Tralac, phase III, 2021-2025

During 2023, Tralac has delivered excellent analytical trade outputs, which is publicly accessible to all African trade stakeholders. Data, diagnostics and analytical products have been generated to the benefits of the rights holders and duty bearers across the continent. These included 10 Trade Briefs; 9 Trade sector Reports; and 35 Trade Blogs all of them authored by specialized experts, many of which are active or retired professors on their subject matters. The valuable materials have been accessed and viewed at the Tralac webiste more than 75,000 times during the time of reporting. Beyond this, many tailor-made capacity building short courses were concluded, including AfCFTA for Trade Journalists, Trade Policy training for COMESA judges, Data science Training for relevant institutions, and Mainstreaming Gender in Trade.

Tralac's overall objectives are as follows: - To support rules-based trade and integration policy and governance, paying particular attention to transparency and accountability; - To develop knowledge capital and capacity through the provision of access to trade-related information and analysis and training; - To facilitate trade policy dialogue by supporting stakeholder engagement: tralac has two networks i) SheGovernsTrade to support equality in gender representation ii) tralac Alumni network to support youth participation in policy dialogue and processes. Specific pillar objectives are: Pillar 1: Inform - Develop evidence-based analysis of trade law and policy developments at the national, regional, continental and multilateral levels - Creating awareness and fostering public discourse on trade-related developments that are relevant for African countries - Facilitating access to national and regional trade related resources and news on trade developments (creation of a trade-related resource collection for Africa) Pillar II: Capacitate Individual and Institutional capacity building - Strengthening technical expertise and institutional capacity in trade law and policy making - Improving gender and youth representation in trade governance - Improving the quality of trade reporting Pillar III: Empower Focus on facilitating stakeholder engagement - Enhancing stakeholder engagement on trade governance matters  - Empowering marginalised actors in trade governance (especially women,youth, officials from LDCs) - Empowering tralacs partner networks to amplify influence in trade governance across Africa Sweden's support will contribute to tralac's specific goals: a)To develop innovative, appropriate and sustainable interventions that inform, capacitate and empower specific beneficiaries, in order to respond to: - current multilateral governance developments, including the crisis in the World Trade Organization, climate change and the COVID-19 global pandemic - specifically to enhance the participation of African countries to address these crises. - emerging developments on Africas trade and integration agenda, including the negotiations and implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. - the COVID-19 impact on Africa - which confirms the interconnectedness on the continent and the importance of regional integration, the imperative to develop productive capacity and resilience and to facilitate trade, to be prepared for future crises and challenges. - to consolidate tralac's inter-disciplinary analysis of current and emerging issues on Africas trade and integration agenda. Being able to respond at short notice to emerging developments requires expert capacity, continuing learning - core funding support which permits e.g. flexible responses on topics for analysis, possible, is also important. b) To nurture existing partnerships and build new partnerships at the continental and global levels to enhance tralac's capacity and impact (giving expression to Sustainable Development Goal 16). c) To expand tralacs reach to the West and Central African region, building on lessons from work in East and Southern Africa by inviting participants to training and dialogue events. This is necessary, acknowledging the implications of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement: a continent-wide integration initiative. d) To build tralac's capacity and resource base to assure the sustainability of tralac as a model non-profit organisation.