ESAMI/trapca and Lund University 2023-2026, phase V

Throughout 2024, trapca successfully executed all planed courses and met all the academic targets and responsibilities set forth in the annual workplan for 2024. Trapca, in collaboration with Lund University, successfully conducted 30 academic programs, encompassing 26 advanced courses, five advanced prerequisite courses, and 2 trade and gender courses, all funded under the Sida and ESAMI partnership. In total, 977 participants were trained in the targeted 30 academic programs. Participants came from 40 African countries, with 29 from primary target LDCs. Gender inclusivity remained prioritised, with a balanced distribution across the academic courses, comprising 48% female participants and 52% male participants. It is worth highlighting that trapca awarded 44 Master of Science (Msc.) degrees in International Trade Policy and Trade Law (39 with accreditation from Lund University and 5 with accreditation from ESAMI) and 53 Postgraduate Diplomas (PGDAs) in International Trade Policy and Trade Law. Amongst the graduates of the Msc. and PGDAs, 52% were female and 48% were male, with 65% from the Anglophone countries and 35% from the Francophone countries. Lund University continued to contribute to the ongoing curriculum review and maintained oversight over the thesis writing process, course delivery, and examination procedures. Besides and as part of exercising its quality control of trapca academic activities, Lund University contributed to the operational development of the overall centre in several other ways, including providing recommendations for solutions to administrative and ITrelated challenges.

The overall objective is: The trapca programme is expected to contribute to enhanced trade capacity towards increased regional economic integration and intra-African trade. The programme objective is: Improved trade capacity in LDCs and low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa to develop more efficient trade policy, trade law, trade facilitation, emerging trade related strategies and implementation and enforcement of negotiated regional, continental and multilateral trade outcomes.