Agenda / Issues for Discussion / Background paper / Summary report

Presentation of the Aid-for-Trade Indicators Project by the OECD Secretariat

• Getting Results in Aid for Trade: The Use of Indicators (pdf)

Session I: The Demand and Supply of Aid-for-Trade Indicators

There is a growing demand for and focus on results in aid for trade. The need for results is particularly pressing considering the significant additional resources that have been directed toward aid for trade over the past five years. This session explored the rationale for establishing a menu of indicators to measure results in aid for trade at a country level.

1) Perspectives from the demand side

This session articulated the demand for indicators to evaluate aid for trade through presenting both donor and partner country perspectives.

• Aid-for-Trade Indicators: The EC Experience (pdf)
  

  Mr. Jan ten Bloemendal, EuropeAid Co-operation Office, European Commission
  

• Vietnam's Experiences in Monitoring Aid for Trade / ODA Projects (pdf)
  Ms. Tran Thi Thu Hang, Permanent Mission of Vietnam to WTO

2) Perspectives from the supply side

This session opened with presentations (by videoconference) from agencies that collect and generate trade-related indicators.

• Aid-for-Trade Indicators: ITC's Experience (pdf)
  Mr. Friedrich von Kirchbach, International Trade Centre

• Global Enabling Trade Report 2010 (pdf)
  Ms. Margareta Drzeniek Hanouz, World Economic Forum

Session II: Which Indicators to Select?

Harmonisation of indicators is neither feasible nor desirable given differences in operational needs and strategic priorities of different donor and partner countries. The idea is to establish a menu of indicators drawn from the existing pool of indicators. However the challenge is to define a menu which is broad enough to capture the wide range of aid-for-trade interventions while still providing credible information on how aid for trade is building trade capacity at the country level. This session discussed the criteria for selecting indicators which can be used for aggregating aid-for-trade results at the country level. It opened with presentations from agencies which had already gone through, or were going through, the process of selecting indicators for results management.

• Measuring and Reporting Results: The DCED Standard (web link)
  Mr. Jim Tanburn, Donor Committee on Enterprise Development

• Measuring Aid-for-Trade Results at the Country Level (pdf)
  Ms. Carolyn Robert, Inter-American Development Bank

Session III: How Do We Go Forward?

It was agreed that indicators were necessary to monitor aid-for-trade results but there was an understanding that they should be focused on the project and programme level rather than a "one-size-fits-all" menu or at the country level. OECD plans to develop a road map for future work which may include work on sectoral/programme specific indicators to be tested in a group of pilot countries.