ESAMI/trapca/Lund University, phase IV 2020-2022

Despite the continuation of challenges associated with the Covid-19 pandemic trapca was able to execute almost all activities that were scheduled for the period under review. The planned number of courses were all conducted: 33 advanced courses, 11 of the ACP funded Executive Courses and 10 self-funded Executive Courses. Out of the 33 advanced courses 22 were funded by Sida and 11 by OACP. The academic courses attracted a headcount of 1,174 participants in total, from 35 target countries. On average, gender distribution across the advanced courses was 37% female participants and 63% male participants. Both completion and pass rates were excellent. Consequently, a total of 1,127 (excluding 196 that attended Trade and Gender Course) students participated in the academic courses offered during the period under review. A cumulative total number of 11,152 students have been trained from 2006 to 31 December 2021. In terms of student numbers, the five e-learning pre-requisite courses that were offered cumulatively attracted a total of 304 students. Out of these, 109 attended the two Francophone course and the remaining, 195 students attended the Anglophone courses. 501: Economic Foundations of Trade and Trade Policy , 502: Legal Foundations of Trade and Trade Policy 503: Tools for Trade Policy Analysis Out of the 33 advanced courses, 82 students were awarded a Post Graduate Diploma Advanced level (PGDA) in International Trade Policy and Trade Law (34 Anglophone and 48 Francophone), while 56 were awarded an MSc in International Trade Policy and Trade Law. Out of the 56, 32 were from the Anglophone Class and the remaining 24 Francophone. On sustainability, and in line with the business plan, efforts were made to deliver on key sustainability targets set out in the business plan. Management pursued sustainability targets through implementation of the following activities: - Requesting students to pay fees; - Requesting students to cover their travel and accommodation; - Use of pro bono lecturers from UNCTAD; - Application to host WTO Chairs; - Bidding for cost recovery training supported by TMEA and GIZ; - Marketing for joint partner on cost recovery executive courses to COMESA, UNECA and trade-related institutions in African countries; - Collaborative partnerships with African Union Commission (AUC), Afreximbank, WTO, and World Bank. For more or less the first time, trapca managed to award partial scholarships, i.e. students paid for some of their costs, such as travel or accommodation. One student paid their own fee for a resit of one course. Hence, students contribution towards the costs of their participation in the programme in terms of travel and accommodation translated to a savings of USD 156,090 of the programme budget.

The overall objective is: The trapca programme for sub-Saharan African countries is expected to contribute to enhanced regional integration and intra-African trade.  The programme objective is: Improved capacity in sub-Saharan Africa countries to develop more efficient trade policy, trade law and trade facilitation strategies and implementation of negotiated trade outcomes. The main ouput is: Academic training: Pre-requisite and Advanced courses provided to government, private sector and NGO representatives from sub-Saharan African countries. A total of more than 2 000 course spaces will be financed, with 400 at the pre-requsite-level, 160 in Trade and Gender course and 1 450 at the advanced, post-graduate level.   Trade policy sets out the conditions for how a country will trade with the rest of the world. Rules and conditions for trade between countries are established in global, regional and bilateral trade agreements. These are negotiated within the ambit of the WTO, at the pan-african level within the African Continental Free Trade agreement (AfCFTA), at the sub-regional level within the EAC-SADC-COMESA tripartite free trade agreement, and regional economic communities, such as SADC, COMESA, EAC, and at the bilateral level between two countries. The capacity to negotiate and implement such agreement is scarce in many countries in the world. In sub-Saharan Africa one could argue that South Africa has the best capacity in terms of spread and quantity, but even so they have very few trade policy experts at hand. The situation is much more dire in most other countries on the continent. With the lack of progress of negotiations and collaboration within the WTO, and an increased global climate of protectionism developing, the need for trade policy capacity is greater than ever. Government officials in Africa deal with a number of bilateral, sub-regional and regional negotiations simultaneously. Some countries are members of more than one REC which spreads their capacity even thinner. Predictability, transparency and non-discrimination are important conditions for companies who are engaged in international trade. Trade agreements are therefore important. Once a condition or a tariff has been set in a binding agreement it is difficult for a country to back-track. It is therefore crucial to know the implications of a decision and to have good research backing up the formulation of trade policy positions. Close collaboration with the private sector is important as the country seeks to define its interests in a negotiation. Agreements can work for and/or against the economic development of a country. If a country is not able to re-negotiate a set condition, a desperate measure may be to simply ignore the commitments made. One of the biggest hurdle to intra-African trade is precisely lack of effective implementation of trade agreements.  Increased trade policy capacity is an important factor to address this matter.    Trade Policy capacity building is therefore crucial. It ranges from providing short, specialised courses on matters of importance to parliamentarians, government officials and others involved in deciding, researching, negotiating and implementing agreements, to a more comprehensive academic education such as an MSc in Trade Policy and Trade Law. Trapca offers both these levels, as well as the entry-level online pre-requisite courses.   A detailed situational analysis of trade capacity needs is included as annex 2 in trapca's Business Case and Plan 2020-2024.