RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/WGTGP/W/20/Add.6
24 September 1998
(98-3682)
Working Group on Transparency
in Government ProcurementOriginal:  English
TECHNICAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES:  INFORMATION FROM
OTHER INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
UNCTAD/WTO INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTRE
Addendum
At its meeting of 22 June 1998, the Working Group agreed to request the Secretariat to
provide information on the technical cooperation programmes of international and regionalintergovernmental organizations in the area of gove rnment procurement, so as to enable the Group to
have as complete a picture as possible of the availability of technical assistance in this field.
The present document reproduces the information which has been received from the
UNCTAD/WTO International Trade Centre and circulated in Job No. 667 on 5 February 1998.
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Mission and background
ITC is the focal point institution in the UN system for providing technical cooperation in
export promotion and trade development to developing countries and economies in transition.  ITC's
programme of assistance in international purchasing and supply management (earlier named importoperations and techniques) is focused on making systems for the purchase of goods and services to
meet the needs of a country more cost-effective.  One of the major areas of work of this programme is
public procurement.
Since 1979, ITC assistance projects coveri ng public procurement have emphasized
approaches that countries could use to reduce their import expenditures to achieve more positiveinternational trade balances.  ITC expertise has been instrumental in designing and implementing
projects funded by major multilateral and bilatera l donors such as UNDP, the Swedish International
Development Agency, the Government of Switzerland and others.  Some of the countries benefiting
from this early approach to improve import operations were Angola, Burundi, Djibouti, Egypt,
Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda , countries in the South Pacific, Sudan, Tanzania
and Tunisia.
To support these projects - and also to extend technical cooperation where such projects did
not exist - ITC has developed a series of technical and training materials addressing various aspects of
procurement and materials management.  These are available mostly free of charge to developing
countries and economies in transition. The materials developed to date include 24 practical guides,19 case studies and exercises, 12 manuals and directories, a complete three-level commercial English
course for importers, eight import management video packs and two computer-based import
simulation exercises.  ITC also collaborated with the World Bank and the International LaborWT/WGTGP/W/20/Add.6
Page 2
Organization in the preparation of an early guide to International Procurement and a recent series of
handbooks for public procurement training.
ITC is committed to providing advice and assistance to countries seeking to improve their
public procurement systems.  However, the traditional "case by case" method of providing
procurement advice through tailored assistance missions and projects has had a relatively high costdue to the independent analyses needed for each  new project. To try to meet the challenge of
delivering high quality procurement assistance in a targeted and sustainable manner, ITC is changing
its past practice.  Recent efforts of ITC have incorporated new strategic priorities and approaches for
cooperation with partner countries.  The new approach involves developing a set of universal tools
and related services to build and operate national capacities for providing procurement training,
consultancy and information support to purchasing organizations.  This more integrated approach will
significantly enhance the response time and cost-effectiveness of ITC's assistance in procurement andsupply management operations.  It will be centred around materials currently being developed by ITC.
Some of these have been jointly developed with the United Kingdom's Chartered Institute of
Purchasing and Supply.  These include:
• The Diagnostic Tools  will be used in assessing capacities and diagnosing problems in the
procurement process at individual organisations.  Separate versions of the diagnostic tools
will focus on the needs of small and medium enterprises and of public sector procurementagencies.  Collective requirements diagnosed in this manner will enable ITC and local
organizations to design highly specific technical assistance programmes to meet identified
needs through training, consultancy and information support.  It will also be possible to
later measure the effectiveness of these programmes.
• The Modular Learning System  is being developed as the foundation of all future ITC
efforts to build up training capacities in its partner countries covering all stages of thepurchasing and supply process.  Separate versions will exist for use by SMEs and public
sector procurement agencies.  It will be used for implementing either group-based training
or individual open learning, and will include optional information technology support.
The modular learning system will eventually integrate the full range of ITC's numeroustechnical materials and training aids relating to procurement.  These will be made
available through regular ITC dissemination channels, including through the Internet.
• The Compendium Of Public Procurement Systems  will use existing data to provide a
comparative reference on the scope of the public procurement system in a country.  The
information will be arranged by phase of the procurement process, as defined in thediagnostics and learning tools, for analysis and training purposes.  The information in the
compendium will provide a benchmark against which a country will be able to compare
its procedures to those of other countries (e.g., solicitation methods or contract
management approaches).  The information will be submitted for review to the concerned
countries in the first quarter of 1998.  The survey should be completed in the third quarter
of 1998.  The compendium will be updated as necessary by individual countries but ITC
will resurvey periodically to keep the  information current.
• Special materials for Purchasing and Su pply Management Associations (PSMAs) .  The
PSMAs play a key role in efforts at the national level to upgrade the competencies,
recognition and effectiveness of professionals responsible for managing purchasing and
supply operations.  During 1996, ITC produced a handbook for the establishment and
operation of PSMAs.  In collaboration with the International Federation of Purchasingand Materials Management (IFPMM), ITC is developing a worldwide PSMAs directory
to facilitate the growth of PSMAs.  Direct assistance has been provided to PSMAs inWT/WGTGP/W/20/Add.6
Page 3
Hungary, Poland, Romania, Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda, mainly through national and
regional projects.
Specific projects undertaken
ITC has substantially increased its assistance efforts aimed at reforming public procurement
systems and supporting national public procurement policy-making institutions.  This assistance is
being provided through various projects - and usually involves the development of national
procurement guidelines, standard procurement documents and other procurement system elements,
aimed at enhancing the implementation of new national procurement legislation.  Training of public
procurement staff in the application of these guidelines and documents is often a key component of
these projects, financed in various cases through World Bank grants to the countries concerned(e.g., Albania, Kyrgyz Republic and Slovak Republic).  Assistance in public procurement reform
and/or capacity development has also been provided to Belarus, Brazil, Namibia, Uganda, Ukraine,
Viet Nam and Zambia.
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