WT/COMTD/W/205  
 
3 September 2014  
(14-5007) Page: 1/40  
Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation    
 
 ANNUAL REPORT ON TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING 
 
2013 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
ACRONYMS ....................................................................................................................... 3  
1   EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................. 5  
1.1   Main evolutions in 2013 compared to 2012 .................................................................... 5  
1.2   Implementation of TA Plan - main fe atures of WTO Technica l Assistance  in 2013 ................ 6  
1.3   Performance in 2013 and lessons learned ...................................................................... 6  
2   INTROD UCTION  .......................................................................................................... 7  
3   MAIN EVOLUTIONS IN  2013 COMPARED TO 2012 ....................................................... 7  
3.1   Continued tight manage ment of TA resource s ................................................................ 8  
3.1.1   Stabilisation of the resources for TA .............................................................. 8  
3.1.2   Stable volume of TA activities ...................................................................... 9  
3.2   Main evolution of  TA manageme nt tools ....................................................................... 10 
3.2.1   Implementation of Results-Based Management ............................................. 10 
3.2.2   Continuous use of part nerships for TR TA delivery .......................................... 11 
3.2.3   Preparation of the 2014-2015 TA Plan .......................................................... 12 
3.3   Improving the substantiv e content of th e TA offer ......................................................... 12 
3.3.1   Progressive Learning Strate gy: Benchmarking training levels .......................... 12 
3.3.2   Improving th e E-Learning  offer ................................................................... 13 
3.3.3   Fine-tuning RTPCs ..................................................................................... 14 
3.3.4   Recasting the Advanc ed Trade Policy Course ................................................. 15 
3.3.5   Making WTO courses more interactive .......................................................... 15 
3.3.6   A better tailored resp onse to Memb ers' needs ............................................... 16 
3.3.7   Maintaining a network of Refe rence Centres in ta rgeted countries .................... 17 
3.3.8   Changes in the WTO Chairs Programme ....................................................... 18 
4   IMPLEMENTATION OF TA PLAN AND MAIN FEATURES OF THE TA PROVIDED 
IN 2013 .......................................................................................................................... 19  
4.1   Participation of least- developed countri es (LDCs) .......................................................... 19 
4.2   Geographical  distribution ........................................................................................... 20 
4.3   Product mix .............................................................................................................  22 
4.4   Distributi on by subject .............................................................................................. 24 WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
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 4.5   Language mix .......................................................................................................... 26 
4.6   Progressivity of training ............................................................................................. 27 
4.7   Gender mix ............................................................................................................. 29 
5   EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE IN 2013 .................................................................. 29  
5.1   Immedi ate resu lts .................................................................................................... 30 
5.1.1   E-Learning ............................................................................................... 30 
5.1.2   Face-to-face activities ................................................................................ 32 
5.1.3   WTO Chai rs Prog ramme ............................................................................. 33 
5.2   Longer-t erm results .................................................................................................. 34 
5.2.1   SPS advanced training pr ogramme .............................................................. 35 
6   LESSONS LEARNED .................................................................................................... 36  
6.1   WTO Technical Assistance  Offer .................................................................................. 37 
6.2   Implementa tion of RBM ............................................................................................. 38 
ANNEX 1 FOLLOW-UP ON THE MA IN 2012 RECOMMENDATIONS .................................... 39  
 WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
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 ACRONYMS 
ACP  African, Caribbean and Pacific group of states 
ACWL  Advisory Centre on WTO Law AfT  Aid for Trade 
AGIMS Agriculture Information Management System 
ALADI  Latin American Integration Association 
AMF  Arab Monetary Fund 
ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations 
ATPC  Advanced Trade Policy Course BTOR  Back-to-Office Report CARICOM Caribbean Community and Common Market 
CEECAC Central and Eastern European, Central Asian and Caucasus Countries 
CHF  Swiss franc COMESA Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa 
CRTA  Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
CTD  Committee on Trade & Development DDA  Doha Development Agenda 
DDAGTF Doha Development Agenda Global Trust Fund 
DSU  Dispute Settlement Understanding EAC  East African Community ECCAS Economic Community of Central African States 
EU  European Union 
FAO  Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations GIZ  Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit 
ICTSD International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development  
IDB/INTAL Inter-American Development Bank / Institute for the Integration of Latin America and 
the Caribbean  
IGO  Intergovernmental Organization 
IMF  International Monetary Fund IMF-CEF International Monetary Fund Middle East Centre for Economics and Finance IPPC  International Plant Protection Convention 
IsDB  Islamic Development Bank 
ITTC  Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation JVI  Joint Vienna Institute 
LDC  Least-developed country 
M&E  Monitoring & Evaluation MA  Market Access 
MC9  9
th WTO Ministerial Conference 
MIP  Missions Internship Programme MTS  Multilateral Trading System NAMA  Non-Agricultural Market Access 
NGO  Non-Governmental Organization 
NTP  Netherlands Trainee Programme OAS  Organization of American States 
OIE  International Animal Health Organisation 
PEF  Participant's Evaluation Form PIF  Pacific Islands Forum 
PIFS  Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat 
PLS  Progressive Learning Strategy PTA  Preferential Trade Agreement Q&A  Questions & Answers 
RAM  Recently Acceded Member 
RBM  Results-Based Management RC  Reference Centre 
RCI  Regional Coordinator Internship Programme 
RTA  Regional Trade Agreement RTPC  Regional Trade Policy Course 
SPS  Sanitary and Phytosanitary 
TA  Technical Assistance TAME  Technical Assistance Monitoring and Evaluation Section TBT  Technical Barriers to Trade WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
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 TCA  Technical Cooperation Audit Unit 
TPC  Trade Policy Course TPR  Trade Policy Review TRIPS  Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights 
TRTA  Trade-Related Technical Assistance 
UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNECA United Nations Economic Commission for Africa 
UNESCAP United Nations Economic and Soci al Commission for Asia and the Pacific 
WCO  World Customs Organization WCP  WTO Chairs Programme WHO  World Health Organization 
WIPO  World Intellectual Property Organization 
WTO  World Trade Organization WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
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 1  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 
1.1.  This report on the Technical Assistance (T A) provided by the World Trade Organization (WTO) 
in 2013 builds on the major transformation undertaken last year.  It focuses on three types of analysis: the main evolutions of TA in 2013 compar ed to the previous year; the analysis by region, 
type, subject, language, level of training and gend er of the participants; and the evaluation of the 
delivery and results of TA activities.   
1.2.  To further increase the coherence of the Secretariat's reporting on TA and facilitate Members' 
access to information, the two separate reports on TA and TA evaluation have been merged into a 
single comprehensive report. In addition, the re commendations have been reflected, including 
those from 2012, indicating progress to date on im plementation to facilitate their monitoring by 
relevant stakeholders. 
1.1  Main evolutions in 2013 compared to 2012 
1.3.  The Secretariat continued efforts in 2013 to manage the TA resources tightly, as in the 
previous years. The level of resources stabilised for the first time since the beginning of the 2008 
financial crisis.  In the meantime, the volume of TA activities and the related expenses remained 
stable during the year.  
1.4.  Implementation of the new TA management system based on results, adopted at the end of 
2012, started in 2013.  The introduction of results-based management was not budgeted for and 
as a result, this process took more time to complete than initially envisaged.  New TA request forms and procedures were introduced during the year for national and regional activities. The BTORs were improved to better measure the immediat e results of TA activities on the basis of a 
set of objective performance indicators.  With the related electronic workflows and the supporting 
database to be completed in 2014, the reporting on implementation of TA activities should further 
improve. 
1.5.  A new TA Plan was developed and approved  for 2014-15, on the basis of an assessment of 
beneficiaries' needs and taking into account the lessons learned from previous years.  Value-enhancing partnerships continued to be a central feature of the Plan, as in 2012.  Partners 
contributed either financially, through the sharing of costs, or by enhancing the substance of the 
activities. 
1.6.  The Secretariat worked in 2013 to further im prove the substantive content of its TA offer, 
and to implement activities on the basis of th e recommendations formulated in 2012.  The most 
significant evolutions in this regard included:  
 development of benchmarks subject by subject on the substantive content of each of the 
three training levels for implementation in 2014;  
 the introduction of three new on-line cour ses (Legal underpinnings, Accessions, Trade 
Finance) and the revision of several existing ones to increase the interactive and multimedia content;  
 the introduction of final exams systematically  for each RTPC and the reintroduction of a 
revision session in the last week of the 8-week long course.  
Furthermore, the ATPCs were entirely recast during  the year, to move away from a repetition of 
aspects of RTPCs towards a more analytical and horizontal approach to the various WTO subjects 
based on case studies. Efforts were made in a nu mber of areas (Agriculture, SPS, MA for goods, 
Services, TRIPS, etc.) to provide TA better tailo red to the needs of beneficiaries and actions 
continued throughout the year to support the ne twork of Reference Centres and make sure that 
the infrastructure was properly used by beneficiaries. After a review at the end of the first phase of 
the WTO Chairs Programme's (WCP), the programme was scaled down by half in the second phase while its management was strengthened.   
1.7.  Overall, these evolutions demonstrate the co nstant attention paid by the Secretariat to the 
improvement of its TA offer, in terms of both  quality and adequacy to the actual needs of WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
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 Members.  However, slow progress was registered in the use of more interactive training 
techniques in some of the face-to-face activities.  
1.2  Implementation of TA Plan - main fe atures of WTO Technical Assistance in 2013 
1.8.  The Secretariat undertook a total of 320 activities, comprising 279 technical assistance 
activities, both in Geneva and in various Members or Observers, and 41 other TA-related activities 
(conferences or activities of partner institutions).  The majority of these technical assistance activities at regional level were organised in partnership with other international, regional or sub-
regional institutions.  Overall, close to 14,000 participants were trained during the year, an 
increase of 9% compared to 2012.  This growth is attributable to on-line courses which attracted 40% of all the participants, a continuation of previous years' trend. 
1.9.  In 2013, one third of the 279 activities had a general scope (multi-topic coverage), the other 
two thirds covering specific Agreements or subjec ts.  The concentration on general activities was 
higher for E-Learning courses, as a consequence of the prerequisites to register for intermediate and advanced face-to-face activities. 
1.10.  At the national level, the activities most in demand were Trade Facilitation needs 
assessments, which paved the way for the agreement reached by Members in Bali.  There continued to be a high demand for multi-topic activities covering many issues under the WTO 
Agreements or the Doha negotiations, such as Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA), Rules, 
Trade in Services, Trade-Related Aspects of Intelle ctual Property Rights (TRIPS), and Sanitary and 
Phytosanitary (SPS) measures. 
1.11.  Subject-specific regional seminars were conducted in all regions.  Africa and LDCs remained 
a priority in 2013, as in previous years.  Overal l, the WTO held approximately the same volume of 
national and regional/global activities, but the former continued to attract larger numbers of participants for activities of 3 days duration at the most.  To facilitate the use of more interactive 
training methods, efforts should be made to length en the average duration of the activities (up to 
5 full days) and reduce the size of the audience (30 persons maximum). 
1.12.  Around 60% of the TA was provided in En glish, and 17% in Spanish and French each, which 
mirrors approximately the language preference s of Members and Observers in the WTO.  
Participation in on-line courses in French grew by almost 60% in 2013. 
1.13.  The balance between the three PLS levels of training - introduction, intermediate and 
advanced - did not change significantly compared to 2012.  A large part of the TA was provided 
through the Trade Facilitation needs assessment programme. With the continued efforts to 
introduce benchmarks on the substantive content of each level during the year, only a small number of activities were still without a clear level of training for a variety of reasons, including 
the fact that it is not feasible to allocate a level to all activities (as for example to outreach and 
academic support related activities).  The proportion  of the activities for generalists and specialists 
did not change much compared to 2012. 
1.14.  Overall, the proportion of women amongst participants stayed almost unchanged compared 
to last year, in spite of fluctuation in certain regions.  Women represented half of the participants in WTO activities.  Unlike last year, in 2013 the proportion was no longer higher in on-line courses than in face-to-face activities. 
1.3  Performance in 2013 and lessons learned 
1.15.  The performance of E-Learning courses continued successfully in 2013, with an average 
success (pass) rate of 70%, slightly lower than 81% the year before.  As in 2012, this average 
does not reveal important variations between  courses: SPS and Trade & Environment have 
traditionally been the most successful, while other (e.g. Multilateral Trade Agreements, Services or MA for Goods) were more challenging for participants.  An analysis of the reasons behind these 
important disparities is needed.  French language E-Learning courses continued to have a lower 
success rate, but registered a significant increase in the number of participants (+56%). WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
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 1.16.  Among the face-to-face TA activities, major objective performance indicators were 
introduced in the form of final exams in all RT PCs.  These courses registered an 88% overall 
success rate.  The immediate results of other face-to-face activities continued to be measured through a variety of indicators, including quizzes, trainers' assessments of the participants' level of 
engagement and contributions, and the opinion of participants through the use of Participants' 
Evaluation Forms.  More progress is needed to base the assessment of the immediate results on 
objective performance indicators in all activities. 
1.17.  The year 2013 was the last year of implementation for the WCP, phase 1. A number of 
lessons were learned from the evaluation of the WCP, which were taken into account when deciding to launch a second four-year phase of the programme.  Apart from the reduction by half in the number of Chairs and changes in the management of the programme, more emphasis will 
be placed on quality and impact of their deliverabl es, particularly their contribution to trade policy 
debates in the new phase. 
1.18.  In line with the RBM approach, an internal  evaluation of the long-term results of the SPS 
Advanced training programme was conducted in 2013.  It demonstrated that the programme was 
producing significant results for Members in area s such as implementation of the agreement, 
transparency, defence of specific trade concerns, promotion of market access for agricultural and 
fish products, etc.  These results were reached due to innovative pedagogy involving coaching and 
action plans designed and implemented by participan ts.  At marginally higher costs in comparison 
to other programmes of a similar size and du ration, the SPS programme performed better in 
generating more significant results.  However, the evaluation suggested some improvements to 
the programme, to further maximise its results.  It also recommended that the same training 
approach be replicated in other domains, such as TBT. 
2  INTRODUCTION 
2.1.  Following the substantial transformation of the report last year and the positive feedback 
received from Members, the Secretariat has followed the same approach for 2013.  This entails going beyond a quantitative account of the volume of TA provided during the year but presenting 
the activities of the Secretariat in a more analytical way, and avoiding repetition of the description 
of the various programmes and activities implemented during the year, which have already been presented to Members as part of the 2012-2013 TA Plan.
1  This new approach of reporting the 
implementation of TA in 2013 will give Members a better understanding of the achievements and 
the rationale guiding the WTO actions in this field during the year. 
2.2.  The WTO is continuing with the development and implementation of tools which will be used 
to better measure the results produced by its TA ac tivities in the beneficiary countries, with a view 
to giving priority to those activities that genera te the highest returns.  One important element of 
this equation is the cost of each activity.  Whilst information on costs will continue to be presented to Members as part of the WTO annual financial report, this report however also includes an 
analysis of the costs of the TA activities in order  to give Members a more comprehensive picture 
of the TA provided by the WTO in 2013. 
2.3.  The report focuses on three main issues.  The first is a presentation of the main evolutions 
seen in the TA provided in 2013 compared to the pr evious year, and their rationale.  This required 
a selection amongst the many activities and prog rammes implemented during the year to focus on 
the most significant ones.  The second analyses the TA provided during the year by region and 
category of beneficiaries, by subject covered, langua ge used and level of training offered.  The last 
analyses in detail the immediate and long-term resu lts of the TA provided by the WTO during the 
year - and before.  The last part of the report is  a formative evaluation of TA provided. Presented 
as a separate report in 2012, this has been merged with the narrative for 2013 to make it easier 
for Members to manage the information on the WTO TA and avoid unnecessary repetition.  
3  MAIN EVOLUTIONS IN 2013 COMPARED TO 2012 3.1.  During the year under review, a number of changes were introduced in three main domains: 
(i) the stabilisation of the TA resources through continued tight management; (ii) the continued 
                                               
1  See document WT/COMTD/W/180/Rev.1 WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
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implementation of the strategic reforms initiated in the previous two years to better manage TA; 
and (iii) the continuation of efforts to improve the substantive content of the WTO TA offer in a 
variety of domains.  These main evolutions are elaborated in more detail below. 
3.1  Continued tight management of TA resources 
3.2.  The TA Plan for 2012-13 had anticipated a lo wer level of resources available from donors but 
did not modify the objectives assigned to the WTO in this domain.  Achieving as much with less 
could only be possible with a tighter management of the resources available.  Consequently, the 
actions initiated in 2012 in this domain continued in 2013. 
3.1.1  Stabilisation of the resources for TA 
3.3.  In terms of resources, the level of 
extra-budgetary funding anticipated in 
the TA Plan for 2013 was identical to the 
previous year, which represented an average cut of 25% compared to the 
previous biennium.  Meanwhile, the 
progressive reduction of the share of the regular budget dedicated to TA 
implemented since 2009 continued in 
2013, in accordance with the Members' decision.  Over the five years, this represented a total reduction of 1.1 
million CHF or 20% of the regular 
resources for TA. After a decrease for three consecutive years, the amount of 
voluntary contributions received by WTO in 2013 wa s 7% higher than in the previous year.  The 
voluntary contributions, which had been on av erage at CHF 22.7 million per year between 2006 
and 2009, represented CHF 17.5 million in 2013.
2  This turning tide after years of reduction marks 
a possible stabilisation of the level of the volunt ary contributions to be expected by the WTO to 
finance its TA activities in the future.  However,  the late payment of these contributions continued 
in 2013.   
3.4.  A balance of CHF 17.9 million, carried forw ard from the previous year into 2013, made it 
possible to implement the TA Plan as approved by Members at the start of the year.  As regularly 
reported to Members during the course of the year, a significant proportion of the new contributions received in 2013 came towards the end of the year.
3  They will consequently be 
mainly used to finance TA activities in the subsequent year.  Building up a significant carry forward 
into the next year helps increase the predictability of the funding available to the Secretariat, which allows it to implement the TA plan more smoothly. 
3.5.  The proportion of voluntary contributions earmarked for specific programmes or categories of 
beneficiaries, which had increased in 2012, was slightly lower in 2013 even if it remained higher than during the period 2006 to 2011.  The Global  Trust Fund represented approximately 78% of all 
voluntary contributions received by the WTO in 2013, against an average of 84% between 2006 
and 2011 and a low of 74% in 2012.  This is a positive evolution compared to 2012, as the 
availability of trust funds facilitates the implemen tation of the TA Plan activities.  The collective 
adoption of the TA Plan by beneficiaries and contri butors to the trust funds, gives a greater control 
to Members on the kind of TA that sh ould be provided by the Secretariat. 
                                               
2  The trust funds taken into account here are those under the sole authority of the WTO and which it 
can use to finance its TRTA activities.  Trust fund s managed by other entities or which finance other 
programmes than those of WTO (e.g. STDF or Integrated Framework Secretariat) have been excluded. 
3  In 2013, two thirds of the new contributions were received during the last four months of the year. WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
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3.1.2  Stable volume of TA activities 
3.6.  In 2013, the Secretariat continued 
the implementation of the TA Plan with quality control, examining potential 
effectiveness and efficiency of each 
activity, in order to ensure its relevance for beneficiary countries and its 
effectiveness to produce the desired 
results.  The various adjustments initiated in 2012 in this regard continued in 2013.  As in 2012, no activity request 
was approved in 2013 without a clear 
definition of the objectives and a draft programme designed to achieve them. 
Budgets were also examined in details to 
manage costs.  The aim of this rigorous 
internal approval process for activity requests im plemented over the past two years is to maximise 
the value-for-money ratio of the TA provided by  the WTO to its Members.  After the relative 
stability registered last year, the total number of activities organised by the WTO in 2013 was eventually reduced by 7% while gaining in qual ity and value. The reduction was due to a number 
of factors such as lack of sufficient qualified staff leading to cancellation of certain activities and a 
reduction in number of events falling under "Other Activities".   
3.7.  However, the reduction did not apply uniformly across all categories of activities.  As 
announced a year ago, more than half of the activities eliminated were "Other Activities", which 
were cut by almost 50%.  " Other Activities" corresponds to meetings and conferences to which the 
WTO is invited to contribute.  The overall proportion of these " Other Activities"  has progressively 
been reduced from almost 25% a few years ago do wn to 11% of the total activities implemented 
by the WTO in 2013.  These “ Other Activities ” generally do not constitute actual TA, but frequently 
lead to partnerships that facilitate the subsequent organization and delivery of WTO TA activities and supporting activities organised by other organization, thereby contributing to our expected outcomes.  For example, missions to identify partners for future activities fall in this category (e.g. 
partners for future RTPCs), as do activities organised by WIPO, and other IGOs.  In 2013, CHF 0.6 
million was spent on such " Other Activities" , i.e. 3% of the total TA expenses of the WTO. In view 
of the multiplicity of institutions providing TRTA, coordination at all levels had to be promoted to 
encourage synergies.  
3.8.  The volume of national activities incr eased by 12%.  The total number of requests for 
national activities received in 2013 grew by 20% ov erall, as  a result of a surge in demand for 
Trade Facilitation needs assessments, which represented a quarter of all the requests received 
during the year.  With the help of other IGOs and some Members, the WTO was able to respond to Members' expectations in this domain, which contributed to pave way for the agreement reached in Bali at the end of the year (see section 4. 4 below).  However, in areas other than Trade 
Facilitation, the number of requests received in 2013 shrank by 11% compared to 2012.  As part 
of the implementation of a RBM approach to TA , the Secretariat introduced in 2013 a new on-line 
form for requesting national activities (see sectio n 3.2.1 below).  The transition from paper-based 
TA requests to an on-line procedure combined with the new requirement for beneficiaries to 
identify more specifically the need to which the requested activity would respond might have been one of the reasons contributing to a reduction in the number of requests.  In addition, the 
increasing workload of the Secretariat in certain areas (e.g. dispute settlement) at a time of 
resources freeze and the preparation for the MC9 may have limited the capacity to respond to certain requests in 2013. 
3.9.  The total volume of regional or global activities organised in 2013 was marginally lower (5%) 
than in the previous year.  This means that the volume of regional or global activities has 
remained fairly stable since 2008.  This relative stability was maintained by an increase in the number of E-Learning courses offered (+35% in 2013), which compensated a 24% reduction in 
the number of face-to-face regional activities organi sed.  Four regional activities initially included WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
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in the TA plan had to be cancelled in 2013 due to a low level of registration from the invited 
countries.4 
3.10.  The combination of these various 
factors led to a relative stability of the TA 
expenses in 2013 compared to the 
previous year.5  After three successive 
years of - sometimes sharp - reduction, 
the year saw a marginal overall increase 
of the TA expenses (+ 4%).  Both the regular budget and the various trust funds financing WTO TRTA contributed to 
this phenomenon.  Since the internal 
measures implemented in 2012 to better manage the TA expenses continued 
unabated, the stabilisation of the overall 
TA expenses in 2013 resulted entirely from the implementation of the higher 
volume of result-generating TA activities 
analysed above. 
3.11.  As both TA resources and expenses seem to have now stabilised at their current levels, the 
WTO is in a situation where its TA resources ar e structurally exceeding its TA expenses by a 
significant margin every year.  Whereas the WTO us ed to spend every year on average 95% of its 
TA resources between 2007 and 2011, that proporti on fell down to 78% in 2012 and 2013, as it 
reduced its expenses much faster than its resour ces.  This is the reason why the funds carried 
forward into the next year have grown steadily over the past two years (+ 24% annually).  This 
has compensated the absence of multi-year pledges from most donors and, has allowed the Secretariat to continue implementing smoothly the TA Plan in the subsequent year. 
3.12.  Should there be confirmation of the end of  the uncertainties generated by the 2008 financial 
crisis, the Secretariat will have to adjust quickly its budget projections for the future and adapt the implementation of the TA Plan accordingly.  The fu nds provided by donors each year will continue 
to be put to full use in order to ma ximise the returns for beneficiaries.  
3.2  Main evolution of TA management tools 
3.2.1  Implementation of Results-Based Management 3.13.  The implementation of the RBM Monitoring  and Evaluation system adopted by Management 
in December 2012 remained the main priority of the Technical Assistance Monitoring and 
Evaluation Section (TAME) during the year.  This required, inter alia,  the development of new 
forms to capture a more precise measure of the im mediate results of the various activities through 
the use of key performance indicators.  To stre amline the production of subsequent formative 
evaluation reports, the Secretariat decided to move to electronic forms and work flows which would have the additional benefit of reducing the amount of paper used.  In turn, this required a r e v a m p  o f  t h e  T A  a c t i v i t i e s  d a t a b a s e .   I n  a  c o ntext of zero nominal budget growth and of an 
already fully committed IT budget, this had to be pe rformed within the limits of existing resources, 
both human and financial. 
3.14.  The on-line forms to request or assess and evaluate TA activities, also serve as a means of 
entering data into the database of TA activities .  Designing the electronic workflow behind the 
creation of these new records in the database, th eir validation and approval, requires significant 
changes to both the database itself and the work  habits of all those involved in the planning, 
delivery and evaluation of the TA activities.  This is a rather complex process from a human and IT 
                                               
4  These were activities on Trade & Environment (CEECAC and Africa), on Agriculture (French-speaking 
Africa) and on LDCs. 
5  For the purpose of this report, TA expenses include all the expenses under the chapter of the regular 
budget dedicated to TA activities (G eneva-based training course, national TA missions, Academic programme, 
Geneva Weeks, etc.) and all the expenses financed by the trust funds under the sole authority of the WTO, 
which it can use to finance its TRTA activities (inc luding the staff costs registered in these funds). WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
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 point of view.  Having to design, manage and im plement changes of such a magnitude on a small 
budget increased the complexity of the task and lengthened significantly the time required to 
complete the project. 
3.15.  Work on the design and implementation of  new request forms for TA activities by Members 
(national activities) or by regional coordinators (regional activities) was completed during the year.  
This represented a major change for many beneficiaries who are now expected to specify in the form the problem they intend to address throug h the requested activity.  Responding to that 
requirement presupposes a more precise identification at an early stage of Members' TA needs 
than in the past, something which could be a challenge for a number of beneficiary countries.  In turn, these changes required a greater involvement of the various regional desks of the Secretariat 
in the formulation and submission of the requests .  These new on-line forms were implemented in 
the first part of 2013. 
3.16.  However, work on the design and implementation of an on-line BTOR could not be 
completed in 2013 and will be continued in 2014.  The new form requires a more precise 
documentation of the key performance indicators measures, which would then be used as a basis 
for the assessment of the achievement of the set objectives at the design of the activity.  It would also facilitate future follow-up on any recommendation formulated.  The on-line BTOR (a means of 
reporting back from missions), which was tested during the last quarter of the year, required a 
number of technical improvements such as improving its user-friendliness.  The use of the on-line BTOR had to be suspended and postponed until the second part of 2014, whilst its defects were being fixed. 
3.2.2  Continuous use of part nerships for TRTA delivery  
3.17.  In 2013, the Secretariat continued to make use of an extended network of partnerships to 
deliver better tailored TA to beneficiaries in a cost-efficient manner.  The main thrust of these 
partnerships continued to be to promote situations whereby the partner contributed to an activity, 
either in terms of substance or financing. 
3.18.  Many of the long-standing partnerships of th e WTO follow this logic, whether at global level 
for specific subjects (e.g. with WCO on market access for goods; OIE, IPPC and FAO on SPS; WHO 
and WIPO on TRIPS, ACWL and ICTSD on dispute settlement) or at the regional level in Asia-Pacific (e.g. with UNESCAP, PIFS, Government of Singapore), Latin America (e.g. with IDB/INTAL, 
ALADI, OAS), CEECAC (e.g. with the JVI), the Cari bbean (e.g. with Caricom), the Middle East (e.g. 
with AMF,IMF-CEF, IsDB) and Africa (e.g. with  UNECA, EAC, COMESA, Deutsche Gesellschaft für 
Internationale Zusammenarbeit-GIZ). 
3.19.  Many of these partnerships provide for the sharing of part or all the costs related to the 
activities, depending on the financial means of the partners.  The WTO does not have 
comprehensive data on the actual costs financed by its partners (as most of these costs do not transit through WTO accounts), which makes it difficult to present a full picture.  At one end of the 
spectrum are partners such as IDB/INTAL, IsDB  or IMF-CEF who finance almost all the expenses
6 
related to the activities; costs are split in two with other partners such as WIPO, OAS, AMF, UNESCAP, UNECA, etc. There is also a number of partners that make a substantial contribution by taking care of the logistics, making experts available free of charge and other assistance in kind. 
3.20.  Apart from the financial benefits of these partnerships, they also made a substantial 
contribution to better tailor the TA activities to the actual needs of beneficiaries (see section 3.3.6), as illustrated below in the area of trade in goods and outreach. Furthermore, they promote 
better coordination among institut ions and avoid duplication.  
3.21.  In the area of market access for good s, the collaboration with the World Customs 
Organization (WCO) was systematic in 2013, especial ly on customs valuation and rules of origin.  
The partnership made it possible to reach a wider audience by associating customs officers to the 
traditional WTO target of trade officials, which in turn allowed coverage of different perspectives on the same issue (e.g. trade vs. customs, practical vs. legal, regional vs. multilateral).  WCO officers bring along field experience related to the impl ementation of the WTO agreements.  They can 
                                               
6 Excludes WTO staff costs. WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 12 - 
 
 often present practical cases and share experience of other countries, which greatly enhances the 
quality of the programmes.  The partnership with the WCO made it possible to better meet the needs and expectations of beneficiaries, and sign ificantly improved the immediate results of the 
activities implemented in 2013. 
3.22.  The various outreach activities of the WTO targeting Members of parliaments, NGOs, media 
or business community rely heavily on partnerships with specialised institutions including foundations, other IGOs, think tanks, some prominen t NGOs, etc.  These partnerships have always 
involved some sharing of the related costs and of responsibilities to reach the targeted audience 
and tailor the training to specific needs.  In 2013, the Secretariat was able for the first time to reach the business community of the Middle East through a regional workshop organised in partnership with the IMF-CEF in Kuwait.  The event was highly successful and it is planned to 
replicate it regularly in the future.  Another innovation was a regional event combining NGOs and 
media in Central and Western Africa through the long-standing partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. 
3.2.3  Preparation of the 2014-2015 TA Plan  
3.23.  Recommendations 2, 4 and 7 in the 2012 Annual report (document WT/COMTD/W/199) 
mentioned important aspects of the preparation of the TA Plan for the next biennium.  They read 
as follows: 
In the TA Plan for 2014-15, the Secretariat should focus face-to-face activities, in 
particular at regional level, in the areas and content on which they can provide a real added-value, given their relatively high cost compared to E-Learning or national 
activities. 
In the TA Plan for 2014-15, the Secretariat should examine carefully the value added 
by regional activities, given their relatively high cost.  The TA Plan should provide the 
Secretariat with the flexibility to adopt a regional or national approach, responding 
fully to the identified needs of beneficiaries and taking into account the relative cost of the immediate results that can be reasonably expected from the activity.  This should 
apply on a case-by-case basis. 
In the TA Plan for 2014-15, the Secretariat should consider whether the current 
balance between levels and training paths in the TA offer of the WTO, responds to the needs of Members.  Corrective actions should be proposed if necessary. 
3.24.  The TA Plan 2014-15 was developed by the Secretariat during the course of the year and 
approved by Members in the meeting of the CTD held on 24 October 2013.
7  The preparation of 
the Plan involved wide consultations with beneficiary countries, first through an electronic 
questionnaire and then through successive meetings by region.  The results of these consultations 
were presented in part 5 of the Plan.  These cons ultations enquired about Members' priorities in 
terms of subjects and about their preferred mean s for responding to these needs.  Their views 
were also sought concerning the PLS and the most appropriate level of the assistance to be 
provided.  At this stage, further reflection would be needed on the current equilibrium in the WTO TA offer between face-to-face and online activities.  The first of the three recommendations remains work in progress as a result. 
3.3  Improving the substantive content of the TA offer 
3.3.1  Progressive Learning Strate gy: Benchmarking training levels 
3.25.  The Progressive Learning Strategy (PLS) adopted in 2010 structured the WTO training 
activities around three successive levels - introductory, intermediate and advanced - available 
either for generalists or for specialists.  However, the substantive content of each of these levels was yet to be defined, which was a challenge identified in past annual reports on TA.
8  In this 
connection, the Secretariat should define the subs tantive content of each of the three training 
                                               
7  See WT/COMTD/W/200. 
8  See for example WT/COMTD/W/177 (§§ 21 and 26) or W/197 (§§ 4.33 and 4.38). WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 13 - 
 
 
levels instituted by WTO subject by subject and ad just the content of the training offered by WTO, 
on-line and face-to-face, accordingly.   
3.26.  In 2013, the Secretariat undertook to star t implementing the changes mentioned above.  A 
first set of benchmarks was put together for each subject, defining level by level the core 
substantive elements that should be mastered by generalists or specialists at the end of each of 
the levels of training.  The set of benchmarks  was finalised at the end of the year.  These 
benchmarks can be made public and distributed to inform Members.  For 2014, the Secretariat 
should adjust the content of the training it offers and review its invitations and selection processes 
for the various levels according to these benchmarks.   
3.3.2  Improving the E-Learning offer 3.27.  The 2012 Annual Report re commended dedicating more resources to E-Learning in the 
future to enable it to cover the various WTO su bjects and improve the presentation, pedagogy and 
interactivity of the courses when possible, since the return on such investment would be proportionately much higher. 
3.28.  Due to a zero growth budget, no additional human resources or funds were allocated to  
E-Learning in 2013 and it continued to rely predominantly on temporary contracts to respond to Members' needs.  Despite the freeze on their resources, further progress was made during the 
year to continue improving the presentation and 
interactivity of the online courses.  Five pre-existing courses (My Course, SPS, environment, trade remedies and market access databases) were revised 
during the year, to take into account new 
developments to enhance their multimedia content, so as to increase their pedagogical impact in the future.  
Overall, the number of new multimedia components 
(audio, animations or video) added during the year continued to grow at the same rate as in the previous 
year.  The use and popularity of these components is 
monitored by the trainers. 
3.29.  The number of chat sessions with WTO experts 
offered to participants was further increased with 41 
chat sessions organized in 2013. They covered a wide 
range of WTO subjects and were often organised in the three official languages.  This made it possible to 
offer a chat on certain subjects more than once during 
the course of the year.  But in spite of this improved offer, chats kept registering significantly more 
questions than could be answered in the time 
available, a clear sign of the interest of participants.  Over the years, the trend is to see participants progressively raising more advanced questions on the 
various subjects covered in the chats, which signals a better understanding of WTO matters. 
3.30.  The News Forum saw a surge in the number of topics launched for discussion.  These more 
than doubled during the year (from 31 in 2012 to 74 in 2013).  But the most impressive factor was 
that most of this growth came from the participants themselves, who proposed a total of 31 
subjects for discussion with their fellow particip ants in 2013 (i.e. 42%), when, in the past, this 
used to be the exception.  Trainers encouraged participants to get involved in the News Forum, as 
this is an opportunity to get in contact with other participants; to apply the knowledge from the 
course; and to address specific problems or issu es and discuss possible solutions with participants 
who had similar experiences. 
3.31.  Further to the adoption of a new strategy for E-Learning
9 at the end of 2012, significant 
time was invested in 2013 on a new E-Learning platform called e-Campus .  The existing platform 
had become a victim of the success of WTO on-line courses and was progressively reaching its 
                                               
9  See details of the new strategy in the TA Plan 2014-15 (WT/COMTD/W/200, section 4.3). WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 14 - 
 
 limits in terms of volume of participants and technicalities.  A state of the art platform was 
necessary to address both limitations for the foreseeable future by increasing significantly the possibilities of simultaneous access and interactivity through a greater use of diversified multimedia tools.  Such a platform would also be more cost-efficient and include on-line data 
collection and reporting tools responding to the need to manage for results.  In 2013, the  
E-Learning unit was heavily involved in the identi fication of the needs, the definition of the 
specifications, the provision of content and the testing of successive prototypes, to allow the 
development of a new platform. 
3.32.  The catalogue of E-Learning courses was enriched with three new courses: (i) WTO Legal 
Underpinnings; (ii) Accession to WTO; and (iii) Trade Finance and WTO.  All three are at an intermediate level.  The first one complements th e WTO offer for generalists, whilst the latter two 
are for specialists.  Including My Course , which is the tailored course allowing participants to pick 
and choose the modules of interest to them, and the self-training modules freely available on the 
WTO website, a total of seventeen E-Learning courses, in three linguistic versions,
10 were open for 
registration or available in 2013.  The E-Learning offer by level and focus is presented in the table 
below: 
Level Generalists Specialists 
Introduction Introduction to WTO (E, F, S)  
Intermediate Multilateral Trade Agreements (E, F, S) Accession to WTO (E) 
Legal Underpinnings (E, F, S) Agriculture & WTO (E, F, S) 
WTO & Trade Economics - Theory & 
Policy (E, F, S) Market Access for Goods and NAMA 
negotiations (E, F, S) 
 SPS Measures (E, F, S) 
 TBT (E, F, S) 
 Trade & Development (E, F, S) 
 Trade & Environment (E, F, S) 
 Trade Finance and WTO (E, F, S) 
 Trade in Services (E, F, S) 
 Trade Remedies (E, F, S) 
 TRIPS (E, F, S) 
 WTO Market Access Databases (E,F) 
 3.33.  A particular effort was made in 2013 to reduce the gap between the development and release of a course in the official languages, in order to make them available more on par with the 
English version.  However, these efforts are constrained by the availability of translators and 
experts to develop the multimedia content in French and Spanish. 
3.34.  At this stage, only three major WTO areas are not yet covered by its E-Learning offer: 
notification obligations, dispute settlement and regional/preferential trade agreements.  Work 
already started in 2013 to fill these remaining gaps and is expected to be completed in 2014. 
3.3.3  Fine-tuning RTPCs 3.35.  Further to the pilots conducted in 2011 and 2012, the use of a final exam to test 
participants' knowledge at the end of the RTPCs was fully applied in 2013.  The results of the exam 
accounted for 70% of participants' final result, with the remaining 30% assessing their level of engagement in the course, group work and exerci ses.  Participants who scored 90 and above out 
of 100 points received a certificate of distinct ion, those with a score between 60 and 90 a 
certificate of success, and those below 60 a certificate of attendance.  The lessons learnt from the trial run in 2012 were duly taken into account to adjust the content and logistics of the exams.  In 
a context where the Secretariat is implementing  RBM for its TA activities, such exams help 
measure more objectively the results achieved in the training courses in terms of knowledge and skills transfer. 
3.36.  The three-day revision workshop, initially developed for the Geneva-based TPCs, was 
incorporated in the programme of the RTPCs for the CEECAC, English-Speaking Africa and Asia-
                                               
10  The French or Spanish version of some of the most recent courses is still under development and 
should be available in 2014. WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 15 - 
 
 Pacific regions.  This new pilot confirmed the relevance and validity of the revision for RTPCs and 
for the preparation of the final exam.  As a result, it was decided to make it a regular feature of the programme from 2014. 
3.37.  The selection process for new partners was launched in 2013 for the RTPCs to be held next 
year in Latin America and in the Middle East, the two regions for which no such course took place 
during the year. 
3.3.4  Recasting the Advanced Trade Policy Course 
3.38.  The Advanced Trade Policy Course (ATPC) is the most advanced training offered by the WTO 
to generalists outside the internship programmes.   Following the suggestions expressed in the 
2010 TCA evaluation
11 and thereafter by the participants and various trainers, the ATPC was 
completely reengineered in 2013.  The previous a pproach, which was still perceived as overlapping 
to some extent with the content and programm e of intermediate-level TPCs or RTPCs, was 
revisited based on important lessons learned. 
3.39.  It was decided to move away from the agreement-by-agreement approach to training, and 
instead to work as much as possible on the basis of case studies corresponding to situations that 
country delegates, whether in capitals or in Geneva, would frequently face in the normal course of their work.  This new pedagogy was designed to better equip participants: to develop their 
autonomy when conducting WTO-related work thro ugh their increased mastering of a number of 
tools (WTO databases, analytical and negotiating sk ills, etc.); to promote their critical thinking in 
front of particular trade-related situations and av oid pre-cooked solutions; and to help them adopt 
a more comprehensive approach towards trade poli cy issues, by exploring the linkages between 
WTO rules and their country's trade interests. 
3.40.    The established prerequisites to apply for the course (successful participation in the RTPC 
or on-line course on Multilateral Trade Agreements), assumed that participants would already have 
a solid knowledge of the main provisions of  the WTO agreements.  This, combined with 
discontinuation of the requirement for each participant to complete an individual project
12 and the 
more horizontal approach adopted in the course design, made it possible to reduce its total 
duration by a third, from 12 to 8 weeks.  The redu ced duration should contribute to facilitate the 
participation in the ATPC of higher-ranking delegates, who usually have difficulties leaving their office unattended for extended periods of time.  In turn, these changes are expected to increase the quality of the content of the course and attract senior level participation.  The first recast APTC 
will take place in 2014. 
3.3.5  Making WTO courses more interactive   3.41.  Although it has been a constant recommendation in the past to use more interactive 
training methods when delivering TA activities at all three PLS levels, in 2013 interactivity slowed 
down.  Interactivity is a well-established rule in the field of adult training and teaching methods to stimulate learning.  Although data on the various training methods used in the WTO TA activities 
are collected since the end of 2009 only, four years down the road, some trends start to appear as 
shown in the table below: 
                                               
11  See WT/COMTD/W/177. 
12  Projects existed for a long time in Geneva-based TPCs and RTPCs.  They had been eliminated in 2004 
and 2005, and then introduced in a novel form in the ATPC. Despite their value in developing participants' 
autonomy, the significant amount of time and Secretariat staff resources they required could be re-allocated to 
optimize participants' training experience. WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 16 - 
 
 
3.42.  Lectures remain the predominant 
medium used by WTO to deliver TA activities.  They represented on average more than half of the training time and 
were used in almost all the activities for 
which data were available in 2013.  Since 2009, the average share of lectures has 
been rising slowly (+ 5% in four years), 
which runs against previous recommendations.  However, the average does not reveal significant 
differences between certain types of 
activities.  For example, 40% of national activities were almost entirely based on 
lectures, a much higher proportion than 
in 2012. At the other end of the spectrum, Trade Facilitation needs 
assessments involved almost no lecture; training courses on Trade Negotiating Skills are almost 
entirely based on case studies and the simulation of a trade negotiation; and advanced thematic courses or workshops organised in Geneva also tended to be more interactive and as such highly rated by participants. 
3.43.  The rest of the training time was shared between Questions & Answers (15%), exercises 
(11.5%), case studies (9.5%), quizzes (2%) and other training methods (8%).  The use of exercises decreased in 2013, as fewer activities used that training method in 2013 compared to 
the previous year (64% of the activities instead of 70%).  The share of the time dedicated to the 
other methods remained fairly stable.  However,  this should be interpreted carefully, since 
experience has shown that it can be difficult to isolate the time within a lecture dedicated to the 
questions by the participants.  The inclusion of case studies or simulations was more frequent in 
2013 (46% of the activities used this training method).  In the activities in which they were used, the proportion of time dedicated to case studies re mained stable.  Far fewer activities used quizzes 
in 2013 (28.5% compared to 35% in 2012).  Other training methods used in TA activities include 
group work or group discussions and panels among others.  
3.44.  Beyond the intrinsic advantage of more  interactive training methods for a better 
transmission of knowledge and skills to participan ts, the evolution noted in 2013 will also limit the 
capacity of the Secretariat to rely on more objective performance indicators (such as the results of 
exercises, quizzes or case studies) to measure th e immediate results of its TA activities.  In a 
context in which the transfer of knowledge on th e WTO agreements or negotiations remains one of 
the main objectives of almost all WTO TA activities, every effort will be made to reverse this trend. 
A higher proportion of more interactive training  methods - e.g. question s & answers, exercises, 
case studies, group work or presentations, quizzes - will be used in the TA activities, at all of the 
three PLS levels. 
3.3.6  A better tailored re sponse to Members' needs 
3.45.  The adoption of a results-based management  approach allowed for some flexibility to adapt 
to changing circumstances, needs of the Members and a more demand-driven choice of activities. 
As a result, some adjustments were made during  the year to accommodate Members' constantly 
evolving needs.  Such changes are outlined below. 
3.46.  As a result of consultations with delega tions, the workshop on Agriculture Notifications 
foreseen in French in the TA plan for 2013 was eventually conducted in English to meet a larger 
proportion of the demand.  The duration of the workshop had already been expanded from two to 
four days in 2012 and it was decided in 2013 not to hold it back-to-back with the Regular 
Committee meeting, as this was too burdensome for the TA providers and reduced their 
availability.  The extra-time was allocated to sessions on  information sources, with special 
emphasis on the Agriculture Information Management System (AG IMS), a new online database available through the WTO website and announced during the June 2013 Agriculture Committee 
meeting.  This online database allows users to se arch and analyse notified information, along with 
the questions and answers submitted by Members in the Committee. WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 17 - 
 
 
3.47.  There was another adjustment in the area of services to respond to an interest expressed 
by COMESA for a WTO services workshop.  This led the Secretariat to limit the regional activity foreseen in 2013 for English-speaking Africa to COMESA Member States.  Accordingly, the programme of that workshop was tailored to respond to COMESA needs by incorporating various 
sessions on the sectors of specific interest to  them (e.g. business services, energy-related 
services, construction and engineering-related services). 
3.48.  Tailored assistance was also provided in the area of services to acceding countries, namely 
Ethiopia and Seychelles, either through interactive exercises requiring participants to analyse the 
schedules of other Members in their region or of RAMs, to get a better idea of the expectations of Members in terms of liberalisation; or reviewing successive versions of their services offer, depending on the evolution of their bilateral negotiations.  The results of such assistance are 
generally difficult to measure, since accession is also a politically-driven process whose timing and 
rhythm is influenced by several aspects and not solely by technical readiness. 
3.49.  In the area of TRIPS, closer attention was paid to the needs identified by Members.  Unlike 
in the past, various training activities in Africa and Asia (e.g. in Tanzania, Togo, Indonesia, Laos, 
Myanmar) were complemented by suggestions on  possible follow-up actions on the discussions 
held with the participants.  The countries concerned were receptive to this approach which they 
considered would eventually lead to more tangible results in the future.  For example, Togo 
eventually communicated its priority needs for technical and financial cooperation to the TRIPS Council in 2013, following the recommendation fo rmulated earlier in the national workshop. 
3.50.  Two workshops initially foreseen in the TA  Plan on Trade & Development and on AfT were 
combined into a single activity first in Asia-Pacific and then in Africa.  This created efficiency gains 
by combining the preparation for the 4
th Global review on AfT and for the MC9.  These activities 
contributed to the successful outcome of MC9 and made a substantive contribution to the Global 
review for these two regions. 
3.51.  A further thorough assessment of the n eeds of Members was performed to respond to the 
numerous requests received in 2013 in the area of market access for goods (see details in section 
4.4 below). 
3.52.  The 2013 SPS thematic workshop centred prim arily on bringing together officials, selected 
from among former participants to the SPS Advanced Course, for an in-depth session on specific SPS-related challenges faced by Members in their trade of agricultural goods.  Eleven out of the 16 
speakers and moderators were former participants  of the advanced SPS course, who presented the 
outputs of their action plan and lessons learned.  This was the first time that former participants of the Advanced SPS Course (2005-2012) were brought together.  The workshop provided a unique 
opportunity to view the longer term benefits of the course, and to evaluate what worked and what 
could be improved (see section 5.2.1 below). 
3.3.7  Maintaining a network of Refe rence Centres in targeted countries 
3.53.  The Secretariat developed over the 
years a network of 109 Reference Centres (RCs) located in 93 countries.  The two main challenges faced by the programme are to 
keep the network up and running in an 
environment of fast technological innovation, and to promote the use of this tool by 
interested parties.  The new RC strategy 
adopted three years ago as part of the TA Plan 2012-13 gave priority to LDCs, sub-Saharan 
Africa and non-residents.Mid-2013, almost half 
of the RCs were located in Africa, the rest being peppered over the other parts of the world in particular in the Pacific, which hosted 
8% of them.  In total, 40% of the RCs were in WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 18 - 
 
 
LDCs and 15 RCs in non-resident Members or Observ ers.  With such a wide geographical spread, 
the Secretariat cannot physically visit each and ev ery RC over a short period of time.  In 2013, 
eight missions to upgrade a RC were organised, six of them in Africa. 
3.54.  Therefore, keeping the reference centres alive relies heavily on local RC managers with the 
support of the RC unit in Geneva.  A four-day Symposium for RC managers was held in Geneva in 
November 2013 to provide them with the knowledge and tools necessary to run an efficient RC.  It 
attracted 28 managers from LDCs, bringing the total of the managers trained over the last three 
years up to 70.  Synergies have also been deve loped with the long term internship programmes: 
every intern under the MIP, NTP and RCI programmes received two-day training on the running of a  R C  d u r i n g  t h e i r  s t a y  i n  G e n e v a .   S o m e  o f  t h e m  h a v e  s u b s e q u e n t l y  b e e n  d e s i g n a t e d  a s  R C  managers.  However, the latest evaluation conduc ted by the Secretariat internal monitoring and 
evaluation team showed that only half of the RC managers benefited appropriately from the 
training to discharge this responsibility effectively.   The Secretariat will have to continue the efforts 
in this domain. 
3.55.  The actual use of the RC is 
surveyed annually by the Secretariat.  The latest survey had a response rate 
just above 50%.  Whilst this is 
representative enough to get a proper idea of where RCs stood in 2013, this remains rather low for a programme 
involving an electronic network managed 
by WTO.  The survey showed that only two thirds of the RCs were fully 
operational.  That rate has not changed 
significantly for several years, but some of the responses indicated that an 
upgrade of the RC has an impact on its 
functionality.  Approximately 85% of the users of RCs were government officials.  For several years, the WTO insisted on developing the use of RCs for on-line courses.  In 2013, this facility was on offer in 69% of the RCs.  That rate was stable, after the strong progression registered in 
2011.  Upgrades also had an impact, in particular  in French-speaking countries (see evolution of 
French-speaking on-line course in section 5.1.1). 
3.56.  A recommendation to introduce a more systematic means of monitoring the functioning of 
RCs was suggested by an internal evaluation of the programme some years back so as to provide 
an exhaustive picture of the state of the networ k, its functioning and use.  A survey conducted 
since then showed that further progress is still possible to achieve a more active network of RCs 
which responds to the needs of Members.   
3.3.8  Changes in the WTO Chairs Programme 3.57.  Further to the mid-term review conducted in 2012, the WTO Chairs Programme (WCP) 
underwent a major reform in 2013, in preparation for the launch of the next four-year phase of the 
programme (2014-17).  Changes will be made to  both its management and the size of the 
programme during the second phase as follows in : a) seven Chairs will be selected for the second 
phase, instead of 15; b) the WTO will stop the financial  grants  to phase1 Chairs
13; c) the 
management of the programme will be reformed to improve efficiency while the programme will 
focus on actual results and quality instead of output volumes; and d) a revamp of the Advisory Board to ensure comprehensive dedicated participation in the management of the programme.  It 
was also felt that reducing the scale of the programme would facilitate the implementation of the 
managerial changes and quality assurance.  Thes e changes were incorporated into the TA Plan 
2014-15. 
3.58.  As a result, additional reflection was necessary in a number of areas and issues to translate 
the broad principles of the reform into concrete ac tions, such as:  future relations with existing 
                                               
13 During the first year of Phase 2 of the Chairs Programme, a small grant of CHF 10,000 will be made 
available to the Phase 1 Chairs for one year only. The new phase from 2014 to 2017 will be funded by the 
Netherlands. WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 19 - 
 
 Chairs;  actual composition and role of the revamped Advisory Board;  respective roles of the 
Chairs and their Secretariat counterparts;  structur e and content of the WCP website;    need to 
propose areas for research;  Secretariat's inputs into outreach activities;  conditions under which the WTO brand and label could be granted and used;  ways to increase interaction between Chairs 
and policy makers;  improved financial reporting;  guidelines to measure results;  etc.  Progress in 
these various domains will condition the future success of the major reform of the programme launched in 2013, and, in turn, of the second phase of the WCP starting in 2014. 
3.59.  A call for tenders for the second phase of the programme was opened in November 2013, 
on the basis of revised selection criteria, which included the potential for developing the academic capabilities of the host institution and the relevance of the proposed research topics for trade policy formulation on WTO-related issues.  The selection of the seven new Chairs will take place in 
2014. 
4  IMPLEMENTATION OF TA PLAN AND MAIN FEATURES OF THE TA PROVIDED IN 2013 
4.1.  This chapter provides an analysis of th e TA provided by WTO in 2013 according to various 
criteria, such as their distribution  by region, by subject, by language or by PLS level.  In each 
case, a distinction will be made between national, regional, global or E-Learning activities to give a better grasp of the reach of these activities.  Information on the number of participants in, and 
duration of, each activity have been added. 
4.2.    On-line courses are available throughout th e year on a permanent basis.  Participants must 
complete the training for which they registered within three months of starting a course, but the actual number of hours or days they dedicate to the course cannot be known to the Secretariat. 
For this reason, the number of days of the training cannot be assessed for E-Learning activities. 
4.3.  Information on the expenses related to the TA  activities has also been included, in order to 
provide a cost- efficiency and effectiveness perspective.  Whilst confirming the very high cost-
efficiency of E-Learning, this information also gives a better understanding of the relative costs of 
the various programmes run by the Secretariat and of the financial equilibrium between them.  In 
a RBM context, this information is critical to management and Members when taking decisions 
related to the TA offered by the WTO. 
4.4.  In 2013, excluding Other Activities which did not constitute TA per se , the WTO undertook 
279 TA activities, in Geneva and in beneficiary countries.  The Secretariat continued to place particular emphasis on providing assistance to Africa and to LDCs, whose integration into the 
multilateral trading system (MTS) remains a priority for the WTO. 
4.1  Participation of least-developed countries (LDCs
14) 
4.5.  Facilitating a fuller integration of LDCs into  the MTS continued to be one of the main priorities 
of the TA provided by WTO, in line with the Doha Declaration.  LDCs were invited to 57% of the 
activities organised in 2013, a progression of five percentage points compared to 2012 and a growth of almost 30% in two years.  The increa sed access of LDCs to the TA offered by the WTO 
resulted essentially from the growing proportion of the assistance provided on a global basis, 
either face-to-face or through E-Learning, which represented 30% of all activities in 2013 compared to  only 27% in 2012.  Some of the glob al activities are specifically designed for LDCs, 
such as the three-week introduction course for LDCs and the thematic course for LDCs held in 
Geneva. 
4.6.  Two thirds of the LDCs are in Africa.  The priority given to that continent in the 
implementation of many WTO TA programmes also be nefited the LDCs in 2013.  This confirms that 
both priorities are mutually supportive.  The statistics show that LDCs participated in 60% of the 
activities in this region. Giving priority to Africa and LDC also corresponds to specific provisions contained in the some MoUs signed with contributors to the Global Trust Fund.  
4.7.  As in previous years, LDCs were given priority in several WTO programmes, such as long-
term internships and the Reference Centre progra mme.  Two of the five interns selected under 
                                               
14 LDCs represent less than a third of all potential beneficiaries. WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 20 - 
 
 
China's LDC and Accession internship programme came from LDCs. The Interns under the China 
Programme were closely involved in the profession al work of the Accessions Division.  Working as 
the Secretaries or Co-Secretaries of Working Partie s, they assisted the Division in covering WTO 
meetings related to accessions (the Sub-committee on LDCs and the General Council); preparing 
Working Party documents; drafting background notes and memos; and facilitating Working Party 
meetings.  In addition to routine work, the interns under this programme were allocated time to work on two thematic research projects, which were customized according to their academic 
interests and Divisional needs.   
4.8.  Similarly, 13 out of 22 Mission interns, thr ee out of eight Regional Coordinator interns (LDCs, 
PIF and ACP) and eleven out of 15 Netherlands train ees were from LDCs.  Overall, this means that 
60% of the long-term interns invited to spend up to ten months in Geneva to work on WTO issues, 
either in a mission or in the Secretariat, came from an LDC in 2013.  This is ten percentage points 
more than in 2012, but lower than in 2011 (80% ).  This shows a clear preference for LDC 
candidates in the selection process for these programmes.  More than 60% of the LDC interns 
came from Africa. Of the total number of 44 inte rns, 36 per cent (16) were women and all the 
regions had representation in one of the programmes. 
4.9.  The TA plan 2012-2013 and the new Reference Centre Programme strategy adopted in 2012 
indicated that the RC programme would be part icularly beneficial to the LDCs, Sub-Saharan 
African countries and non-resident countries.  In 2013, all of the eight Reference Centres upgraded were either 
i n  L D C s  o r  i n  t h e  s e c r e t a r i a t  o f  A f r i c a n  
IGOs which had a number of LDCs as their Members.
15 
4.10.  The participation of LDCs in  
E-Learning courses continued to increase in 2013.  Participants originating from 
these countries represented more than a 
third of those who completed a course, a very significant progression compared to 
previous years (+42% compared to 2012).  Given the challenges frequently faced by LDCs in 
terms of internet connection, this evolution is highly satisfactory. 
4.2  Geographical distribution 
                                               
15  Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Myanmar,  Vanuatu, African Union Commission, ECCAS and 
SADC.   National   Regional   Global   e-Learning 
 WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 21 - 
 
 
4.11.  The activities with a global geographical reach that were organised in Geneva represented 
30% of the 279 activities implemented in 2013.  They accounted for 12% of the participants in 
face-to-face activities and 60% of the number of training days delivered by the Secretariat.    
These figures are influenced by the long-term in ternships under the Mission Internship, Regional 
Coordinator Internship, Netherlands Trainee and Ac cession Internship programmes.  On average, 
interns under these programmes stayed between six and ten months in missions or in the Secretariat (i.e. approximately 200 working days  each).  The Mission Internship Programme 
benefits primarily LDCs and small and vulnerable economies missions based in Geneva.  
4.12.  To avoid distorting the analysis for other face-to-face activities and repeating each time the 
same explanation, the data and graphs presented in the rest of this chapter will exclude these 
long-term internships. 
4.13.  Setting aside the internship programmes, it  was demonstrated in the TA annual report for 
2012 that other activities organised in Geneva are comparatively not more expensive than those 
held in the regions.  Given the numerous synergies available in Geneva for the participants, in 
particular as far as contacts with delegations, WTO staff Members, WTO bodies and other international organizations, and the logistical advantages this location offers to the Secretariat, there is clear merit in continuing to hold activities in Geneva. 
4.14.  Outside of Geneva, Africa remains the first destination of WTO face-to-face TA, followed by 
Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Central & Eastern Europe.  The proportions between the regions remain approximately the same for the number of activities, participants or days and for expenses.  
This is in line with the stated priorities in the TA Plan for 2013. 
4.15.  Based on the data available, the following regional specificities could be observed: regional 
activities in Latin America tended to have more participants on average, but were shorter and 
much cheaper (due to the WTO partnership with IDB/ INTAL); on the contrary, regional activities in 
Africa and CEECAC were proportionately longer and more expensive. 
4.16.  The geographical distribution of the 
participants in E-Learning courses 
continued to be comprehensive and to 
cover all regions.  Africa was the most-represented amongst participants, with a 
further progression of six percentage 
points compared to the previous year Participation from CEECAC almost 
doubled in 2013 compared to 2012, 
whilst participation from Latin America declined and participants from Asia remained low despite the importance of 
this region in the world population and 
economy. 
 WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 22 - 
 
 
4.3  Product mix 
Proportion of National/Regional Activities 
 Africa Latin America Asia-Pacific Caribbean CEECAC Middle East 
National 77% 77% 70% 67% 65% 40% 
Regional 23% 23% 30% 33% 35% 60% 
4.17.  In 2013, WTO TA was predominantly delivered through national activities in all regions 
except in the Middle East, where the majority of the ac tivities were held at regional level.  National 
activities continued to mobilize three quarters of the participants and to represent only half of the 
days of training.  This confirms that governments gathered a rather large pool of interested 
participants in national activities, though their average duration tended to be shorter than the duration of regional ones. 
4.18.  On average, national activities 
mobilized 42 participants in 2013, 31% 
more than regional activities whose average number of participants was just 
above 30.  The past recommendations of 
TCA to limit the number of participants to 30 persons in order to make it easier 
to use more interactive training methods 
is much more difficult to implement for national activities.  In regional/global activities, for which the Secretariat 
selects participants, the average number 
of participants seemed back under control after past ex cesses, even if the 
standard deviation from the average 
remained fairly high.  Attention should be drawn again to this aspect. 
4.19.  The maximum number of participants allowed to take part in TA activities, both national and 
regional, should be limited in order to make it possible to use interactive training methods.  An acceptable benchmark for the maximum size of a group is 30 participants. 
4.20.  Another past recommendation was 
to increase the duration of activities up 
to five days (full working-week) in order to maximise the opportunity they 
represent for participants, to dig deeper 
into the substance and have enough time to exercise the new knowledge acquired.  
This recommendation is proving equally 
difficult to implement for national activities.  The inadequate duration of WTO activities is a complaint frequently 
voiced by the participants themselves.  
However, the evolution of this parameter for the regional/global activities on which 
the Secretariat has obviously much 
tighter control is encouraging: their 
average duration was 3.7 days in 2013, i.e. the longest duration registered since these data are 
collected.  The past recommendation should consequently be considered and implemented. 
4.21.  Cost-wise, the pattern across regions was more contrasted in 2013 than in the previous 
year.  With the exception of Latin America, where the WTO shared costs significantly with IDB/INTAL, regional activities represented between  half (Africa, Asia-Pacific, Caribbean) and three 
quarters (CEECAC, Middle East) of total expenses.  Re gional activities in all regions cost more than 
national ones: expenses for regional activities include the travel and subsistence costs of both 
trainers and participants, whereas for national activities WTO only pays for trainers' travel costs.  WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 23 - 
 
 
Countries can usually register a limited number of participants for regional activities, while national 
activities can offer the possibility to reach a large number of interested parties and stakeholders.  At the other end of the spectrum, 41% of all particip ants followed E-Learning activities at just over 
5% of the total TA costs of the year, which demonstr ates the very high cost efficiency of this mode 
of training. 
4.22.  The depth and content of regional and national activities is quite different.  Regional 
activities offer opportunities for exchanging perspectives, lessons learned and best practices 
amongst participating countries in a given region.  National activities can focus on the specific 
needs of a particular country, and local specificities and issues can be addressed more openly (trade facilitation needs assessment is a good illustration).  The use of international experts in national activities to respond more comprehensivel y to the needs of the country also increased in 
2013, which contributed to enhance the relevance of national activities. 
4.23.  After the decrease in the number 
of persons trained by the WTO in 2011, 
due to reduced resources, growth is 
back.  In 2013, the WTO trained a total of 13,734 individuals, 9% more than in 
the previous year.  That growth came 
mostly from E-Learning, as participation in face-to-face activities was stable (plus 1%).  Overall, this is a continuation of 
the past trend, as the Secretariat 
capacity to increase participation in face-to-face activities is limited and highly 
dependent on the availability of 
additional human and financial resources.  
On the other hand, E-Learning has been an extr emely effective means of leveraging the limited 
resources available to reach an ever increasing audience.  In 2013, 40% of the participants in 
WTO activities were trained through E-Learning.  That proportion was only 25% four years ago. 
4.24.  As explained earlier, the four long term internship programmes run by the WTO -Mission 
Internships (MIP), Netherlands Trainees (NTP), Regional Coordinator Internships (RCI) and 
Accession Internships - constitute a hands-on type of  face-to-face TA activity with very particular 
characteristics.  These programmes benefit a small number of participants (47 in 2013, i.e. 15% more than in 2012) for extended periods of time  (between six months for Accessions interns and 
certain Regional Coordinator interns and ten mo nths for the others).  In 2013, the interns 
represented 0.5% of the participants in face-to-fa ce activities, but 55% of the training days and 
18% of the expenses of the year.  These internsh ip programmes cost CHF 2.4 million in total in 
2013, due to their duration.  The ex-post evalua tion conducted in 2009 found that the MIP was 
one of the two most useful programmes offered by  WTO according to beneficiaries, the other one 
being the three-month trade policy courses held in Geneva. 
4.25.  In 2013, there were 15 NTP compared to 16 in 2012 (-6%), 22 MIPs in 2013 compared to 
16 in 2012 (+38%), 8 RCI in 2013 compared with  7 in 2012 (+14%) and the same number of 
Accessions interns (4).  Cost-wise, the overall expenses under the four programmes increased by 
18%, 40%, 21% and 65% respectively.  The averag e cost of an NTP increased by 26%, as the 
average duration of their stay in Geneva was te n (10) months compared with an average of 8 
months in 2012. The contribution of resources at the end of 2012 for 2013 enabled the recruitment of the interns for a maximum duration of stay of 10 month.  The average cost of the 
interns under the MIP and RCI was relatively st able (+2% and +6%).  Therefore the increased 
expenses under these programmes resulted essentially from the increased number of participants.  The duration of the Accession internships was exte nded in 2013 from nine to ten months and two 
new interns were recruited early in the year, overlapping with the previous one during five 
months.  As a result, that programme financed a total of 37 months of internship in 2013 
compared to only 23 in 2012 (+60%).  The respective scale of these programmes is dependent on the earmarked contributions levels from a specific number donors (China-Accessions Interns, 
Denmark-MIP, France-MIP, Ireland-MIP, Nether lands-NTP), with the exception of the RCI 
programme financed exclusively through the Global Trust Fund.  As illustrated by the NTP example in 2012-13, given the narrow financial basis of these programmes, the timing of the disbursement 
of these contributions can have a significant impact on the scale of the activities. WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 24 - 
 
 
4.4  Distribution by subject 
4.26.  Excluding the long-term internship progra mmes, on average a third of the TA activities 
organised during the year had a general scope and covered, if not all WTO subjects, at least a 
large number of them.16  The proportion of activities with a general scope was higher for regional, 
E-Learning and global activities (40%, 43% and 50% respectively), and lower for national activities (23%).  Activities with a general scope included, for example, all the Trade Policy 
Courses, irrespective of their duration or location  (e.g. 2 ATPCs, 4 RTPCs, 1 introduction course for 
LDCs, etc.); training on trade negotiating skills (3 activities); the installation or upgrade of Reference Centres (8 activities); outreach activities for Members of Parliament and civil society (5 activities); Trade and Development (8 activities); two TPR follow-up activities; two Geneva Weeks 
for non-residents; etc. 
4.27.  When measured in terms of participants, th e importance of activities with a general scope 
was even greater.  They gathered 43% of participants on average.  However, 62% of those trained 
on-line followed a course with a general scope.  On the other hand, those who participated in 
national activities with a general scope represented only 25% of all participants in national activities.  Compared to 2012, this growing concentr ation of the participants in activities with a 
general scope resulted from the increased offer of the WTO in this domain, in particular through 
the introduction of new E-Learning courses on WTO legal underpinnings. 
                                               
16  Activities with a general scope include all the activities for generalists (as opposed to specialists), 
activities covering several if not all WTO agreements which cannot conseq uently be ascribed to one subject 
rather than another, and activiti es cutting across all WTO subjects.   National   Regional   Global   e-Learning 
 WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 25 - 
 
 4.28.  The number of days of general training o ffered represented 51% of the total training days, 
i.e. 16 percentage points more than in 2012.  This shows that the WTO face-to-face offer in this domain also increased substantially in 2013, especi ally through regional and global activities (on 
trade and development in particular).  Indeed, that proportion was 63% of the total days of 
training offered in global activities and 71% in regional ones.  Even in national activities, that 
proportion grew substantially (22%) in 2013 compared to 7% in 2012. 
4.29.  Cost-wise, half of the TA expenses conti nued to be dedicated to activities with a general 
scope.  Amongst the expenses dedicated to global activities held in Geneva, 63% were for these 
activities with a general scope.  However, expens es incurred for these activities represented only 
19% of the total expenses for national activities (i.e. almost half of the proportion in 2012) and 
35% of the total expenses for E-Learning. 
4.30.  All four long-term internship programmes had a general coverage (Mission Internship, 
Regional Coordinator Internship, Netherlands Trainee and Accession Internship programmes).  In 2013, these programmes represented on average more than 200 days of general training for each 
participant (10% less than in 2012) for a total of 46 interns (12% more).  The amount spent on 
these programmes in 2013 increased by 33% compared to 2012. 
4.31.  Other face-to-face activities with a general scope include ATPCs, RTPCs and Introduction 
Courses for LDCs, which are highly valued by be neficiary countries.  These activities gathered 
proportionately smaller numbers of participants for relatively long periods of time (between three weeks and three months), on a regional or global basis.  The overall cost of these activities was 
also significant. 
4.32.    A significant development in 2013 was the renewed importance of Trade Facilitation, as 
the Secretariat launched a new wave of needs assessments.  A total of 37 such activities were implemented during the year, most of them at national level, while none had taken place in 
2012.
17  This was clearly linked with the preparation of MC9 and the prominence given to this 
subject in its agenda.  These activities represente d approximately 12% of the participants, days of 
training and expenses of the year. 
4.33.  The second most popular subject in 2013 was Market Access for Goods, which saw a high 
demand for national activities (19 requests in 2013 against 13 in 2012).  A significant share of that increased demand (two thirds) was for activities  with a higher value added and more complex 
content, as could be seen from the expectations  raised by the capitals during the preparatory 
phase.  This was mainly the case on customs valuation, rules of origin, tariff renegotiation 
(Art. XXVIII) and the ITA (in relation to the current  negotiations).  Beyond the increasing reliance 
on the partnership with the WCO (see section 3.2.2 above), in order to deepen and widen the 
content of the activities, the response of the Secretariat has been to make a more thorough 
assessment of the needs of the requesting country.  Activities were postponed or cancelled in consultation with the requesting entity when the needs appeared too imprecise or general. 
4.34.  There was comparatively less interest fo r SPS and Services which had been the most 
p o p u l a r  s u b j e c t s  i n  2 0 1 2 .   A s  a  r e s u l t  o f  t h e  v e r y  h i g h  w o r k  p r e s s u r e  i n  t h e  a r e a  o f  D i s p u t e  Settlement, much fewer activities could be organi sed on this subject and on Rules than in 2012, 
for lack of available staff. 
4.35.  In the area of Dispute Settlement, the high number of days came from the offer under 
Article 27.2 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) of the services of two consultants throughout the year, at a relatively modest overall cost.  This represented the equivalent of 96 
days of TA for those countries wh ich benefited from this service. 
4.36.  The WTO introduction course was by far the most popular of E-Learning courses and it 
attracted 1,800 participants in 2013 (i.e. a third of the participants in E-Learning activities).  This 
increase in the number of participants could be attributed to the fact that completing this course is 
now a prerequisite to participate in most intermediate activities.  The Multilateral Trade Agreements course came next with 540 participants (one of the possible prerequisites to register 
                                               
17  T h e  n e e d s  o f  a n o t h e r  2 1  c o u n t r i e s  w e r e  a s s e s s e d  w i t h  t h e  s u p p o r t  o f  o t h e r  I G O s  ( W o r l d  B a n k ,  
UNCTAD, and UNESCAP) or bilateral partners.  These asse ssments did not involve WTO staff or funding, reason 
why they are not covered by this report. WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 26 - 
 
 
in an ATPC), followed by SPS and Trade Econom ics (over 400 participants), and then Trade & 
Development and TBT (over 300 participants).  The top three most popular courses were the same 
last year and, on average, the demand remained fairly constant in 2013 for each of the subjects. 
4.5  Language mix 
4.37.  The breakdown by language of the TA activities organised in 2013 is broadly in line with 
what was observed in the previous year.  Excluding the long-term internships, the face-to-face 
activities held in English represented approximately 60-65% of the total, whether measured in 
terms of number of activities, number of partic ipants or expenses.  They represented 69% of 
number of days of training.  These proportions were less homogeneous for the activities held in 
French or Spanish.  Whilst they were equally numerous, representing approximately 15% of the 
total and attracting both 17% of the participants, those in French represented 13% of the training 
days and of the overall expenses, when these figure s for the activities held in Spanish were only 
10% of the training days and 7% of total expenses.  Face-to-face activities in Spanish were a bit 
shorter on average and the partnership with IDB/IN TAL reduced significantly their cost to the WTO 
(the average cost per participant in regional activities held in Spanish - i.e. in Latin America - was less than half that cost for similar activities held in French). 
4.38.  The analysis of these figures should take into account the proportion of the Members and 
Observers that use each of the three languages for their work at the WTO: 70% English, 18% French and 12% Spanish.  This shows that the current balance between the languages in the WTO 
TA offer is by and large aligned with Members' and Observers' language preferences. 
4.39.  The balance (4% of the activities and 6% of  the participants) came from activities held in 
more than one language (frequently in all three WTO languages), with the assistance of interpretation.  These latter activities were proporti onately more expensive, in spite of the fact that 
interpretation for global events held in Geneva was generally not charged to their budget.  This 
was due to a handful of proportionately expensive activities or programmes held in Geneva (WTO 
Chairs Programme, Trade Facilitation or SPS symp osia, Geneva Weeks for non-residents, etc.).  
The importance of the number of days dedicated to  such activities is mainly the consequence of 
the 96 days of assistance provided under Article 27.2 of the DSU.   National   Regional   Global   e-Learning 
 WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 27 - 
 
 
4.40.  For E-Learning courses, the balance was somewhat different: 60% of participants followed 
courses in English, 25% in French and 15% in Spanish.  This is consistent with the high proportion of participants from Africa who registered for on -line courses in 2013 and the relative decline of 
the participation from Latin America (see section 4.2 above). 
4.6  Progressivity of training 
4.41.  As a result of the strategy adopted in 2010, efforts to introduce progressivity in the training 
courses concentrated so far on regional, global and online courses.  With the continued implementation of the PLS, some balance between the three levels of training started to emerge. 
4.42.  Excluding the internships which are considered advanced activities for generalists, 9% of 
the other activities in 2013 could not be given a specified level, representing only 7% of the participants, 14% of the training days and 12% of  the TA expenses.  These figures were inflated 
by a small number of global activities, most of them under the academic programme (e.g. WTO 
Chairs Programme) which fall outside of the scope of the PLS, as it does not offer WTO training stricto sensus .  However, as in 2012, more attention should be paid to defining in advance 
(instead of a posteriori) the level of a number of  activities, according to the benchmarks adopted 
at the end of 2013. 
4.43.  In 2013, the only major change in the structure of the WTO TA offer by level compared to 
the previous year resulted from the impact of the trade facilitation national needs assessment 
programme.  This programme represented more than half of the advanced activities held in 2013 
and gathering 65% of the participants for only 13% of their training days and 19% of their 
expenses.  Irrespective of the indicator, more th an 90% of the WTO TA on trade facilitation was 
provided at an advanced level, in contrast with other subjects for which approximately the same 
proportion of the TA was provided at an intermediate level. 
4.44.  Overall, the relative importance of the introduction level remained stable, while that for the 
intermediate level reduced and increased for the advanced one.  The introduction level kept   National   Regional   Global   e-Learning 
 WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 28 - 
 
 representing around 10% of the activities, traini ng days and expenses, but gathered 22% of the 
participants.  The bulk of the TA (56% of the activities and participants, but only 37% of the 
training days and expenses) continued to be provided at intermediate level in 2013, despite the progressive reinforcement of the advanced training offer since 2012 (23% of the activities, only 
16% of the participants, but 40% of the training days and 33% of the expenses).  These figures 
confirm that advanced activities tended to be proportionately longer and more expensive, but 
provide for fewer participants, which seems entirely logical. 
4.45.  As noted earlier, additional work is stil l required to fully implement the benchmarks by 
subject on the substantial content of each of the three levels. 
4.46.  Approximately more than half of the part icipants are now trained through E-Learning (see 
section 4.3), which has historically focused on the lower levels of training, and in particular on the 
introductory one.  The WTO E-Learning offer at the intermediate level is progressively being 
increased to enlarge its subject coverage, but is not yet comprehensive, and no advanced online course is available for the moment.  The requirement to have completed an introductory level 
training - in most cases the "Introduction to WTO" E-Learning course - now imposed as a 
prerequisite to register in most face-to-face training courses at regional or global level -- also contributes to increasing participation in the lower level of training. 
4.47.  A quarter of the activities were for generalists (in equal proportion at introductory and 
intermediate levels, as advanced activities remained marginal) and 67% for specialists (two thirds at intermediate level and one third at an advanced one).  These proportions were much more balanced when measured in terms of number of pa rticipants, training days or expenses, for which 
generalists represented between 30 and 40%, and specialist around 50%.  This rebalancing of the 
offer in favour of specialists compared to last year resulted essentially from the massive trade facilitation national needs assessment programme.  Almost everything else remained as in 2012.  
For example, many other advanced trainings were offered in Geneva: approximately 50% of the 
non-TF advanced activities, gathering only 43% of those who participated in such activities, but representing 85% of their training days (due to  the high impact of the advice provided under 
Article 27.2 of the DSU) and 79% of their expenses. 
4.48.  Inside the generalist path managed by th e ITTC, as in 2012, the introduction level had a 
majority of the participants (61%).  The intermediate level attracted most of the other participants (36%), and the advanced level accounted for a limited number (3%).  Whilst such pyramidal 
structure is logical, the ITTC should reflect on whether and how to adapt its offer of advanced 
generalist training, taking into account Members' evolving needs and the quantity of applications for such activities. 
4.49.  For specialists, two thirds of the face-to-face activities were held at national level and one 
third at regional or global level, whereas for generalists it was half-half.  A small number of activities for generalists (RTPCs and ATPCs) gather ed a limited number of participants for extended 
durations at a relatively high cost, while national activities tended to draw more participants for a 
shorter duration at a lower cost.  These two factors explain the main variations of the various indicators noted above. WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 29 - 
 
 
4.7  Gender mix 
4.50.  As last year, data on the proportion of women amongst participants were available for 114 
face-to-face activities, i.e. approximately half of  the TA activities organised by WTO in 2013 (once 
Other Activities  are excluded).  These data can be considered as sufficiently representative of the 
general trend. 
4.51.  The average proportion of women 
amongst participants in the face-to-face 
activities organised in 2013 was 44%.  
That rate has been stable over the past three years.  Whereas that rate had been fairly homogeneous across 
national, regional or global activities last 
year, in 2013 almost half of the participants in activities with a global 
reach were women.  The rate was 
marginally higher in regional activities and lower than the average in national 
activities.  This means that, when 
selecting participants for global or regional activities in 2013, the Secretariat was attentive to gender 
issues.  Patterns continued to vary according to the regions: in Latin American, women 
represented 58% of the participants and almost 55 % in the Caribbean, whilst that rate was only 
36% in Africa and 38% in the Middle East.  The CEECAC and - to a lesser extent - Asia-Pacific 
regions saw a sharp drop in the rate of women amongst participants compared to 2012.  These 
averages hide significant variations between activiti es, as this rate fluctuated between a low of 4% 
and a high of 76% in 2013. 
4.52.  In E-Learning courses the average 
proportion of women was about the same as in face-to-face activities.  It stood at 46% in 2013, which is a drop of 
three percentage points compared to the 
previous year and after three years of relative stability.  No real pattern could 
be detected over the last four years 
when analysing these figures by subject.  In 2013, the courses on Trade Finance 
and MA Databases had a much lower 
rate of female participation, with 21% and 17% respectively.  The significant gender variations between the languages 
of the course, which prevailed over the 
past three years, were reduced in 2013.  
Online courses in French still had the lowest proportion of women (35% in 2013, but in 
progression), whilst those in Spanish had the high est rate (51% in 2013, but 14 percentage points 
lower than in 2012).  As the Secretariat does not operate any selection amongst E-Learning applicants once they satisfy registration criteria, these variations are mirroring the demand. 
5  EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE IN 2013 
5.1.  Further to the design and approval in  2012 of a new M&E system, 2013 was a year of 
transition.  A significant amount of time and energy had to be employed to develop the tools (e.g. electronic forms and work-flows, database) and th e online platform that will be used by the 
Secretariat in the future.  For lack of dedicated resources, in particular in the area of IT, this work 
suffered significant delays and could not be comple ted and implemented by the end of the year as 
initially envisaged. WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 30 - 
 
 5.2.  In the interim, the performance of WTO TRTA activities continued to be monitored and 
evaluated in 2013 with the same tools as in the past.18  They focused mainly on the measure of 
the immediate results of the TA activities.  An ex-post evaluation of the SPS advanced training programme was also performed, to assess its longer-term results but no country reviews could be 
conducted during the year, as staff Members were  mobilised for the implementation of the new 
M&E system.  No action was taken during the course of the year to include any such country review as part of the TPRs of TA beneficiary countries that were conducted in 2013.  The two 
exercises remain completely distinct for the moment. 
5.1  Immediate results 5.1.1  E-Learning 5.3.  Measuring the immediate results of E-Learni ng courses is much easier than for most other 
activities, since the results of each participant can be monitored individually and completion of an 
on-line training always requires passing an exam at the end.  As last year, the performance indicators below were used to measure the immediate results of a course: 
 Success rate (proportion of those who passed the exams amongst those who 
actually completed the course) - the passing rate was 50% on average of correct answers in the final exam at introductory level, and 60% on average at intermediate 
level, without failing more than one exam. 
 Distinction rate (proportion of successful participants who passed the exams with 
more than 90% of correct answers on average) 
 Rate of correct answers in the exams, kn owing that the passing rate is 50% on 
average in the course " Introduction to WTO ," and 60% on average in the other 
courses. 
 Dropout rate (proportion of those who did not complete the course within three 
months) 
Immediate results of on-line courses 
Course Attended Successfully 
completed Success 
Rate Drop 
out Dropout 
Rate Correct 
Answers Distinction Distinction 
Rate 
Accessions 75 72 96% 3 4% 98% 64 89% 
Agriculture 245 178 73% 41 17% 81% 35 20% 
Development 332 244 73% 39 12% 85% 64 26% 
Environment 200 148 74% 32 16% 85% 54 36% 
Trade Finance 127 112 88% 11 9% 85% 54 48% 
Introduction to WTO 1,805 1,186 66% 258 14% 81% 269 23% 
Multilateral Trade 
Agreements 540 308 57% 112 21% 83% 68 22% 
Trade Economics 405 323 80% 25 6% 81% 106 33% 
Legal Underpinnings 225 179 80% 15 7% 81% 61 34% 
Market Access Goods 180 111 62% 41 23% 78% 15 14% 
MA Databases 47 43 91% 4 9% 77% 17 40% 
Rules 163 134 82% 7 4% 86% 39 29% 
Services 259 155 60% 66 25% 82% 22 14% 
SPS 430 333 77% 34 8% 88% 151 45% 
TBT 301 228 76% 28 9% 87% 94 41% 
TRIPS 238 161 68% 41 17% 83% 34 21% 
My Course 73 41 56% 21 29% 81% 8 20% 
Total 5,645 3,956 70% 778 14% 84% 1,155 29% 
 
5.4.  An average success rate of 70% remains a very  good result, even if this represents a slight 
drop compared to 2012 (- 11 percentage points).  The standard deviation from this average (11%) 
also increased compared to last year (+ 5 percen tage points), which shows that the success rates 
in the various courses were becoming less homogeneous.  All subjects had a lower rate of success 
                                               
18  Pre-existing tools were broadly in line with th e new M&E system, even if they needed improvements. WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 31 - 
 
 in 2013.  Since most of the courses did not change during the year, there is no obvious 
explanation for such a general reduction in the performance of participants.  The lowest rate of success (57%) was in the intermediate level course for generalists (Multilateral Trade Agreements).  This is a continuation of the trend in previous years, but shows a marked 
deterioration.  The new courses on Accessions and Trade Finance, and the course on Market 
Access databases had high rates of success, althou gh these figures are based on a limited number 
of participants in 2013. 
5.5.  The average rate of dropouts remained at 14% in 2013, as in 2012.  The standard deviation 
from this average (7%) decreased compared to last year, that rate became more homogeneous 
across the courses.  Services, Multilateral Trade Agreements and Market Access for Goods courses had again the highest dropout rates, but at significantly lower levels than in 2012.  The rate of 
distinction amongst successful participants was much lower on average than last year and 
continued to give a contrasted picture, with rates as high as 89% (Accessions) or 48-45% (Trade Finance and SPS) and as low as 14% (Market Acce ss for Goods and Services), a continuation of 
the trend observed in previous years.  Further analysis is needed on the reasons behind such 
differences, for example to see if the courses on certain subjects are more demanding or difficult 
than others. 
5.6.  Overall, this analysis shows certain differences between the courses, as some of them have 
traditionally had higher rates of success (e.g. trade and environment, SPS, MA databases), whereas some others have been more challenging for participants (e.g. Multilateral Trade Agreements, Services or Market Access for Goods), even if they remained successful. 
5.7.  The same performance indicators can also be used to analyse the results of the courses by 
linguistic version, since they reach different audiences/participants. 
Language Attended Successfully 
completed Success 
Rate Drop 
out Dropout 
Rate Correct 
Answers Distinction Distinction 
Rate 
English 3,381 2,457 73%  368 11.3% 85% 794 23% 
French 1,429 924 65% 184 20.8% 81% 164 11% 
Spanish 835 575 69% 110 12.6% 85% 197 24% 
Total 5,645 3,956 70% 662  14.4% 83% 1,155 20% 
 
5.8.  The slight differences in success rates betw een the courses in the three languages increased 
in 2013, with no change in the order.  Particip ants in French-language versions of the courses 
continued to have slightly lower results than their counterparts using the English or Spanish 
version of the same course.  This might be the inevitable consequence of the increase in the 
number of participants using the French version of the courses (+ 56% compared to + 23% for 
English and - 15% for Spanish).  This can consequently be considered as a rather positive 
evolution. 
5.9.  The overall deterioration of the success and distinction rates mentioned earlier affected all 
three linguistic versions in almost equal proportions.  The rates of dropout and correct answers did 
not change significantly compared to 2012. 
5.10.  An analysis of these results by gender showed that women's average success rate was a 
few percentage points higher than men's one.  The difference was 2 percentage point in 2010; 4.5 
in 2011; 3.6 in 2012; and 2 in 2013.  However, these averages hide significant variations between 
the courses. WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 32 - 
 
 
5.1.2  Face-to-face activities 
5.11.  The performance indicators 
available to monitor the results of face-to-face activities remain less precise than 
in the case of E-Learning: in 2013, RTPCs 
used a final exam to measure precisely the performance of their participants.  
The immediate results of the other 
activities were assessed in the BTOR by the trainers themselves, sometimes on the basis of other indicators such as 
quizzes and the participants' level of 
engagement and quality of participation.  As BTORs continue to be the main 
evaluation tool for face-to-face activities, 
following recommendations from TCA, an 
effort was made since 2009 to make them systematically available for every activity.  The 
measures taken since 2012 in this regard keep producing good results and the reporting rate for 
the year remained close to 100%. 
5.12.  As regards the quality of the reporting on  TA activities and their immediate results, a 
complete BTOR was available only for three quarte rs of the TA activities in 2013.  The remaining 
2 5 %  o f  a c t i v i t i e s  w e r e  r e p o r t e d  t h r o u g h  m e m o s  o r  n o t e s ,  w h i c h  i n  m o s t  c a s e s  d e p r i v e d  t h e  
Secretariat of some essential information, such as  the objectives of the activity and an assessment 
of their achievement at the end.  It is hoped that  the introduction of an on-line BTOR in 2014 will 
progressively lead to an improvement of the qua lity of the reporting on all TA activities and a 
better measurement of the immediate results achieved. 
5.13.  Recommendations to address the need to improve the means used by the Secretariat to 
measure the immediate results of its TA activities  in a more objective manner were made which 
included introducing new means of testing participants’ knowledge at the end of face-to-face TA activities organised by WTO in 2014-2015 TA activities (document WT/COMTD/W/199). 
5.14.  After the successful test run in two regions in 2012, it was decided in 2013 to generalise the 
use of a final exam to evaluate the participants in all RTPCs.  Several adjustments to the format 
and logistics of the exam were introduced to fix the minor defects detected last year.  The result 
for each participant took into account participation during the course (30%) and the final exam 
results (70%).  Participants whose combined success rate exceeded 90% were awarded a 
certificate with distinction, whilst those below 60% received a certificate of attendance.  The results measured in 2013 were the following: 
Region Participants 
Distinction Success Attendance only Total 
Africa (F) 1 4% 23 82% 4 14% 28 
Africa (E) 5 16% 26 81% 1 3% 32 
Asia-Pacific 2 10% 15 75% 3 15% 20 
CEECAC 3 15% 13 65% 4 20% 20 
Total 11 11% 77 77% 12 12% 100 
 
5.15.  At 88%, the overall consolidated success ra te is fairly high, as it exceeds the average 
success rate in E-Learning activities by a good margin, although the distinction rate is significantly lower.  The results in the English-speaking African RTPC (97% success rate) were particularly 
impressive.  These results demonstrate that, for the most part, the objectives of the RTPCs (i - 
good understanding of WTO agreements and negotiat ions; ii - improved analytical and negotiating 
skills; iii - increased autonomy in using WTO information and documentation; iv - strengthened network of contacts; v - better understanding of  the regional trade environment) have been 
satisfactorily achieved in 2013. 
5.16.  Apart from RTPCs, other face-to-face activi ties continued to be measured through a variety 
of indicators, including quizzes, trainers' assessments of the participants' level of engagement and WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 33 - 
 
 contributions, and the opinion of participants through the use of Participants' Evaluation Forms.  . 
At the end of each activity, participants are requ ested to assess on a scale of 1 (minimum) to 5 
(maximum) different aspects, including in particular whether each of the objectives assigned to the activity had been achieved.  Feedback from participants is indeed an important input and 
should be one of the elements taken into account  by the trainers when evaluating the immediate 
results of the activity they organised and deliv ered.  More progress is needed to base the 
assessment of the immediate results on objective performance indicators in all activities  
5.17.  An analysis of the BTORs revealed that the activities organised in 2013 had on average 3.1 
objectives each, corresponding to an increase of 25% compared to 2012 (69% of the activities had three objectives, 11% had four).  As last year, th ree quarters of the activities for which a BTOR 
was available had as one of their objectives to im prove the knowledge of participants about one or 
several of the WTO Agreements.  The improvement of the negotiating and analytical skills and of 
the autonomy of the participants came next (22%, 17% and 21% respectively - a much lower 
level than in 2012 ), followed by the improvement of the general understanding of the WTO (13%) 
and the mastering of the provisions related to tr ansparency and notifications (9%).  Overall, the 
average increase in the number of objectives pe r activity was accompanied by a greater focus of 
these objectives on the legal provisions of the WTO agreements, as all other categories of 
objectives saw a significant decrease in their relative importance. 
5.18.  When evaluating the achievement of the imme diate objectives of the activities, participants 
gave an average mark of 4.6 out of a maximum of 5.  Amongst the 435 immediate objectives assigned to TA activities for which data was available in 2013, only eleven were given a mark of 3 
and three a mark of 2 (5 being the maximum and 1 the minimum).  This means that the 
achievement of 97% of the objectives was rated as satisfactory or outstanding in 2013 an even 
higher proportion than in 2012.  Whilst there is no  doubt that the TA provided by the WTO was of 
the highest quality and that participants got the most out of it, more progress is needed in the 
development of tools to measure a given activity's actual success rate.  
5.1.3  WTO Chairs Programme 
5.19.  Following the mid-term review conducted by external evaluators (selected Advisory Board 
Members) in 2012 and presented at last year's  WCP Annual Conference, the assessment of the 
results of that programme in 2013 was essentially  based on the reports submitted by the Chair 
holders themselves and the Advisory Board Members' comments during the 2013 Annual 
Conference.  The main points that came out of th e mid-term review should consequently be kept 
in mind.  In this regard, the Secretariat should consider ways of improving the efficiency of the Programme for 2014-2015.  Its resources should be better aligned with its potential to generate 
results. 
5.20.  The external evaluation revealed that on e Chair was significantly underperforming and as a 
result the Agreement with this particular Chair wa s terminated in 2013 and no grant was paid to it 
in 2013.  Another Chair, which did not utilise the bulk of the grant for 2012 did not request any 
grant in 2013.  Out of the thirteen remaining Chai rs, three received reduced grants (80% or 40%) 
as a result of their lower financial needs in 2013.  This reduced the overall cost of the programme 
by almost 20% in 2013, without affecting its resu lts.  Whilst the WCP remained in 2013 the second 
most expensive WTO programme (CHF 0.8 million) after the long-term mission internships, these 
efforts to reduce costs and exercise tighter financial control were more than welcome.  Combined with the substantial reform of the second phase of the WCP in 2014-18, which will see the scale of 
the programme cut by half and a major reform of  its governance (see section 3.3.8 above), these 
changes should lead to an increase of the valu e-for-money ratio delivered by the programme.  The 
resources that will be dedicated to the programme in the future, whilst still significant, may be 
better tailored to its potential to generate results for Members. 
5.21.  In 2013, as in previous years, the main challenge was the attribution of the various outputs 
announced by the Chairs to the Programme, as it was not always entirely clear if they had resulted from the WTO support or not.  The value actua lly added by the Programme to the activities 
regularly carried out by the various Chair holders could not be systematically measured. 
5.22.  There was a consensus that the programme generated synergies with other existing 
programmes or activities of the Chairs and acted as  a catalyst in generating a significant amount WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 34 - 
 
 of activity in the areas of curriculum development, research and outreach, the three pillars of the 
Programme.  It was felt that, on average, it had contributed to enhancing institutional capabilities in the universities holding a Chair.  In this regard, a number of Chairs holders confirmed that the "WTO" brand - more than the financial grant - was the main asset of the programme, as it 
increased significantly their national and international standing and visibility on the academic 
scene. 
5.23.  The overall volume of activity 
decreased slightly in 2013.  However, 
excessive emphasis had been placed thus far on volumes to the detriment of q u a l i t y .   T h i s  m e s s a g e  f r o m  t h e  A n n u a l  
Conference might partly explain some of 
the evolutions in 2013, as Chairs had an 
incentive in the second part of the year to produce less but of a better quality.  If quality control 
should remain a major challenge for the managers of the programme in the foreseeable future, 
some positive signals in this domain started to appear during the year.  For example, the overall 
volume of research ascribed to the programme went down by 15%, whilst at the same time the 
Chairs claimed that publications in peer-reviewed periodicals increased (in unspecified proportion).  
Similarly, the national or international standing of some of the outreach events organised by the 
Chairs seems to be growing year after year. 
5.24.  In the field of research, to give a more homogenous direction to the work of the Chairs, the 
Secretariat took the initiative to request them to prepare a contribution on "Design of policies 
targeting trade-related supply side constraints and connection to global and regional value-chains".  These papers were presented by the Chai rs in a dedicated session of the Fourth Global 
Review of AfT in July 2013.  The Secretariat then initiated the publication of a book on "Connecting 
to Global Markets - Challenges and Opportunities", to present case studies from 14 Chairs.  The book was released in February 2014.  These two initiatives have contributed to increasing both the 
quality and visibility of the research produced by the various Chairs. 
5.25.  In spite of these efforts, the quality of the production of the Chairs remained mixed in 2013.  
For example, and as in the past, it was felt by th e Advisory Board that the research attributed to 
the WCP was for some chairs generally too descriptive and not analytical enough; improvements 
were needed in the selection of research subjects so as to maximise their outreach potential; the 
potential policy implications had not been systematica lly placed at the centre of every project; etc.  
It was felt that means to measure and improve the quality of the production of the Chairs still had 
to be devised. 
5.26.  At a time when the first phase of the programme is reaching its end, most Chairs have been 
able to develop alternative funding strategies to ensure the sustainability of their work on WTO-
related issues after the end of the WTO grants.  This is an encouraging signal that the programme 
contributed to building the academic capacity in be neficiary countries.  The sustainability of that 
capacity in the longer-term will then depend on the capability of former Chairs to produce high quality research to establish themselves as centres of excellence in the WTO area. 
5.2  Longer-term results 
5.27.  The measurement of the longer-term resu lts of the TRTA provided by the WTO to its 
Members and Observers is a challenge for the Secr etariat, for both methodological and practical 
reasons.  The Secretariat has undertaken since 2009 to measure annually some of the results 
produced in the domains in which it provides TRTA to beneficiaries.  With so many other institutions and agency providing trade related technical assistance, it should  be assumed that, 
when results are measured in those areas in which the WTO had provided TRTA, part of the merit 
would be attributed to it. 
5.28.  In 2013 the Secretariat did not have enough resources to conduct new country reviews in 
parallel with the work on the implementation of  the new M&E system.  It nevertheless performed 
an ex-post evaluation of the long-term resu lts of the SPS advanced training programme. WCP Activities 
Year Research Curriculum Outreach  Total 
2010 47 31 58 136 
2011 140 50 122 312 
2012 183 37 106 326 
2013 153 49 97 299 WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 35 - 
 
 
5.2.1  SPS advanced training programme 
5.29.  The evaluation of the advanced SPS programme revealed that this programme is very 
different from most other traditional TA programmes implemented by the WTO (mainly geared at improving participants' knowledge), since it was specifically designed to prepare participants for 
action in their country in order to address pressing SPS implementation problems identified by the 
participants prior to the training. 
5.30.  The evaluation concluded that the Advanced SPS programme consistently met its objectives 
over time.  It contributed to the creation of a pool of SPS experts well versed in WTO rules and 
issues.  It promoted changes, leading to a bette r implementation of the SPS agreement (e.g. for 
the submission of SPS notifications which were the focus of a number of participants), in addition 
to  regular participation in the meetings of the SPS Committee; a more systematic use of the 
Committee to deal with specific trade concerns; consistent monitoring of other Members' 
notifications and market access conditions; the protection, development and even reopening of 
access to foreign markets for several agricultural and fish exports from beneficiary countries. 
5.31.  The action plan developed and implemented by participants might be the most emblematic 
component of the programme.  Since 2005, these action plans have addressed the following subjects:
19 
National 
Coordination Transparency Market Access Awareness Training Other 
54% 43% 27% 56% 45% 16% 
 
Approximately 85% of the participants 
made a real effort to implement the plan developed during their training in Geneva.  
The implementation rate of the action plans 
was empirically assessed to be 60% on average, based on the review of the various 
progress reports presented by former 
participants and the opinion of their supervisors.  This is a satisfactory rate, given the many factors outside of the 
participants' control.  Furthermore, the 
evaluation noted that in many cases, the implementation of their plan had generated 
other - unexpected - results which in some 
cases were even more beneficial to their 
country. 
5.32.  Examples of unexpected results included the replication of an approach to pest control for 
other products of export interest to the country for other potential markets; greater professionalism in the use of certain chemical treatments; replicating certain production methods, traceability techniques or certification procedures for a variety of national productions to better 
comply with the requirements in importing countries; using similar problem solving approaches for 
a variety of SPS situations; the opening of export opportunities as a result of an improvement in 
food safety standards for the local market; etc. 
5.33.  These results were of a high value to the beneficiary countries.  They confirm their 
sustainability over time, as the knowledge, sk ills and know-how developed by the programme 
were regularly applied across the board in a number of other SPS situations in subsequent years.  
It has been observed in a majority of the count ries which benefited from the programme that it 
had a lasting impact on their handling of SPS issues, leading to valuable long-term benefits for them. 
                                               
19  Most action plans addr essed more than one area.  Raising the awareness of interested parties and 
training was rarely an end in themselves, but rather a means to increase national coordination or compliance 
with the provisions of the agreement,  like transparency, or to develop or consolidate the access to foreign 
markets. WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 36 - 
 
 5.34.  The programme achieved its objectives in a cost effective way.  Although marginally more 
expensive (13% more) than other programmes of a comparable size and duration, it delivered proportionately higher results.  When focussing on the value for money ratio, rather than on cost only, the evaluation established that the advanced SPS programme had potentially the highest 
such ratios amongst all WTO TA activities.  There was a proportionately much higher benefit for 
the WTO and its Members to invest in the kind of innovative pedagogy pioneered by the SPS 
programme, given the potential results that would accrue to them. 
5.35.  The evaluation revealed that there was a strong causal link between the results of the 
programme and the innovative and coherent peda gogy adopted and applied consistently by the 
organisers over eight years.  Whilst there could be other ways or means of reaching the same 
goals, the current approach demonstrated its capa city to deliver very valuable and sustainable 
results. 
5.36.  The innovative pedagogy applied over many years involved, inter alia : early targeted 
invitations; a rigorous selection of participants; the requirement to respond to a questionnaire on 
the implementation of the SPS agreement in ea ch participant's country; the requirement to 
develop and implement an action plan addressing a specific SPS problem in the participant's country with the support of a coach; coaching on communication skills and leadership; and a 
follow-up over an eight month period.  Compared  with more traditional TA activities, this 
programme represented a significant investment from the organisers in terms of time, energy and funds. 
5.37.  Several recommendations were formulated by the evaluators to remedy the "back-office" 
shortcomings identified in the report: improve archiving; produce BTORs systematically; measure 
the immediate results of the activities through the use of a set of objective performance indicators; reassess the usefulness of giving selected participants and early access to relevant 
documents through the e-Campus; and try to lower the hotel accommodation costs of the 
programme. 
5.38.  Other important recommendations suggested means of maximising the benefits of the 
training approach: revisit the objectives of the va rious phases of the programme and stabilise their 
formulation; increase the use of real-life case stud ies; explore ways of involving the private sector 
and developed countries in the programme; have a larger pool of coaches; set-up a user-friendly e-platform to support participants' network, ex change documents, advice and information, and 
follow-up on the implementation of participants' ac tion plans; provide coaching to the participants 
during the entire duration of the follow-up acti vity and increase the involvement of the Geneva-
based permanent missions; promote a greater focus of the participants' action plans on addressing 
market access challenges. 
5.39.  The evaluation also included some more radical proposals which could be worth testing, as 
they could further increase the returns from the programme for Members: reassess Members' 
needs in the area of SPS ten years down the road ; target groups of participants from the same 
country; recruit participants on the basis of a proj ect; extend the duration of the follow-up through 
innovative means; and develop ways of better measuring the longer-term results of the programme, including those not directly related to the implementation of th e action plans.  More 
broadly, it was recommended to extend on-line regi stration possibilities to all WTO TA activities 
and to replicate the innovative approach of the programme in other areas, such as TBT. 
6  LESSONS LEARNED 
6.1.  This chapter comprises the various lessons learned from monitoring and evaluating the TA 
activities implemented in 2013.  The annual review led to the identification of a number of best 
practices, which should be extended to other ar eas of TRTA.  Both the lessons learned and the 
best practices should be taken on board by th e Secretariat when preparing future TA Plans. 
6.2.  The lessons learned and best practices identified during the year under review are not new.  
They constitute for the most part a variation on previous recommendations.  They can be regrouped around two main themes: adjustments to the TA offered by the Secretariat; and actions 
needed for the successful implementation of RBM. WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 37 - 
 
 6.3.  The report also notes that several of last year's recommendations have been followed in 
2013, at least partially, while some of them ar e still awaiting full implementation.  Annex 1 
summarises the actions taken in 2013 to implement last year's recommendations concerning TA.20  
These actions have been described in detail in the earlier parts of the report. 
6.1  WTO Technical Assistance Offer 
6.4.  The various lessons learned during the year  lead to a number of recommendations that will 
require follow-up. These are captured below an d their implementation will be monitored and 
reported annually. 
6.5.  The TA budget has always been based on previous year estimates. Since the introduction of 
RBM, the Secretariat has reviewed its budget estimates with a view to narrowing the margin between the projections and the actuals, but also bearing in mind the need to maintain flexible 
budgets and the difficulties to pin down costs to an  exact figure at the early stage of designing TA 
activities.   
Recommendation 1: The Secretariat should continue to review and improve its budget 
estimates in order to narrow the gap between the estimates and actual 
costs of implementing TA activities.  
6.6.  The monitoring of implementation of activities reveals that the use of interactive training 
method is slowly losing momentum over the ye ars, and therefore a new push is needed to 
stimulate the use of advanced and effective teaching techniques. 
Recommendation 2:  A higher proportion of interactive training methods - such as questions & 
answers, exercises, case studies, gr oup work or presentations, quizzes - 
should be used in the TA activities at all  three PLS levels. 
6.7.  While on average the number of participants  in regional activities was back under control, 
important exceptions still occurred.  The average size of the audience in national activities 
remained a problem.  The oversized audiences limited the trainers' ability to use interactive 
training methods.  Acting on this front would consequently facilitate the implementation of the previous recommendation. 
Recommendation 3:  The maximum number of participants recommended to take part in TA 
activities, both national and regional, should be limited in order to make it possible to use interactive training methods.  An acceptable benchmark for the maximum size of a group is 30 participants. 
6.8.  If regional activities tend to be slightly longer, there was no such progress for the national 
ones.  Lack of time is a recurring complaint of participants. When the time is too short, exercises and other interactive training methods tend to be the first casualty. 
Recommendation 4:  The duration of TA activities, whether national or regional, should be 
extended up to a full week, to maximise the opportunity for participants to practice the knowledge and skills transferred. 
6.9.  The overall offer of the WTO by level of tr aining is somewhat unbalanced for generalists, as 
most training activities are currently available at introductory or intermediate level. 
Recommendation 5:  The Secretariat should reflect on whether and how to adapt its advanced 
training offer for generalists. 
6.10.  The evaluation of the advanced SPS programme identified a number of areas where 
improvements could be introduced to maximise the benefits accruing to Members.  These recommendations were presented to WTO manage ment.  They can be summarised as follows: 
                                               
20  See WT/COMTD/W/199. WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 38 - 
 
 Recommendation 6:  In the SPS advanced programme, increase the use of real-life case 
studies; explore ways of involving the private sector and developed countries in the programme; have a larger pool of coaches; set-up a user-friendly e-platform to support  participants' network, exchange 
documents, advice and information, and follow-up on the implementation 
of participants' action plans; reassess the usefulness of providing selected participants early access to relevant documents through the e-Campus; 
provide coaching to the participants during the full duration of the follow-
up activity; increase the involvement of the Geneva-based permanent missions; promote a greater focus of the participants' action plans on addressing market access challenges. 
Recommendation 7:  In the advanced SPS programme, target groups of participants from the 
same country; recruit participants on the basis of a project; extend the duration of the follow-up through innovative means. 
6.11.  The following lesson was learned from the SPS advanced programme which should be 
applied to the entire WTO TA offer where relevant: 
Recommendation 8:  Extend on-line registration possibilities to all WTO TA activities and 
replicate the innovative approach of the SPS advanced programme in 
other areas, such as TBT. 
6.2  Implementation of RBM 6.12.  After three years of uncertainty in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, there were 
signs in 2013 of a stabilisation of the WTO resources for TA, and in particular of the voluntary 
contributions from donors.  Should this evolution be confirmed in the future, the Secretariat should consider an accelerated use of the funds available and utilize all opportunities to increase the 
potential results. 
Recommendation 1:  The Secretariat should review its TA budget projection and management 
in order to better tailor the TA it provides to the resources available. 
6.13.  The implementation of the RBM approach and systems is continuing.  Beyond the actions 
already taken by the Secretariat, additional re commendations were formulated in the report 
concerning two specific programmes, the Refe rence Centres and the SPS advanced programme. 
Recommendation 2:  More systematic means of monitoring  the functioning of RCs need to be 
devised to provide a comprehensive picture of the state of the network, of 
its functioning and of its use.  Current actions on the training of RC managers and the development of the functionalities of RC should be 
reinforced. 
Recommendation 3:  Reassess Members' needs in the area of SPS after ten years later; revisit 
the objectives of the various phases of the SPS advanced programme and 
standardize their formulation; lower the hotel accommodation costs of the 
programme; improve archiving; produce BTORs systematically; measure the immediate results of the activities using objective performance indicators; and develop innovative tools to measure the long-term results 
of the programme, including those not directly related to the 
implementation of the action plans. 
 
_______________ 
 WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
- 39 - 
 
 ANNEX 1 
FOLLOW-UP ON THE MAIN 2012 RECOMMENDATIONS 
# Recommendation Action in 2013 Status 
1 Members may wish to analyse the possible 
implications of the current increase in the 
earmarking of the voluntary contributions 
received from donors to help finance the TA provided by the WTO. Un-earmarked 
contributions 
increased in 2013 depending 
2 In the TA Plan for 2014-15, the Secretariat 
should focus face-to-face activities, in particular at regional level, on the areas and 
content on which they can provide a real 
added-value, given their relatively high cost compared to E-Learning or national activities. Taken into account in 
2014 planned activities Work in progress  
3 The Secretariat should dedicate more 
resources in the future to E-Learning to widen its coverage of the various WTO subjects and 
improve the presentation, pedagogy and 
interactivity of the courses when possible, since the return on such investment would be 
proportionately much higher. New courses and 
multimedia content developed with 
existing resources Implemented using 
existing resource  
 
4 In the TA Plan for 2014-15, the Secretariat 
should examine carefully the value added by 
regional activities, given their relatively high cost.  The TA Plan should provide the 
Secretariat with the flexibility to adopt a 
regional or national approach, responding fully to the identified needs of beneficiaries and taking into account the relative cost of the 
immediate results that can be reasonably 
expected from the activity.  This should apply on a case-by-case basis. Taken into account in 
the preparation of the 
TA Plan 2014-15 Completed 
5 In the TA Plan for 2014-15, the Secretariat 
should consider ways of improving the 
efficiency of the Academic Support 
Programme.  Its resources should be better aligned with its potential to generate results. Funding of non-
performing Chairs 
stopped in 2013 
 Number of beneficiaries and 
resources for the 
second phase of the WCP were halved. 
 
Management team was changed Implementation in 
progress 
 
  Ways of improving 
the efficiency of 
the WCP developed for implementation 
in 2014 
6 The Secretariat should define the substantive 
content of each of the three training levels instituted by WTO subject by subject.  It 
should then adjust the content of the training 
offered by WTO, on-line and face-to-face, accordingly.  It should inform future 
participants about the substantive knowledge 
required in any activity to which they are invited, so they can undertake to bridge in 
advance any gap they would detect. First set of 
substantive benchmarks 
developed, subject by 
subject, level by level, for generalists and 
specialists On-going 
 Adjustment of 
course content 
work in progress  
Invitation and 
selection for activities reviewed 
7 In the TA Plan for 2014-15, the Secretariat 
should consider whether the current balance 
between levels and training paths in the TA offer of the WTO, responds to the needs of Members.  Corrective actions should be 
proposed if necessary. Addressed during the 
consultations with 
Members to prepare the TA Plan 2014-15 Completed WT/COMTD/W/205 
 
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 # Recommendation Action in 2013 Status 
8 The immediate results achieved by the TA 
activities organised or delivered by the WTO should be measured as objectively as possible 
by the Secretariat.  Credible performance 
indicators should be identified in advance by the trainers to that effect, such as exams, quizzes, exercises results, etc.  BTORS should 
report systematically the measure shown by 
the indicators chosen.  The opinion expressed by the organisers in the BTOR should be 
grounded on these measures. Review and refining of 
data collecting tools Work in progress 
9 For 2014-15 TA activities, the Secretariat 
should recommend the introduction of new 
means of testing participants' knowledge at the end of face-to-face TA activities organised by WTO.  Such means could take into account the 
engagement by each participant in the activity 
and be based on objective evaluation methods as far as possible (e.g. quiz, test, exercise, 
exam, etc.).  They should focus on the 
essential content of the activity according to the benchmarks to be developed for each 
subject at each of the three levels of 
progressive learning. Final exams 
generalised in all 
RTPCs Completed 
 
  Extension to other 
face to face 
activities under consideration. 
10 A BTOR from the organisers should become 
systematically available for each and every TA 
activity organised or delivered by WTO staff Members.  The BTOR should include the 
information required by the WTO reporting 
guidelines, such as immediate objectives, performance indicators, assessments of the 
immediate results, etc. Progress slowed with 
the introduction of 
new tools in 2013 Work in progress 
11 Members should consider including future 
country reviews designed to measure the 
longer-term results of the TA provided by the WTO as part of the TPR of these countries. None Pending 
 
 
 
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