TradeNotes

Standards Alliance: A New Facility for Support

E3/TRR has created a new facility to provide technical support to advance the understanding and implementation of standards by businesses and governments in developing countries. The Standards Alliance (SA), announced in Geneva in late 2012 at a WTO meeting by E3/TRR’s Director, Virginia Brown (photo), will help governments implement the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). It also will assist private sector producers and traders with their understanding and compliance with technical requirements governing their products in target markets.

Regulatory Impact Analysis Training in Trinidad and Tobago

E3 sponsored an Applied Training Course on Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) for 5 days at the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards (January 14-18, 2013). Coursework covered quantitative and qualitative methods for assessing and comparing the consequences of policy options using a hands-on, applied approach. Students worked through a variety of case studies including one tailored to a planned T&T regulation concerning earthquake-related building codes. The training included 34 participants representing 9 government bureaus and 4 private sector organizations.

Leveraging Private Capital for African Development: May Workshop in Southern Africa to Build on Pilots in East and West Africa

The Africa Bureau’s Private Capital Group for Africa (AFR/PCGA) and E3 conducted two three-day workshops in Africa in January 2013, one in West Africa and one in East Africa, on “Leveraging Private Capital for Development.” The training was designed to help USAID Mission staff in Africa identify and operationalize opportunities to engage corporate and financial partners and leverage private capital to magnify the development impact of USAID assistance across USAID priority areas.

M&E Toolkit for Trade Facilitation in Beta Testing

E3 is developing an online tool that brings together the guidance, templates, examples, and checklists missions need to work efficiently and excel at monitoring, evaluating, and learning from USAID trade facilitation programs and projects. Users can download interactive pre-formatted PDF templates to produce neat customized tables and graphics that can be saved, edited, and embedded into SOWs, evaluation reports, performance monitoring plans, and Country Development and Cooperation Strategies.

Update to Agency Independent Consultant Mechanism

USAID has established an Agency Independent Consultant Mechanism (AICM) for the purpose of hiring short-term consultants, primarily through a Blanket Purchase-Agreement (BPA) mechanism, with expertise in a broad array of technical specialties, including:

IFC and World Bank Publication Highlights USAID Contributions

A new report issued recently by the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank, reports that local entrepreneurs in developing countries are now finding it much easier to do business than at any time in the last 10 years. The report, Doing Business 2013: Smarter Regulations for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises highlights the substantial progress that has been made in improving business regulatory environments around the developing world.

Fourth Global Review of Aid for Trade

The fourth Global Review of Aid for Trade, entitled “Connecting to Value Chains”, will take place from July 8-10, 2013 in Geneva.

Bangkok Gender Concerns Training

Teams from Asian missions joined a cohort from USAID/Washington in late January to examine practical ways of better addressing gender concerns in our work. Held at the regional mission in Bangkok, the five-day course, Reducing Gender Gaps in Democracy and Governance and Economic Growth Programs covered a broad range of gender issues, from economic considerations, to trade case studies, to the use of value chain analysis as a method for combating sex trafficking.

Bangkok Trade & Investment Training: Supply Chain and Regional Integration Focus

E3/TRR conducted an In-depth Trade and Investment Training Course in Bangkok during the week of January 14-18 at the Asia Regional Training Center (ARTC). Attendees included USAID officers from Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa, South Asia, as well as from Southeast Asia.

Sign Up Now: July EG Training Event with Private Sector Focus

TRR and the Office of Microenterprise and Private Enterprise Promotion (MPEP) will be offering a new training opportunity this July, replacing the triennial EG Officers Conference. The one-week course is designed to provide new tools, approaches, and perspectives, as well as effective networking opportunities that will enable field missions to share experiences and best practices in private sector development and in private sector engagement on broader development challenges.