condition port activities that are an integral part of international trade.

The Philippines is currently undergoing the second cycle of the Port Management Programme. Each training cycle lasts 16 to 24 months and comprises 240 hours of in-class training and a final thesis. The deliveries are both led by UNCTAD and international instructors (Irish port experts), as well as local senior managers who have completed the training-of-trainers workshop. This strategy highlights the uniqueness and strength of the TrainForTrade Port Management Programme in fostering local ownership to reinforce its impact and ensure sustainability. Local ownership of the programme is achieved through a financing scheme that requires the participating ports to provide the majority of the programme's funds, and by gradually shifting responsibility for implementing the programme from UNCTAD to the participating ports.