The session was held on the sidelines of the ongoing UNCTAD XIII on ways to foster more cooperation and enhance synergies among themselves. The cluster has as its main focus, strengthening trade and productive capacities of countries.
According to Alan Kyerematen who heads the Africa Trade Policy Centre of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the Cluster’s focus on productive capacity is an important part of the African trade agenda. “African countries need to produce a broader range of better quality goods; in order to go in that direction, they need an understanding of their productive resources, entrepreneurial capabilities and productive linkages,” These, he says, help to determine their capacity to produce goods and services that can propel them to greater growth and development.
Kyerematen underscores the need for a more coordinated approach to support African countries in this regard and echoes the sentiments of the African Trade Ministers, who earlier in the week said there has to be a clear commitment between UN agencies to collaborate. “Member states have acknowledged the support we as UN agencies provide for the African trade agenda, but there is a need for agencies to work together, more than ever before,” he said.
To this end, he says the Africa Trade Policy Centre (ATPC) is keen to work within the policies and programme priorities of member states; it is also focused on practical and pragmatic approaches that are results-oriented. "Our efforts are inclusive - aimed at benefiting our constituencies, including the private sector, academia and civil society,” he adds.
According to Kyerematen, the ATPCalso sees the need to strengthen advocacy for trade. “At the national level, trade needs to be brought back to the centre of the development agenda, otherwise our declarations will go to waste,” he says. He also points out that there is so much disconnects between policy and implementation, which comes from a gap in programming, that supporting countries with detailed implementation planning is what can help generate results.
Kyerematen hopes that backstopping efforts to formulate national trade policies that are fully consistent with national development strategies is an important part of ATPC’s support to countries. These policies would need to have coherence at the regional level as they would reflect Africa's political desire for regional integration to overcome the effects of its small fragmented economies.
The Centre is already on course in this direction. The Africa Trade Forum that held its first meeting with the trade constituency in November 2011 was a landmark effort around advocacy for trade in the national development discourse. Going forward, national consultative stake holder’s meetings will be critical in the lead up to the next Forum.
“We will engage our partners in support of knowledge production on trade, providing technical advisory services, and mainstreaming trade in national development policies, he says. He adds that ATPC aims to support mid-career post-graduate students and mid-career professionals through fellowships to help build what he terms as “a pipeline of trade professionals for the future.”
We have a clearly defined service mix to support the African trade agenda and we hope we can work together with the UN agencies to deliver our services, he says.
Source: ECA Press Release No. 52/2012
