International Conference Civil Society Organisations and Aid for Trade: Roles and Realities Nairobi, Kenya, March 15-16, 2007 Day 1: 15 th March 2007 1 Background An important aspect of the aid programmes of developing countries is to provide support for building capacity to trade more effectively and to take advantage of the opportunities provided by expanding global markets. This type of aid currently referred to as Aid for Trade (A4T) includes support for activities such as infrastructure development, skills development, technology enhancement and a range of other measures aiming at improving competitiveness. There is a growing consensus amongst policy-makers that for poor and vulnerable countries, A4T is an important complement to market access to be gained from World Trade Organisation (WTO) and other negotiations, as trade capacity constraints pose the biggest obstacle to their trade interests. One group of stakeholders that need to be engaged more effectively in A4T discussions, if country ownership is to be deepened and priorities effectively identified and agreed upon, are civil society organisations (CSOs) such as business and employer organisations, producer groups, consumer groups, community-based organisations (CBOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), academic institutions, parliamentarians and trade unions. These groups play an important role in feeding the policy-making processes with information about the economic and social realities faced by the poor and marginalized. These perspectives need to be heard if A4T is to promote development for all. However, CSOs face a whole host of obstacles in playing a more active role in A4T discussions. The pupose of the conference was to provide a discussion forum to deliberate on various aspects of the CSOs involvement in implementing A4T programmes in order to: Provide CSOs with an opportunity to share their experiences in working on trade (for example, sustainability, social and fair trade issues) and to showcase best practices and effective tools to help target groups; Identify, in more detail, the obstacles faced by CSOs in working on trade; Identify methods and/or support measures that will help CSOs to work on trade more effectively and to highlight these to policy-makers; and Update CSOs on the substance and progress of existing and future A4T, and to strategize for their engagement in the ongoing process. Inaugural Session The inaugural session started with the welcome and introductory remarks by Jasper Okelo, Board Member, CUTS Africa Resource Centre (CUTS ARC), Nairobi, and Bipul Chatterjee, Deputy Executive Director, CUTS International. 1 Rapporteur: Selim Raihan, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh
In his speech, Jasper Okelo discussed the important contributions of A4T in the context of many LDCs and developing countries. He highlighted the point that the A4T, somehow, should be linked to poverty alleviation as the poor must benefit from different multilateral and regional trade negotiations. Bipul Chatterjee drew attention to three important points in the discussion on A4T. Firstly, he stressed the fact that contrary to many myths or misunderstandings, A4T was not a new thing. Secondly, according to his observation, there had not been much progress since the Task Force Report on A4T was endorsed in October 2006. Finally, there had not been much effort to involve civil society in the A4T discussions. The presenter also emphasised the need for domestic policy reforms in order to reap the benefits of multilateral trade negotiations (MTNs). He also highlighted that tri-lateral development cooperation was needed for an effective delivery of A4T. In her remark, Elena Immambocus, Trade Policy Strategist, Department for International Development (DFID), UK, discussed about the roles, realities and shared responsibilities on A4T from a donor s perspective. In her view, to make A4T effective, there should be robust monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment of A4T. Furthermore, A4T should be mainstreamed under the umbrella of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP). She also underscored the need to ensuring the links between trade and pro-poor reforms in the economy. In this regard, she stated that there was no alternative to the development of complementary social policies and effective working relations between policy-makers and CSOs. David Ongólo, Policy Economist, Royal Netherlands Embassy, Nairobi, highlighted that in order to mainstream trade into national development strategies, broad-based consultations were crucial to formulate trade strategies based on realistic assessments of the situation. In his view, this was only possible through the participation of CSOs and the private sector. CSOs dialogue with development partners was also very important to bring forward a holistic and more results-based approach to development. In his keynote address, Sok Siphana, Director, Division of Technical Cooperation Coordination, International Trade Centre (ITC), Geneva, stressed the need to enhance the strength of the trade ministries in the recipient countries for the effective utilisation of aid in trade-related sectors. He also underscored the issue of ownership of A4T, and pointed out that to be effective, A4T should be country driven. He also mentioned that private sector was not included in the enhanced integrated framework, though it was very much required to get the private sector on board. In the inaugural address, David S. O. Nalo, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Republic of Kenya, emphasised that CSOs could help in attaining greater transparency and accountability from development partners agencies as well as from other stakeholders to make sure that A4T could attain its ambitious goals. In his view, CSOs could foster stronger partnerships and take the lead in building effective stakeholders dialogue in order to make A4T a real asset for poverty reduction. After the inaugural session, Christine Manca of CUTS International provided a brief overview on A4T in the context of WTO. Her presentation, in fact, covered all the major features of A4T, among which: the background of A4T; the changes in the volume of A4T; how A4T became a part of the WTO agenda; the integrated framework, the coverage of the A4T; recent A4T trend; and some of the areas where there was a need for improvement and reconsideration to make A4T effective for the recipient countries. First Session The first session focused on the Role of Civil Society Organisations in A4T. Three major questions were at the centre of discussions: What groups are neglected in trade policy/a4t discussions? How do CSOs represent these groups? Page 2 of 5
In what trade policy/a4t areas do CSOs contribute and how? The session was chaired by Walter Odero, Assistant Economic Adviser, DFID, Kenya. In the first presentation, Brendan Vickers, Senior Researcher, Institute for Global Dialogue, South Africa, pointed out some of the very important concerns of the CSOs on A4T. For example, there is a widespread concern among CSOs that the A4T package will be used to pressure developing countries into accepting further commitments in the WTO. There is also a concern that A4T will divert attention away from negotiating a real development outcome to the Doha Round. More importantly, CSOs are concerned by the fact that A4T may not involve new resources, but repackage existing aid initiatives geared to social development. Vickers argued that CSOs must help to shape the A4T agenda by constructively exploring and highlighting the problems and failures of existing trade-related aid initiatives, such as the Integrated Framework (IF) for Trade-Related Technical Assistance (TRTA) to LDCs and the Joint Integrated Technical Assistance Programme (JITAP). He also argued that CSOs must ensure that aid would be disbursed according to the specialised needs of its recipients, and good practices for aid delivery were followed (as outlined in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness). In the second presentation, Irene Banda, Acting Executive Director, Organisation Development and Community Management Trust (ODCMT), Zambia, shared her experiences on CSOs in Zambia, as she found that there was a lack of effective CSOs in Zambia. In her view, CSOs should play the critical role of linking policy makers to people. CSOs should also analyse and highlight the possible pros and cons of A4T. The final presentation in this first session was by Kimera Henry Richard, Chief Executive, Consumer Education Trust in Uganda. In the context of Uganda, he found that majority stakeholders, for example the small-scale farmers in agriculture and the private sector, both formal and informal, as well as CSOs in general, were neglected in the trade policy-making processes and A4T discussions. He, however, found that there were many areas where CSOs could bring their contribution to in Uganda, such as in the areas of domestic trade policy environment, consumer protection and ethical business practices, agricultural framework and productivity chains, market access and entry by addressing the supply-side constraints. A number of observations emerged during the open discussion: The need to have an institutional and legal framework for A4T; The need for sequencing what CSOs can do; The importance of domestic policies to realise the full potential of A4T. Second Session The second session focused on the Capacity Constraints of CSOs in Dealing with and Addressing A4T Needs of Countries. Two questions were at the heart of discussion, and they are: What capacity constraints are hindering the engagement of CSOs in trade policy/a4t discussions? What support measures do CSOs require to address capacity constraints? The session was chaired by Tasara Muzorori, Senior Trade Officer, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Secretariat. The first presentation in this session was by Nathalie Vialle, Programme Officer, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), Geneva. She indicated a number of constraints hindering the engagement of CSOs in trade policy or A4T discussions. Among the constraints, she found that the lack of financial resources and credibility of many CSOs to the policy-makers were critical. She laid emphasis on the fact that A4T process should be efficient and country driven as well as country-owned. There is a need to strengthen the A4T agenda by ensuring that A4T activities Page 3 of 5
respond to real needs on the ground and by assisting in the delivery of A4T in building the supplyside capacities. She found that CSOs could have greater roles in such processes. In the second presentation, Ros Khemara, Researcher, Economic Institute of Cambodia (EIC), pointed out that the engagement of CSOs in trade policy or the A4T discussion in Cambodia were limited because of a number of reasons. Among them, the most important were the lack of awareness, research and capacity on trade policy analysis. While commenting on the aforementioned two presentations Elizabeth Mueni Kiio, Programme Coordinator, Sustainable Livelihood, OXFAM GB, Nairobi, highlighted that as there were different CSOs operating in different country contexts, they were facing diverse challenges. In the open discussion, a number of important issues were discussed. A concern was raised with respect to the fact that CSOs in many countries were urban-based, and therefore, they were failing to reach the mass people. The roles of networking and media and the issue of getting experienced researchers involved with the CSOs were also discussed with grave importance and with the aim of overcoming the capacity constraints of the CSOs. Third Session The third and final session of the day dealt with the Effective Alliance between CSOs, Policy- Makers and Private Enterprises. The presentations and discussions centred around three major questions: What political obstacles do CSOs face in engaging in trade policy/a4t discussions? What strategies can CSOs use to build effective alliances with policy-makers? What will be the role for CSO-private sector alliances? The session was chaired by Maniam Supperamaniam, Former Malaysian Ambassador to the WTO. In the first presentation Abid Suleri, Assistant Executive Director, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Pakistan, raised the question whether the role of government should be directive or facilitating in the case of its relationship with CSOs. He also highlighted that in Pakistan, and also in many countries, state and government are perceived as an entity. Therefore, in many cases, CSOs criticising the government is sometimes perceived as criticising the state. He stressed the need to design strategies to build effective alliances between CSOs, the private sector and policy-makers in order to minimise the political constraints. One of the objectives of the alliances would be to ensure that A4T activities respond to ground realities. In the second presentation, Ngo Thi Minh Huong, Deputy Director, Centre for Development and Integration, Vietnam, emphasised that there were both external and internal constraints in formulating trade policies in Vietnam. Citing the examples of export-oriented footwear and textile sectors, she mentioned that one of the major external constraints was the pressure from the buyers. On the other hand, the internal constraints included supply-side capacity constraints and the political obstacles. She also pointed out that the impact of Vietnam s WTO accession had, so far, been negative in terms of employment loss. In this regard, she found that the role of CSOs is very important, as they can examine and explore the possible impact (whether positive or negative) of different multilateral or regional trade agreements (RTAs). Taking part in the discussion, Ben Idrissa Ouedraogo, Economic Affairs Officer of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Addis Ababa, commented that defining CSOs is very complicated, as there are many misconceptions in this regard. Also, the definition of CSOs may vary across countries depending on the contexts they operate. He also opined that CSOs should engage in a Page 4 of 5
full dialogue with government and private sector built on confidence in order to ensure ownership and accountability. He provided some examples of tripartite collaboration from TRTA delivered by UNECA, JITAP and IF. After the three presentations, the floor was open for comments and questions. During the open discussion, a number of important observations by the participants emerged. These were: CSOs need to build strong relationships with academics; Irrespective of whether any government is weak or strong, there is a need for an effective cooperation between government and CSOs; There is a need to uphold success stories of effective alliance between government and CSOs; The priorities of the government also affect the relationship between government and CSOs; In the long run, to build effective alliances with the government, CSOs should also build and upgrade their capacities; Though the private sector is included in the broader definition of CSOs, there are important differences between the private sector and CSOs in terms of many of their objectives; and When the government has any defensive interest (as in India in the case of liberalisation of agricultural sector), the government becomes eager to build alliances with the CSOs, however, when the government has any offensive interest (as in India, in the case of service sector liberalisation) the government is more interested in building alliances with the private sector. Page 5 of 5