Project Documents

• Policy Advocacy Document
• An Interim Stocktaking Report
• Country Background Papers
• Discussion Papers
• National Dialogue Reports
• Articles
• Press Releases
• Newsletters
• Media
• Briefing Papers
• Synthesis Paper
• Case Studies (Draft)
• Campaign Kits

International Trade has a major role to play to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and reduce absolute poverty by 2015.Given this, a study of the Trade, Development and Poverty Reduction Initiatives in Eastern and Southern African (ESA) countries provided by both governmental and inter-governmental institutions will provide information necessary for making recommendations on how to make these initiatives more relevant for ESA development and poverty reduction efforts. The discussion paper addresses this issue.

National Dialogue- Archive

Articles

• Two-thirds done-But more work must be done to meet WTO agreements
• Poverty and Development: The Sri Lankan Dilemma
• Why not consider maize as second staple
• When flour price matters: making food affordable
• Development, Poverty Reduction and Human Rights
• Prising open non-traditional export bonanza
• Poverty in South Asia
• The challenge of unemployment
• How aid for trade helps reduce poverty
• Natural Rubber as a Potential Source for Foreign Export Earning
• Tailored Trade Please: Free Size Fits Badly
• The Horticulture Sector in Kenya
• Poverty has reduced in Nepal, but unequal distribution of wealth exists: Survey
• Time-worthy vision for apparels export suggested
• Trade liberalisation has worsened unemployment problem
• Garment Factories, Unions Stake Out Positions on Minimum Wage
• Some important concerns for the future of RMG
• Development: Do People have a Right?
• TDP Country Background papers: A Synthesis Report
• Progress Towards Aid For Trade
• Trade and poverty
• Ranks of the rich, files of the poor

Press Releases

• Urban-centric growth widens rich, poor gap
  Himalayan News Service
  November 20, 2007, Kathmandu

• Economists seek policy restructuring
  November 21, 2007

• Zambia must re-assess gains from trade agreements – Prof Seshamani
  September, 2006

• Trade, Development and Poverty: The Sri Lankan Experience
  July, 2006

• Trade, Development, and Poverty: Perspective from China
  June, 2006

• More political will in cotton sector
  June 09, 2006, Lusaka

• Trade justice can reduce poverty
  March 24, 2006, Lusaka

Media

• Exports, gender and poverty: A critical dialogue
  DailyMirror, October 29, 2007

• Gaps between commitments and actions
  Dhaka Daily, August 21, 2007

• Doha Development Agenda from LDCs' perspectives
  Dhaka Daily, August 18, 2007

• WTO Benefits Slow in Coming, Farmers Should Look Elsewhere
  December 25, 2006, The Cambodia Daily

• Trade liberalisation essential for economic growth: Dr. Mahat
  May 27, 2006, nepalnews.com, Nepal

• ‘Trade liberalisation needs enforcement’
  May 26, 2006, The Himalayan Times, Kathmandu

• Trade promotion not import substitution
  May 26, 2006, Nepalbiz News

TDP E-Newsletter

• 1/2006
• 2/2006
• 3/2006

Briefing Papers

 2008

• Trade as a Tool for Employment Generation- TDP 6/2008
  This Briefing Paper examines the effectiveness of trade, and in particular export promotion, as a tool for employment generation by comparing and contrasting the liberalisation experiences of four countries – Bangladesh and Vietnam from Asia and Kenya and South Africa from Africa.

• Aid for Trade: The Process So Far, But What Next?- TDP 5/2008
  Many developing countries believe that they have little to gain from engaging in market access negotiations through the World Trade Organisation (WTO), as supply-side constraints and infrastructure problems prevent them from taking advantage of the trading opportunities and competing in global markets. The Aid for Trade Initiative therefore aims at increasing the support of developed countries for developing countries to foster their trade capacity building and help them adjust to the impacts of trade reforms.

• Mainstreaming Development in the WTO: Developing Countries in the Doha Round- TDP 4/2008
  The launch of the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations in 2001 was marked by developing countries’ criticism of the Uruguay Round and the negotiating parties promised to addess the concerns of poor countries. This paper argues that a multilateral trading system should be based on the applied principles of fair trade, capacity building, balanced rules and good governance.

• From UNCTAD XI to UNCTAD XII: A Stocktaking- TDP 3/2008
  The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is the primary agency of the UN for the integrated treatment of all trade and related development issues. This paper argues that the changing economic landscape demands a more pointed delivery from UNCTAD that becomes a veritable economic and trade policy input at the national and regional level for developing countries and adapts to the specificities in each developing country and produces tailor made outputs.

• Up-scaling Aid for Trade: A Kenya Perspective- TDP 2/2008
  The World Trade Organisation’s Aid for Trade (AfT) agenda has thrown a spotlight on the trade capacity constraints facing the poorest countries and challenged donors to respond. In Kenya, the recent trends show that financing gaps are most pressing in public spending and development assistance to the agriculture, road infrastructure, micro and small enterprises (MSEs) and manufacturing sectors.

• Trade Openness: The Only Path to Sustainable Growth- TDP 1/2008
  On the basis of extensive country experiences, this paper argues that an open economic regime is a necessary factor for sustained and high economic growth. It is, however, not a sufficient factor, as openness in a country’s economy needs to be accompanied by several other factors such as macroeconomic stability, fiscal balance and a regime for enforcement of contracts in order for it to result in high economic growth.

2007

• Integrated Framework for Trade Related Assistance: What is its role in tackling poverty?- TDP 5/2007
  The supply-side constraints hampering the efforts of poor countries to respond to new trading opportunities are getting increased attention in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) and the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Aid for Trade agenda. One of the facilities utilised by the least developed countries (LDCs) to identify trade capacity building priorities is the Integrated Framework (IF), a facility which has a crucial role in integrating trade into PRSPs and guiding the Aid for Trade process.

• Globalisation and Inequality: The Development Rationale- TDP 4/2007
  The process of globalisation constitutes social, cultural and economic transfers across borders. The last two decades have seen major economic policy changes in most of the world economies. This paper gives a brief sector-specific economic overview of five South Asian countries and analyses the possible causes of the increasing inequality in South Asia in the course of globalisation.

• WTO, Trade, Development and Aid: Some Misconceptions and Myths- TDP 3/2007
  This paper addresses general misconceptions and myths about the World Trade Organisation (WTO), on trade, development and aid. First, the belief that development is equal to special and differential treatment (S&DT) provisions in the WTO agreements and aid. Second, that developing countries are reluctant participants in the negotiation on the Doha Development Agenda, and third, the misconception on Aid for Trade.

• Duty-free, Quota-free Market Access: A Perspective from South Asian LDCs- TDP 2/2007
  Least developed countries (LDCs), for their deficiencies in trade-related infrastructure and production and cost effectiveness, are in a disadvantageous position in the international trade integration process. To be competitive, they are in need of special and differential provisions in terms of quota facilities and preferential tariff rates that ensure better market access in the developed and in the advanced developing countries for the products of their export interest.

• Aid for Trade: A Perspective from South Asian LDCs- TDP 1/2007
  The concept of Aid for Trade (AfT) has been incorporated in the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration for the first time, as a special and committed assistance aimed at fostering trade. AfT has the initial objective of helping developing countries to maximise the benefits from enhanced market access as well as to minimise the costs of trade liberalisation.

         2006

• Aid for Trade
  Where are we & where will we go? -TDP 4/2006
  Given their substantial supply side constraints and the need for capacity building, developing countries hope that the inclusion of Aid for Trade (AfT) as the World Trade Organisation’s newest policy area will ensure that it promotes more effectively the trade development of those countries that are struggling to integrate into the world economy and not just those existing or emerging trading powers.

• Moving from Preferences to Aid for Trade - TDP 3/2006
  Preference Erosion started to attract the interests of trade negotiators and experts by 2003. Since then the debate has gathered momentum to the point that the new policy initiative “Aid for Trade” is being looked upon as a probable complementary measure to address the losses that result from erosion of trade preferences.

• Trade Preferences: Furthering Development or Political Interests? - TDP 2/2006
  This briefing paper discusses the evolution of the political motives behind granting trade preferences from the post - World War II (WWII) period to the creation of the WTO. It undertakes a concise analysis of trade preferences as a source of aid with a view to answer the cui bono (who benefits?) question.

• SPS Standards and Developing Countries –TDP 1/2006
  Food safety issues have become more prominent in Western Europe over the last decade following a host of food scares and increasing consumer influence over production standards.

  2005
   

• Global Partnership for Development - TDP 1/2005
  Economic growth can lead to poverty reduction and development, but in the present globalised world domestic policies can no longer suffice because of equal dependence on external factors such as currency fluctuations, commodity prices and competition from foreign goods.

• TrAid: What Future for Developing Countries? - TDP 2/2005
  The ACP-EU relations governed by successive Lome Conventions and currently the Cotonou Agreement have been one of the first partnerships between developing and developed countries to establish tight linkages between trade and development issues.

Case Studies

Campaign Kits