Annual Report 2015 ITC Is the Only International Agency Fully Dedicated to the Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
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TRADE IMPACT FOR GOOD Annual Report 2015 ITC is the only international agency fully dedicated to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. Working with partners to strengthen the competitiveness of SME exporters, we help to build vibrant, sustainable export sectors that provide entrepreneurial opportunities, particularly for women, young people and poor communities. II INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTRE © shutterstock.com Trade impact for good ANNUAL REPORT 2015 1 Contents Foreword 4 The Global Goals for Sustainable Development are ITC’s Goals 6 The Global Context 8 ITC INTERVENTIONS: DOING MORE, BETTER 12 Providing Trade and Market Intelligence 16 Building a Conducive Business Environment 25 Strengthening Trade and Investment Support Institutions 34 Connecting to International Value Chains 41 Promoting and Mainstreaming Inclusive and Green Trade 50 Supporting Regional Economic Integration and South-South links 62 CORPORATE RESULTS 68 Corporate Governance 70 Evaluation and Performance 71 Financial Overview 76 Human Resource Management 79 Communication and Outreach 81 Major ITC Events 83 Partnerships in 2014 86 APPENDICES 93 APPENDIX I: ITC Focus Areas and Programmes 94 APPENDIX II: ITC Technical Cooperation by Region and Focus Area 95 APPENDIX III: ITC Country and Regional Projects and Programmes by Country 102 APPENDIX IV: ITC Needs Assessment and Project Design in 2015 by Region 113 APPENDIX V: Profile of ITC Staff 115 APPENDIX VI: Distribution of Assignments by Nationality and Gender of Experts, 2015 116 APPENDIX VII: Schedule of Voluntary Contributions to the ITC Trust Fund 120 2 INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTRE Case Studies PROVIDING TRADE AND MARKET INTELLIGENCE 20 22 Trade information portal Helping Mauritian and customized training for businesses overcome Malawian businesses and non-tariff measures policymakers BUILDING A CONDUCIVE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT 28 30 32 Trade-led growth Supporting Supporting SME- in Myanmar: countries in the friendly implementation from strategy to WTO accession of the WTO Trade implementation process and beyond Facilitation Agreement STRENGTHENING TRADE AND INVESTMENT SUPPORT INSTITUTIONS 36 38 Helping women traders Getting a fair deal for cross borders securely, Papua New Guinea’s smoothly – and formally ‘bilum mamas’ CONNECTING TO INTERNATIONAL VALUE CHAINS 44 46 48 Using services trade Small investments E-Solutions to drive economic yield big rewards for to connect transformation: cashew exports from Moroccan SMEs Bangladesh’s IT sector Benin and the Gambia to global markets PROMOTING AND MAINSTREAMING INCLUSIVE AND GREEN TRADE 56 58 60 Empowering women Harnessing cocoa in Madagascar through trade to improve Leveraging technology climate-smart raffia livelihoods, protect for sustainable food production biodiversity in Peru systems SUPPORTING REGIONAL ECONOMIC INTEGRATION AND SOUTH-SOUTH LINKS 64 66 Forging new trade and In Morocco, halal investment connections certification opens between East Africa the door to new and India markets ANNUAL REPORT 2015 3 Foreword 2015 was a landmark year for the international community. After laying the groundwork for development financing in Addis Ababa, the United Nations in September adopted the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. In December, the Paris climate conference reached a global deal to curb climate change. The World Trade Organization’s ministerial in Nairobi confirmed that governments could work together multilaterally to create new trade opportunities. Yet the policy achievements of 2015 are but an important beginning. Pledging to end extreme poverty and place economies on a more sustainable and socially equitable footing is important. Delivering is imperative. The Paris Agreement will only achieve decarbonization if governments, business, and individuals collaborate to progressively 4 decrease emissions. And making trade possible by creating new market opportunities for developing countries only improves people’s living standards when companies – as women or the poor, to connect to international markets in especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – are a sustainable manner. able to take advantage of the opportunities and make trade Last year, ITC delivered a record level of technical happen. assistance, capacity support and market intelligence, with Operationalizing these new frameworks is the task of the extra-budgetary expenditures reaching US$55.3 million, the global community in the decade to come, and the highest figure in the organization’s history. International Trade Centre stands ready to contribute. We In this report, you will find a general overview of these have already aligned our programmes to the new Global activities, which spanned the six focus areas of our work. A Goals. Our work will centre on supporting the private sector dozen case studies provide an in-depth look at the to maximise the potential of trade to generate broad-based organization’s solution-oriented approaches for helping increases in income and life opportunities. In other words, to businesses, governments, and TISIs overcome challenges create trade impact for good. impeding trade performance. As is evident from these case The new Global Goals rightly recognize trade to be a critical studies, ITC interventions often cut across multiple areas of enabler of lasting growth and job creation in developing our work. Three further stories, under the heading ‘ITC countries, especially in least developed countries (LDCs) Innovates’, describe cutting-edge new initiatives that we and small and vulnerable states. But as this report notes, anticipate will deliver considerable results in the future. One the current international context for trade-led growth of them, a mobile app- and geolocation-based professional necessitates more proactive policies and investments to network for farmers to map their location and sustainability foster SME integration into value chains. performance, would simply not have been technologically feasible only a few years ago. To contribute to these policies and investments, ITC provides policymakers, the private sector, and trade and Constant innovation to better serve our clients is an ITC investment support institutions (TISIs) with action-oriented hallmark that extends well beyond project design. Last year research and empirical analysis, while implementing was no exception. Institutionally, the transition to a projects and programmes to enable SMEs, especially those programme-based approach to conceptualizing and operating among disadvantaged sections of society such organizing our interventions promises to increase 4 INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTRE 2 3 5 6 1. ITC Executive Director Arancha González and Amina C. Mohamed, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kenya, launch the SheTrades app, Nairobi 2. Visit to Ethical Fashion Artisans EPZ Ltd, Athi River Export Processing Zone, Kenya 3. Arancha González speaking at the UN General Assembly, New York 4. UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi at the 49th Joint Advisory Group meeting 5. Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Interior of the State of Qatar opening WEDF 2015, Doha 6. Open Day for La Francophonie, Geneva managerial effectiveness and the coherence of our project pledges that contribute to this goal. ITC itself has pledged to portfolio. We are developing new approaches to measuring ensure that 40% of our interventions benefit women. the impact of our work. In terms of human resources, ITC The thread connecting the three initiatives is that each will last year set itself targets for achieving gender balance at all make it easier and more affordable for businesses and professional levels, which would place us among the top governments everywhere to pursue objectives that ITC performers in the UN family. A new ‘innovation lab’ is shares, from bolstering SME competitiveness to promoting contributing to fostering a culture of innovation throughout women’s economic empowerment. the organization. In recent years, ITC has responded to challenges by Several new initiatives that we expect will serve as force seeking to do more and do it better. I am happy to report multipliers of our work for years to come began in 2015. that in 2015, we rose to the occasion once again. And Our new annual flagship research report, the SME perhaps even more significantly, we set the stage for our Competitiveness Outlook, looks at the factors affecting the partners to multiply the impact of our work into the future. international competitiveness of SMEs. The idea is to enable policymakers, the private sector and their partners to target reforms where they will yield the highest impact in terms of improved SME trade performance and, ultimately, inclusive growth. Working with Google, Brazilian technology giant CI&T and a small Kenyan startup, we launched SheTrades, an app that will help women-owned businesses connect to potential buyers around the world. Finally, we issued a Call Arancha González to Action to connect one million female entrepreneurs to Executive Director markets by 2020, setting out a framework for companies, governments, and other organizations to make measurable ANNUAL REPORT 2015 5 The Global Goals for Sustainable Development are ITC’s Goals The Global Goals for Sustainable Development represent a ITC contributes to the Global Goals via its support to SME universal, global development agenda for all United Nations international competitiveness for inclusive and sustainable member states and all development actors until