Speaking in the meeting, Director-General Roberto Azevêdo said:

“Trade-related technical assistance is vital to ensure that developing countries receive the necessary practical support to build capacity and skills, so they can fully participate in the trading system and leverage the opportunities that trade can provide. When the WTO was created over two decades ago, technical assistance was not a major part of our work. Fast forward to today and it constitutes one of the biggest outputs of the organization. It has become, unquestionably, a central element of the WTO’s activities. This is a real shift in the culture of the organization and it is a priority for me, as Director-General.”

The Director-General stressed that the evaluators’ recommendations will feed into the next technical assistance plan.

The external evaluators’ report, issued in October 2016, identifies best practices and lessons learned in the delivery of training courses aimed at helping developing countries improve their trading capacity.

The report highlights the WTO’s progress towards achieving the targets outlined in its biennial plans for technical assistance. It notes that these technical assistance activities have been largely, and increasingly, effective in improving the capacity of developing countries to respect multilateral trade rules and to participate in trade negotiations. The report also recommends ways to make the training activities more transparent, targeted and accountable.

In its response to the report, the WTO Secretariat provides further details about its technical assistance activities and the overarching strategy for the programme. It also responds specifically to the recommendations identified in the report.

The WTO’s technical assistance activities are geared towards supporting sustainable trade capacity-building in developing countries. The external evaluation was conducted to independently assess the effectiveness of these activities.