WT/COMTD/W/216  
 
23 June 2016  
(16-3396) Page: 1/58  
Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation    
 
 ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REPORT ON TE CHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING 
 
2015 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
ACRONYMS ....................................................................................................................... 3  
1   EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................. 5  
1.1   Main evolutions in 2015 compared to 2014 .................................................................... 5  
1.2   Implementation of TA Plan - main feat ures of the WTO Technica l Assistance  in 2015 ........... 5  
1.3   Evaluation of Performanc e in 2015 and lesso ns learnt ..................................................... 6  
2   INTROD UCTION  .......................................................................................................... 6  
3   MAIN EVOLUTIONS IN  2015 COMPARED TO 2014 ....................................................... 7  
3.1   Continued tight management of the TA resources ........................................................... 7  
3.1.1   Resources fo r TA stabilized .............................................................................. 7  
3.1.2   Stable volume of TA activities .......................................................................... 8  
3.2   Implementation of Results-Based Management ............................................................. 10 
3.3   Improving the TA offer .............................................................................................. 11 
3.3.1   Responding to the e-Lear ning technological challenges ....................................... 11 
3.3.2   Continuous improvemen ts in the e-Le arning offer .............................................. 11 
3.3.3   Continuous improvements  in the face-t o-face offer ............................................ 14 
4   IMPLEMENTATION OF TA PLAN AND MAIN FEATURES OF THE TA PROVIDED 
IN 2015 .......................................................................................................................... 16  
4.1   Participation of least developed countri es (LDCs) .......................................................... 17 
4.2   Geographical  distribution ........................................................................................... 18 
4.3   Product mix .............................................................................................................  19 
4.4   Distributi on by subject .............................................................................................. 23 
4.5   Language mix .......................................................................................................... 25 
4.6   Progressivity of training ............................................................................................. 26 
4.7   Gender mix ............................................................................................................. 27 
5   EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE IN 2015 .................................................................. 28  
5.1   Key Result 1: Government officials are implementing WTO Agreements and making 
full use of Memb ers' rights ................................................................................................ 28 
5.1.1   Output 1.1: Government officials and other stakeholders have enhanced 
knowledge about the WTO Agreements, formulation of trade policies, conducting 
trade negotiations, and understand ing trade compliance obligations ............................... 31 
5.1.2   Output 1.2: Relevant TA need s of Members are id entified annually ....................... 39 WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
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  5.1.3   Output 1.3: Effective partnerships result in substantive contributions of 
human and financial resources for e-Lear ning and face-to-fa ce activities ......................... 39 
5.1.4   Output 1.4: Relevant course curriculum and new courses developed based 
on identified needs and Guidelines intr oduced for implementa tion of the PLS ................... 40 
5.2   Key Result 2: Acceding governments are participating in accession negotiations, in 
line with WTO accession pr ocesses and procedures ............................................................... 43 
5.2.1   Output 2.1: Acceding governme nts are familiar with WTO substantive and 
procedural matters .................................................................................................. 44 
5.3   Key Result 3: Members are accessing and using WTO-related information enabling 
them to raise awareness of WTO matters with all their stakeholders ........................................ 45 
5.3.1   Output 3.1: WTO Reference Centres (RCs) are established or upgraded in 
targeted Member/Obs erver economies ....................................................................... 45 
5.3.2   Output 3.2: Managers and potential users are trained in information 
management .......................................................................................................... 46 
5.3.3   Digital Dispute Sett lement Regist ry (DDSR) ...................................................... 46 
5.4   Key Result 4: WTO-supported academic institutions are applying trade policy and 
WTO-related topics and subjects in  their courses and research ............................................... 47 
5.4.1   Output 4.1: Research on trade policy and WTO-related matters generated 
by WTO Chairs through pr ovisions of grants ................................................................ 47 
5.4.2   Output 4.2: Academic courses on WTO-related subjects introduced and 
updated with WTO support ....................................................................................... 48 
5.4.3   Output 4.3: Outreach activities on trade policy and WTO-related matters 
organized by WTO Chairs through provisions of grants .................................................. 50 
ANNEX I FOLLOW-UP ON THE MAIN PREVIOUS RECOMME NDATIONS ............................ 52  
ANNEX II MAIN RESULTS MEASURED IN 2015 ............................................................... 56  
 WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
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  ACRONYMS 
ACP  African, Caribbean and Pacific group of states 
ACWL  Advisory Centre on WTO Law AfT  Aid for Trade 
AIP  Accession Internship Programme 
ATPC  Advanced Trade Policy Course BTOR  Back-to-Office Report 
CEECAC Central and Eastern European, Central Asian and Caucasus Countries 
CHF  Swiss franc CRN  Central Registry of Notifications CTD  Committee on Trade and Development 
CWR  Centre William Rappard (WTO building) 
DDA  Doha Development Agenda DDSR  Digital Dispute Settlement Registry 
DG  Director General 
DS  Dispute Settlement DSU  Dispute Settlement Understanding 
e-BTOR Electronic Back-to-Office Report 
EIF  Enhanced Integrated Framework ELSA  European Law Students' Association FDI  Foreign Direct Investment 
GATS  General Agreement on Trade in Services 
GPA  Government Procurement Agreement GTF  Global Trust Fund 
IDB/INTAL Inter-American Development Bank/Insti tute for the Integration of Latin America and 
the Caribbean 
IGO Intergovernmental Organization 
IMF-CEF International Monetary Fund Middle East Centre for Economics and Finance 
IMS  Information Management System IPR  Intellectual property right IT  Information Technology 
ITA  Information Technology Agreement 
ITC  International Trade Centre ITTC  Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation 
LDC  Least-developed country 
M&E  Monitoring & Evaluation MA  Market Access 
MC9  9
th WTO Ministerial Conference 
MC10  10th WTO Ministerial Conference 
MCA  Millennium Challenge Account MCC  Moot Court Competition 
MENA  Middle East and North Africa 
MIP  Missions Internship Programme MOOC  Massive Open Online Courses 
MP  Member of Parliament 
MTS  Multilateral Trading System NAMA  Non-Agricultural Market Access 
NSS  SPS or TBT Notification Submission System 
NTP  Netherlands Trainee Programme PEF  Participant's Evaluation Form PLS  Progressive Learning Strategy 
Q&A  Questions & Answers 
RBM  Results-Based Management RC  Reference Centre 
RCI  Regional Coordinator Internship Programme 
RTA  Regional Trade Agreement RTPC  Regional Trade Policy Course 
S&D  Special and Differential Treatment 
SCORM Sharable Content Object Reference Model 
SME  Small and Medium-sized Enterprise SPS  Sanitary and Phytosanitary WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
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  STC  Specific Trade Concern 
STDF  Standards and Trade Development Facility TA  Technical Assistance TBT  Technical Barriers to Trade 
TF  Trade facilitation 
TFA  Trade Facilitation Agreement TFAF  Trade Facilitation Agreement Facility 
TP  Trade policy 
TPC  Trade Policy Course TPR  Trade Policy Review TRIPS  Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights 
TRTA  Trade-Related Technical Assistance 
UN  United Nations UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 
WAF  Web Application Firewall 
WCP  WTO Chairs Programme WHO  World Health Organization 
WIPO  World Intellectual Property Organization 
WTO  World Trade Organization WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
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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 2015 builds on the major reporting transformation undertaken in the last three years.  It follows 
the same logic by focussing on three types of  analysis: the main evolutions of TA in 2015 
compared to the previous year; an analysis of im plemented TA activities by  region, type, subject, 
language, level of training and gender of the pa rticipants; and an evaluation of the delivery and 
results of these TA activities. 
1.1  Main evolutions in 2015 compared to 2014 
1.2.  The TA resources available to the WTO to finance its TA to developing country Members and 
Observers stabilized in 2015 and un-earmarked contributions increased markedly for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis.  The volume of TA activities and related expenses remained stable 
for the fourth consecutive year, thanks to the tight management policy implemented by the 
Secretariat.  There were no funding difficulties during the year and the TA Plan was implemented smoothly. 
1.3.  Progress continued towards the full implem entation of a TA management system based on 
results adopted at the end of 2012.  The new electronic tools and processes introduced in 2013 and 2014 were revised in 2015 to make them more user-friendly and to fix their main defects.  
The fine-tuning of the system was slowed down by  the current lack of resources allocated by the 
Secretariat for this purpose and by the time it ta kes to change the internal culture regarding the 
importance of an impartial and objective assessmen t of the immediate results of TA activities.  
Such an assessment remains to date essentially based on the sole opinion of participants. 
1.4.  Work continued in 2015 to improve and enri ch the substantive content of the TA offer.  One 
of the main challenges of the year was the security breach into the WTO e-Campus  website at the 
beginning of May.  The website could not resume full service for almost a month whilst security 
measures were implemented.  Otherwise, the most significant evolutions of the years were the 
following: three new online courses (short Trip through TRIPS, Copyright and Dispute Settlement) were introduced and several existing ones were revised to increase their interactive and 
multimedia content; a new advanced course on services took place in Geneva; the advanced TBT 
course was recast to focus on Members' implementation challenges through the development of actions plans; and efforts were made in a num ber of areas (SPS, RTAs, Development, Trade 
negotiation skills, etc.) to better tailor TA to the actual needs of beneficiaries.  Overall, these 
evolutions demonstrate the constant attention paid by the Secretariat to the improvement of its TA 
offer, in terms of both quality and adequacy to the actual needs of Members. 
1.2  Implementation of TA Plan - main featur es of the WTO Technical Assistance in 2015 
1.5.  The Secretariat undertook 269 TA activities , both in Geneva and in various Members or 
Observers, and participated in 49 other TA-related  activities (e.g. conferences or activities of 
partner institutions).  The majority of these technical assistance activities were organized in 
partnership with other international, regional or sub-regional institutions.  Overall, 
15,000 participants were trained during the year, an increase of 2% compared to 2014.  Participation in online course was marginally lower, as a result of a security breach in the e-Campus website which led to a one-month shutdown, but this reduction was more than 
compensated by the growth in face-to-face activiti es.  In 2015, half of the participants in WTO TA 
activities were trained through face-to-face. 
1.6.  The year saw a significant concentration of the TA on activities with a general scope 
(i.e. multi-topic coverage).  In 2015, 43% of th e 269 activities had a general scope, when that 
proportion was only one third in the past.  The other activities were spread across specific Agreements or subjects.  Standards-related activities (SPS, TBT) were in high demand, followed by 
market access for goods (including Trade Facilitation). 
1.7.  Subject-specific regional seminars were conducted in all regions.  Africa and LDCs remained a 
priority in 2015, as in previous years.  Overall, 40% of face-to-face activities were held at the national level and 60% at the regional/global level.  The former continued to gather larger 
numbers of participants for activities lasting less than 3 days on average, when regional or global WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
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  activities tended to gather smaller audiences (30 persons maximum) over close to 4 days on 
average, which facilitated the use of more interactive training methods. 
1.8.  As in previous years, around 60% of the TA was provided in English, 20% in French and 
17% in Spanish, which mirrors approximately the language preferences of Members and Observers 
in the WTO.  These proportions were similar in face-to-face activities and online courses. 
1.9.  The balance between the three PLS levels of training - introduction, intermediate and 
advanced - did not change much compared to th e previous years.  A majority of the TA was 
provided at an intermediate level.  Some activities were still without a defined level for a variety of 
reasons including the fact that it is not feasible to allocate a level to all activities (e.g. academic support related activities) since they do not all purport to train their participants over several years to progressively take them to higher levels of knowledge on WTO issues.  The balance between the 
offer in favour of generalists and specialists did not change much either compared to last year.  
One third of the activities were for generalists against two thirds for specialists. 
1.10.  Overall, the proportion of women amongst participants stayed almost unchanged compared 
to the last years.  In all, women represented approximately 45% of the participants in WTO 
activities, whether online or face-to-face. 
1.3  Evaluation of Performance in 2015 and lessons learnt 
1.11.  A summary of the indicators included in  the 2014-15 TA Plan logframe, of the targets 
approved by Members and of the results measured in 2015 can be found in Annex II.  One should be careful not to read too much in the dry statements included in this table since the results are far from being always attributable to the WTO TA.  Year 2015 is the first one for which an attempt 
is made to assess systematically the TA results on the basis of the agreed indicators and targets.  
As frequently indicated in the body of the report, unavoidable trials and errors also affect the results presented in this report.  In many instances when a target has not been met, this owes 
more to the absence of relevance of the indicator chosen or the lack of realism of the assigned 
target, given what can reasonably be achieved by the WTO TA, than the sign of a poor quality of 
the TA provided or of an insufficient supply of TA. 
1.12.  Taking these caveats into account, the results shown in 2015 remain impressive in many 
respects.  At output level, the target initially assigned to the Secretariat has been fully met for 62% of the indicators chosen.  On top of this, the target was partially met in another 14% of the cases.  This leaves only 14% of the indicators for which the target was not met, knowing that in 
10% of the cases, the data available to the Secretariat were insufficient to reach any conclusion, 
whether positive or negative.  There are a few areas where the targets were exceeded.  It should be noted however that these results are the conseque nce of efforts over a period longer than just 
one year.  It is not always feasible to obtain results within a year of implementing an action or 
training event. 
1.13.  As could be expected, the results at outcome level are more challenging, not only in terms 
of results, but also in terms of relevance of the in dicators chosen and capacity of the Secretariat to 
actually measure reliable results with a sufficient level of confidence.  This has been the domain in which the largest proportion of changes were intr oduced in the 2016-17 TA Plan, which shows that 
the WTO approach has not yet stabilized.  In addition, no field visits were conducted during the 
year to complement the desk analysis in the assessment of results.  In 2015, for 18% of the 
indicators, the data available were insufficient or not reliable enough to reach a conclusion.  The agreed target was fully met in 27% of the cases and partially met in another 27%.  This means 
that the target was not met for 27% of the indicators.  Given the magnitude of the changes 
introduced at that level in the new TA Plan, it is too early to reach any conclusion from these initial f i g u r e s .   I t  i s  h o p e d  t h a t  n e x t  y e a r ' s  r e p o r t  w i l l  p r o v i d e  a  f a i r e r  a s s e s s m e n t  o f  w h a t  t h e  t r u e  
performance of the WTO has been in terms of TA outcomes. 
2  INTRODUCTION 2.1.  This report follows the same approach as in previous years, which is going beyond a 
quantitative account of the volume of TA provided during the year by presenting the activities of 
the Secretariat in a more analytical way, and avoid repeating the description of the various WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
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programmes and activities implemented during the year, which have already been presented to 
Members as part of the TA Plan.1  This approach to reporting on the implementation of TA in 2015 
seeks to give Members a proper understanding of the achievements of the year and of the 
rationale guiding the WTO actions in this field. 
2.2.  The WTO continues to develop and implemen t the tools to collect data so as to better 
measure the results produced by its TA activities in the beneficiary countries, with a view to give priority to those activities that generate the highest returns.  One important element of this 
equation is the costs of the various TA activities, which have also been included in the report to 
give Members a more comprehensive picture of the TA provided by the WTO in 2015. 
2.3.  The report focuses on three main issues.  The first is a presentation of the main evolutions 
seen in the TA provided in 2015 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 changes implemented.  The se cond analyses the TA provided during the year 
by region and level of development of the benefi ciaries, by subject covered, language used and 
level of training offered.  The last analyses in detail the immediate and progress towards long-term 
results of the TA provided by the WTO during the year - and before.  To respond to the request by 
Members, this part has been restructured along the result areas of the TA Plan 2014-15, to make 
it easier to compare results with the original pl ans.  In most instances, this simply led to a 
different way of presenting the same information, which means that comparison with previous years' results should remain possible. 
3  MAIN EVOLUTIONS IN 2015 COMPARED TO 2014 
3.1.  During the year under review, a number of changes could be observed in three main 
domains: (i) the stabilization of the TA resources supported by continued tight expense management; (ii) the implementation of the strate gic reforms initiated in the previous two years 
to better manage TA continued in 2015; and (iii) efforts continued 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 the TA resources 
3.2.  The TA Plan for 2014-15 had anticipated a lower level of resources available from donors 
compared to previous years, whilst keeping the same objectives for the WTO in this domain.  As in the previous three years, achieving as much with less required a tighter management of the 
resources available.  The actions initiated since 2012 in this regard continued in 2015. 
3.1.1  Resources for TA stabilized 
3.3.  In terms of resources, the level 
of extra-budgetary funding 
anticipated in the TA Plan for 2015 represented an average cut of 
22% compared to the biennium 
2012-2013.  Meanwhile, the share of the regular budget dedicated to TA remained stable in 2015, in line with 
Members' decision. 
3.4.  After the almost continuous 
reduction of the past six years, the 
amount of voluntary contributions 
received by the WTO in 2015 
                                               
1 See document WT/COMTD/W/200 WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
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stabilized at its lowest level in a decade at CHF 12.4 million.2  As a result, since the 2007-9 
peak-years, voluntary contributions received by the WTO have halved.  The pool of donors also stabilized in 2015 at its lowest point in a decade, as  only two thirds of its initial donors maintained 
their commitment to the Global Trust Fund (GTF). 
3.5.  A balance of CHF 20.2 million
3 was carried forward from the previous year into 2015.  New 
contributions of CHF 12.5 million were received du ring the year, a third of them in the last two 
months of the year, a continuation of donors' practice in previous years.  This represents an 
increase of 17% in the un-earmarked TA contri butions received by the WTO, the first such 
increase since 2009.  Whilst this may not be sufficient to guarantee that TA voluntary contributions bottomed out in 2015, this is certainly the first such positive signal received from the donors since the 2008 financial crisis.  This level of contribution made it possible to implement the TA Plan as 
approved by Members for 2015 and built a solid carry-forward into the next year to support the 
smooth implementation of the TA Plan for 2016. 
3.6.  The increase in un-earmarked contributions an d the exclusion of the Trade Facilitation Facility 
from the scope of this report mean that the pr oportion of voluntary contributions earmarked for 
specific programmes or categories of beneficiaries was much lower in 2015.  Earmarked contributions represented one fifth of all volunt ary contributions received by the WTO in 2015, 
whilst the share of the GTF increased by ten pe rcentage points to 73%, still lower than the 
average of 84% between 2006 and 2011. 
3.1.2  Stable volume of TA activities 3.7.  In 2015, the Secretariat continued the implem entation of the TA Plan with quality control, 
examining potential effectiveness and efficiency of each activity before approving it, in order to 
ensure its relevance for beneficiary countries and its capacity to produce the desired results.  The various adjustments initiated in 2012 in this regard continued in 2015.  As in previous years, no 
activity request was approved in 2015 without a clear definition of the objectives and a draft 
programme designed to achieve them.  Budgets were also examined in details to reduce costs.  The aim of this rigorous internal approval proce ss for activity requests implemented over the past 
four years is to maximise the value-for-money ratio of the TA provided by the WTO to its 
Members.  This new approach has led since 2011 to a relative stability of the overall number of activities organized by the WTO, as quality and value are now promoted over volume. 
3.8.  The overall volume of TA 
activities in 2015 was 5% lower 
than in 2014, but very close to the average levels seen since 2011.  
The WTO organized or participated 
in 318 TA or TA-related activities in 2015, when the average volume 
over the last five years was 328.8.  
Amongst these, the volume of TA activities was almost stable (269 in 2015 against an average of  
272 since 2011), whilst the 
Secretariat was only involved in 49 "Other Activities" (60 in 2014 
and 57 on average since 2011).  
The number of national activities (107 in 2015) was the lowest since 
2011 (and the lowest ever since the launch of the DDA), much below the last five year average 
(126).  It fell down 10% compared to 2014 after a similar reduction in 2014.  The total number of 
                                               
2 The trust funds taken into account here are those un der the sole authority of the WTO which it can use 
to finance its TRTA activities.  Trust funds managed by other entities or which finance other programmes than 
those of WTO (e.g. STDF or Enhanced Integrated Fram ework Secretariat) have always been excluded.  In 
2015, the newly created Trade Facilitation Facility wa s also excluded.  These trust funds have their own 
governance and repo rting mechanisms. 
3 This included the GTF (16.5 MCHF) and the earmarke d trust funds also financing the WTO TA (Mission 
Internships, NTPs, etc.), but excluded the funds earm arked for trade facilitation which were subsequently 
transferred to the new Trade Facilitation Facility. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
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requests for national activities received in 2015 was 23% lower compared to the previous year,4 as 
the requests related to standards (TBT and SPS) and Trade Facilitation halved during the year compared to their level in 2014.  In this domain, the role of the Secretariat is limited to trying to identify as clearly as possible the country-specific priorities through discussions with the missions 
in Geneva and capital-based focal points, and to proposing ways to better respond to these.  As in 
previous years, the heavy workload of the Secret ariat in certain areas (e.g. trade remedies, TBT) 
and the current resource freeze limited the capaci ty of the Secretariat to respond to all the 
requests in 2015. 
3.9.  Meanwhile, the number of regional or global activities increased by 5% compared to 2014: 
the number of e-Learning courses increased by 18%, the number of regional seminars in Africa by 70%,
5 and the number of global face-to-face activities organized in Geneva decreased by 15%.  
One global and two regional activities initially in cluded in the TA plan had to be cancelled in 2015.6  
One regional activity was also postponed to 2016 at the request of the regional partner.7 
3.10.  As a result, the total number of TA activi ties organized by the WTO stood at 269 in 2015.  
This means that in spite of the annual variations in the volume of national, regional or global 
activities, the overall WTO TA offer remained fairly stable over the last five years, but that the activity mix has evolved in favour of activities which have a larger geographical audience, such as 
g lob al G e ne va-b as ed  ac tivit ie s  or e -Le arning  c ours e s .  T his  e xp lains  why , i n s p ite  of the  s tab le 
volume of TA activities organized by the WTO over  five years, the overall audience measured in 
terms of participants kept growing in 2015 (see section 4.3 below). 
3.11.  The number of "Other Activities" in which the WTO participated was 18% lower than in 
2014.  Other Activities correspond to various meetings and conferences to which the WTO is 
invited to contribute.  They generally do not constitute WTO TA per se, but frequently lead to partnerships that facilitate the subsequent organization and delivery of the WTO TA activities.  For 
example, missions to identify partners for future activities fall in this category (e.g. partners for 
future RTPCs), board meetings of partner institutions such as the Joint Vienna Institute, etc.  More than 40% of the Other Activities correspond to the support provided by the Secretariat to the TA 
activities organized by other institutions (e.g. WIPO and other IGOs).  Although these activities 
constitute TA, they are not counted as part of th e WTO TA since the contribution of the Secretariat 
is insufficient for it to take full responsibility for the results produced.  Many WTO TA activities 
benefit from comparable free 
contributions from many TA partners.  In 
2015, CHF 0.9 million was spent on such Other Activities , i.e. 6% of the total TA 
expenses of the WTO.  This is 30% lower 
than in 2014.  In a context where TA is managed on the basis of expected 
results, it is logical to keep to a minimum 
the resources dedicated to those activities which are not directly producing results. 
3.12.  The combination of these various 
factors led to a relative stability of the TA 
                                               
4 In total, 109 requests were received in 2015, against 142 in 2014 and 141 in 2013. 
5 Only one regional activity took place in French-spe aking Africa in 2014, due to security concerns over 
ebola and scheduling problems.  There was a catch-up in 2015 and four regional events were organized in that 
sub-region. 
6 Three-week Introduction course for LDCs generally held in Geneva, due to a low level of registration 
from the invited countries; Regional workshop on agricu lture and SPS for French-speaking Africa, due to a low 
level of registration from the invited countries; and Short TPC generally organized every year in Washington 
DC with the Organization of American Stat es, for lack of funding from the partner. 
7 The regional workshop on SPS in Kuwait organize d in partnership with IMF-CEF was rescheduled in 
January 2016. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
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  expenses in 2015 compared to the previous three years.8  The internal measures implemented in 
2012 to better control and manage the TA expenses continued unabated.  The stabilization of the overall TA expenses over the past four years re sulted entirely from the implementation of the 
higher volume of result-generating TA activities analysed above. 
3.13.  As in 2014, TA expenses were broadly in line with the TA resources available during the 
year (see section 3.1.1 above).  In 2015, the WTO spent 91% of its TA resources, against an average of 95% between 2007 and 2011, a proportion which had fallen down to 78% in 2012 and 
2013.  The year-end balance of the GTF was 2% higher than twelve months ago.  However, as 
mentioned above, this was compensated by a drop in the earmarked contributions received during 
the year, which led to a lower overall year-end balance in the trust funds administered by the Secretariat to finance TA activities (-5%). 
3.2  Implementation of Results-Based Management 
3.14.  The implementation of the RBM Monitoring  and Evaluation system adopted by Management 
in December 2012 continued during the year.  The electronic back-to-office-report (e-BTOR) 
introduced in 2014 to report on the outputs of th e TA activities implemented by the Secretariat 
was revised at the end of the year to make it more  user-friendly (e.g. introduction of a spell-check 
function, elimination of partly duplicating fields, etc.) and to take into account the changes 
introduced in the TA Plan 2016-17.  The changes shou ld make it easier to trace back each activity 
to one of the four key results around which the TA Plan has been structured.  As explained in 
previous years' reports, in a context of zero  nominal budget growth and of an already fully 
committed IT budget, achieving these changes within  the limits of existing resources, both human 
and financial, has taken longer to complete. 
3.15.  The quality of the information captured by  the RBM system changed only slightly in 2015.  
The results of most TA activities continued to be assessed on the sole basis of participants' 
opinion, despite there being other key performance indicators having been identified at the time 
the activities were requested and approved.  The same old data as prior to the introduction of RBM were squeezed into the new tools and processes: whilst the focus of the new M&E system is in 
principle on measuring the immediate results of the TA activities on the basis of a pre-defined set 
of performance indicators, the data collected were most of the time limited to the opinion of the 
participants.  Although it is too early to detect a significant evolution of the culture of the Secretariat in this domain, there is evidence that staff are starting to pay attention to the 
requirements of RBM. 
3.16.  The past three years have been dedicated to the design or redesign of the Secretariat 
workflows in order to capture the data relevant  to the measurement of the immediate results 
produced by the WTO TA.  The next step should now be the design of new tools capable of 
extracting and analysing these data in the most relevant way, so that the Secretariat and Members could actually start managing the WTO TA accord ing to the results produced.  This will most 
probably require a complete change of technolo gy, as the current database of TA activities 
progressively developed over the past 20 years cannot support these new functionalities.  The 
implementation of this new phase will consequently  depend entirely on the availability of extra 
resources. 
3.17.  The registration of participants in the TA database has always been a challenge.  At the 
moment, this is done manually by the Secretariat on the basis of the data provided by the beneficiaries' authorities to register for each TA activity.  Unfortunately, the notions of first name 
and family name or surname do not seem to be universally applied, and their transcription into 
roman letters may suffer variations, not to mention the authorities or participants' own phantasy which also leads to variations over time in the data they provide to register.  This regularly leads 
to the creation of multiple records for the same person, which reduces the reliability or accuracy 
and usability of the information contained in the database.  The solution most frequently applied today to avoid such problems is to request the participants to create their own account in one's 
                                               
8 For the purpose of this report, TA expenses include all the expenses under the chapter of the regular 
budget dedicated to TA activities (Geneva-based traini ng course, 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 (including the staff costs registered in these funds).  The EIF, STDF and TF Facility trust funds are consequently excluded. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 11 - 
 
  system and manage it themselves over time.  However, contrary to what was announced in last 
year's report, it appeared during the year that the new e-Campus  platform introduced in 2014 was 
not capable of providing an online registration system for the participants in face-to-face activities (see section 3.3.1 below).  Work had to restart fr om scratch on a cloud-based online registration 
facility, which is unlikely to be available before 2017. 
3.3  Improving the TA offer 3.3.1  Responding to the e-Learning technological challenges 
3.18.  Whilst the Secretariat continued to be innovative in order to respond to changing needs, this 
has been a challenging year for e-Learning.  There was a security breach in the WTO e-Campus  
website at the beginning of May 2015 following an attack from hackers.  As a result the website was brought down and remained offline for 10 days.  All participants and website users were 
informed immediately by emails.  The website was brought back online mid-May with limited 
services, while a Web Application Firewall (WAF) was installed and configured to set up an environment with a high level of protection.  The e-Campus  website resumed full services at the 
end of May 2015.  The WAF proved very effective as it was able to offset any further attack from 
June 2015 onwards and restore confidence among website users. 
3.19.  Following the security breach, access to the online registration, monitoring and interactive 
activities was unavailable for one full month, which had a significant impact on the e-Learning 
results in the first half of 2015.  In the second part of the year, targeted actions were undertaken 
to overcome and reverse the consequences of the security breach on the e-Learning outputs.  These focussed on a specific language, region, count ry, course type or subject, etc. to ensure a 
large geographical coverage and optimise the programme outreach. 
3.20.  The outreach of the e-Learning programme was enhanced through the use of social media, 
such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to provid e more detailed information and interact with 
users.  Google+ and LinkedIn accounts were also introduced at the end of 2015 to update 
participants – actual or potential – on developments in the e-Learning programme.  Participants are encouraged to use these tools to interact  with each other with a view to fostering 
communication and interactivity. 
3.21.  Over the past year, the e-Campus  website became fully compatible with mobile 
technologies.  All website pages were converted to responsive design
9 to reach out to users relying 
on mobile devices. 
3.22.  The e-Campus  platform hosted ten virtual classrooms in 2015 for different face-to-face 
activities.  A Google Drive was provided for short face-to-face activities to make course material available to participants.
10  The e-Campus  also included a virtual Alumni domain in for interns of 
the NTP and WCP Programmes. 
3.23.  A survey on learners' technological profil e was performed in 2015 to gather information on 
the IT profile of the e-Campus  users.  It included questions on their internet browser, the device 
they use to access online courses, the way they study the course (offline/online, at the 
office/home, etc.), etc.  This enabled the Secretariat to optimise the e-Campus  parameters and 
functionalities to better respond to users' practices. 
3.3.2  Continuous improvements in the e-Learning offer 
3.24.  A series of new web-based activities, the "WTO e-Lectures11" was launched in 2015.  The 
first WTO e-Lecture took place in October 2015 as part of the WTO 20th Anniversary and covered 
                                               
9 Responsive design allows the pages to be displaye d to fit the screen size of each type of mobile 
device. 
10 A Google Drive is a cloud-based file storage allowing users to store files in the cloud, share files, 
and edit documents, spreadsheets, an d presentations with other users. 
11 The e-Lecture is a live lecture/webcast delivered through the internet on a specific subject.  It 
increases the learning flexibility and outreach as participants around the world can attend the e-Lecture without place and time constraints, either live or by viewing the recorded e-Lecture afterwards. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 12 - 
 
  
accessions-related issues and the relationship  between the accession to the WTO and the 
accession to the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA). 
3.25.  Further progress was made during the year to continue improving the presentation and 
interactivity of the online courses.  A new interactive version of the course "Trade and 
Development" has been developed with substantial redrafting.  The new training material applies 
the latest pedagogical approach making use of in structional design methodologies and includes a 
wide variety of interactive elements.  The course on 
"Trade and Environment" was also revised in French 
and Spanish in 2015, as was the "Tailored Course" to complement it with multimedia elements.  Overall, the number of new multimedia components 
(audio, animations or video) added during the year 
c o n t i n u e d  t o  g r o w  a t  a n  e v e n  f a s t e r  r a t e  t h a n  i n  previous years.  The use and popularity of these 
components is monitored by the trainers.  
Participants' feedback showed  that the quality of the 
training materials was highly appreciated in 2015, 
as 91% of participants rated the quality of the 
course content as good or excellent, and 82% rated 
the balance between theory, case studies and exercises as good or excellent. 
3.26.  Important differences in the characteristics and content of the multimedia elements cannot 
be accounted for in a graphic way, given the large variety of these elements (for example, a 3 or 
15 minutes video, a simple straightforward animation or an elaborated one based on a complex scenario would each be counted as one element).  A high number of interactive course 
components, such as exercises and serious games,
12 are not counted as multimedia elements.  
Inclusion of such interactive components depends on the course content and on the best way of presenting it to ensure an effective transfer of  k n o w l e d g e .   N o t  c o u n t e d  e i t h e r  a s  p a r t  o f  t h e  
multimedia components are the new courses with interactive navigation.  As a consequence, the 
graph represents essentially the tip of the iceberg, as the recourse to multimedia in e-Learning courses is progressively becoming the new language.  This phenomenon is transforming 
completely the sector.  WTO efforts in this domain 
since 2011, which culminated in the launch of the  
e-Campus  platform in 2014, show that it is now well 
equipped to manage the transition. 
3.27.  The number of Chat Sessions organized 
increased from 44 in 2014 to 56 in 2015.  Most Chat Sessions are organized with WTO experts to update 
participants on the latest news from the WTO and 
discuss on-going issues.  Chat Sessions were held alternately in the morning and in the afternoon to maximise the number of participants who had a 
chance to participate live.  A chat report is available 
on the e-Campus  for those unable to join in live. 
3.28.  In total, 39 News Forum topics were 
launched until May 2015.  Following the security 
breach, the forum tool was removed from the website,
13 and a new online discussion tool was 
introduced in December 2015.  The new News 
Forum tool includes gamification features (badges linked to interaction level) and links to social media in order to boost interactivity and exchanges. 
                                               
12 Serious games make use of a game  design (e.g. competition, curiosity, collaboration, individual 
challenge), to enhance the motivation of participants to engage in the learning experience.  They facilitate the 
comprehension of difficult concepts and cont ribute to increasing knowledge transfer. 
13 The Forum tool did not meet the requirements to implement enhanced security standards. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
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  3.29.  To ensure that the training addressed Members' needs, consultations were held to identify 
their e-Learning requirements.  They indicated thei r preference for online courses at introductory 
and intermediate levels.  Priority has therefore been given in 2015 to enhance the e-Learning catalogue and course delivery at these first two levels, rather than at a more advanced level.  In 
2015, the catalogue of e-Learning courses was enriched with three new courses: (i) A short trip 
through TRIPS; (ii) Copyright in the WTO; and (iii) WTO Dispute Settlement System; all of which were developed in the latest e-Learning industry standard format called SCORM.
14  The training 
material for these courses was based on a new learning-by-doing and interactive approach which 
featured a variety of multimedia components and animations, and can be centred on a learning story. 
3.30.  Since last year, the new courses developed by WTO are shorter and aimed at a more 
targeted learning experience focusing on one subject (e.g. copyright), moving away from the 
horizontal approach adopted so far and which led to the development of long courses covering as comprehensively as possible a broad range of issues related to a particular subject (e.g. all IPRs 
covered by the TRIPS Agreement).  More courses of  this type will be introduced in 2016, as for 
example courses on Patents or Import Licensing. 
3.31.  A total of 24 e-Learning courses, in three linguistic versions,
15 were open for registration in 
2015.16  The e-Learning offer by level and subject is presented in the table below and can be 
consulted under http://ecampus.wto.org/ : 
Level Generalists Specialists 
N/A Tailored Course (E) 
WTO in 10' (E, F) 
Introduction Introduction to WTO (E, F, S) 
Intermediate Multilateral Trade Agreements (E, F, S) Accession to WTO (E, F, S) 
Legal Underpinnings (E, F, S) Agriculture & WTO (E, F, S) 
WTO & Trade Economics - Theory & Policy (E, F, S) Copyrights (E) 
Dispute Settlement System (E) 
 Made in…: understanding Rules of 
Origin (E, F, S) 
 Market Access for Goods and NAMA 
negotiations (E, F, S) 
 Regional Trade Agreements (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) 
 TRIPS – Short Trip (E, F, S) 
 Transparency – Notifications (E, F) 
 WTO Market Intelligence (E, F, S) 
 3.32.  The WTO online courses are also being regularly updated to include new developments and 
to introduce new e-Learning methodologies.  Two new courses initially launched in English later 
also became available in French and Spanish.  The French and Spanish versions included videos 
and other multimedia materials originally developed in English that had to be redone for each of 
the two languages:  "A short trip through TRIPS" and "Made in ... Understanding Rules of Origin".  
The courses "WTO in 10'" and "Transparency and the WTO: Notification Obligations" were also 
                                               
14 SCORM stands for Sharable Content Object Refe rence Model and is the technical standard for 
e-Learning software products.  This fo rmat is used to develop courses that are interactive and offer a variety of 
multimedia components. 
15 The French or Spanish version of some of the mo st recent courses is still under development and 
should be available in 2016. 
16 Programme available under http://ecampus.wto.org/.  WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
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  made available in French at the end of 2015.  The Spanish versions will be ready at the beginning 
of 2016. 
3.33.  The course "WTO in 10' " is a new type of training aiming at boosting WTO outreach.  This 
course is based on a new learning by doing approach (exercises only) and is centred on a learning 
story.  The training material for a similar course on agriculture based on the same learning by 
doing approach was developed in 2015 and will be finalized in 2016. 
3.34.  The introduction in 2015 of the online cour se on dispute settlement marks the completion of 
a major chapter in the development of WTO distance  learning facilities, as the WTO now offers an 
e-Learning opportunity on all of its main areas of work. 
3.35.  Blended learning – a combination of face-to-face and online learning in which part of the 
content of the activity is delivered through the internet – has been used in 2015 for the advanced 
courses on SPS and TBT.  Participants in these two courses had to first complete an online course 
(on SPS or TBT) before coming to Geneva to a ttend a first face-to-face segment followed nine 
months later by a follow-up week.  Between the two face-to-face segments in Geneva, participants 
remained in contact with their tutor through an e-Campus  virtual classroom.  They received 
instructions as well as information, participated in online discussions and were able to ask questions to their tutor while implementing in their home countries the Action Plan they had 
developed during the first face-to-face part of the course. 
3.3.3  Continuous improvements in the face-to-face offer 3.36.  As has been customary in the annual repo rts for previous years, this section gathers a 
limited number of illustrations of how the Secretariat adjusted its TA offer during the year in order 
to better respond to the actual needs of Members.   This involved a mixture of tailored activities, 
pedagogical innovations and experiments, which toge ther show that, on top of its well calibrated 
institutional training offer, the WTO is constantly listening to its Members to provide them with the 
most suitable service.  These non-exhaustive examples are presented in no particular order. 
3.37.  In 2015, the Secretariat completed or revise d its Geneva-based offer of advanced courses.  
It introduced a new advanced course on Services  and revised completely the advanced course on 
TBT to refocus it on implementation difficulti es faced by Members.  Beyond these two major 
improvements, a number of other adjustme nts were also made during the year. 
3.38.  Over the years, participants in training courses and delegates had pointed to the fact that 
the WTO training activities on services focusse d on the nuts and bolts of the GATS, and did not 
address new service issues in particular detail.  The large number of applications received to the 
advanced course on Services (107) confirmed that the level of demand was high amongst Members.  The last Geneva-based course on services had taken place in 2005.  The course filled a 
gap in the Secretariat portfolio and offered a unique opportunity to engage senior services experts.  
The course was held over one week in Geneva in November 2015.  The Course was rated highly by 
participants. 
3.39.  The course involved the development of almost entirely new materials on specific subjects, 
such as: "Trends and features of preferential services negotiations: services elements in plurilateral/bilateral agreements" which made a detailed analysis on a number of RTAs, and explained positive/negative list scheduling tec hniques; "Movement of persons: how labour and 
immigration laws and regulations relate to the GATS and specific commitments" which looked in 
greater detail at examples drawn from specific immigration laws and discussed link with Mode 4; "The Economics of Services Trade –Trade Policy Instruments and their Effects"; "The Services – 
Investment Interface: the GATS and Other Intern ational Agreements Governing FDI in Services"; 
etc. 
3.40.  Following in the footsteps of the SPS ad vanced course, the two-week biennial Advanced 
Course on TBT was profoundly recast in 2015.  It targeted participants involved in the 
implementation of the TBT Agreement at a technical or policy level.  In addition to covering the 
provisions of the TBT Agreement (and related Ag reements) and the functions/procedures of the 
TBT Committee in a comprehensive manner, the programme allowed participants to share national 
experiences on implementation issues.  With the guidance of coaches, each participant prepared WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 15 - 
 
  an action plan to address a specific TBT-related implementation challenge they had identified in 
their country.  The goal of the course was to encourage individuals to take a leadership role in making a difference despite the institutional or re source constraints they faced in their country. 
3.41.  After the course, participants had to report periodically on the implementation of their 
action plans.  Those who fulfilled this requiremen t would then be invited to a follow-up course in 
2016. 
3.42.  To better respond to Members' demands in the field of standards, given the numerous 
connections between both subjects, approximately ha lf of the regional and national workshops in 
this domain covered both the TBT and SPS Agreements.  The majority of the national workshops delivered in 2015 (7 out of 13) covered both Agreements, as opposed to just 3 (out of 10) in 2014.  Two new fictional SPS-TBT case studies (inspired by real cases) were developed and used 
in joint SPS-TBT events.  One focused on nutrition labelling and the other on quality and safety 
requirements for grape juice.  During these ac tivities, particular emphasis was placed on 
transparency and national coordination. 
3.43.  The Secretariat noted a growing demand fr om Members for TA addressing the interface of 
trade and health policies, with a specific focus on IPRs, TBT and non-communicable diseases (related to unhealthy diet, smoking, excessive dr inking and sedentary life).  Demand for such 
activities also arose in the context of cooper ation with other IGOs, such as WHO and WIPO.
17  In 
the 2014 Public Forum, a session on Nutrition Labelling Standards attracted a high degree of interest.  In the 2015 TBT@20 event, a wide ra nge of stakeholders expressed the view that 
Members needed TA to tackle the interface of trad e and health issues, especially in the area of 
nutrition.  Another illustration of this holistic approach towards IPR-related issues was the 
symposium on innovation and access to medicines held in October.
18  T o  r e s p o n d  t o  t h e s e  
demands, a new activity will be designed in 2016. 
3.44.  In the SPS activities, a specific focus was placed in 2015 on incorporating dedicated 
sessions on the new TFA and its linkages with th e SPS Agreement, Members showed an increasing 
interest for this subject.  The activities on SPS, whether at the national regional or global level, 
benefited from the valuable contribution of the STDF, which was instrumental in meeting the 
objectives of these activities. 
3.45.  The 2015 Geneva-based thematic workshop  on the transparency provisions of the SPS 
Agreement provided an opportunity to continue the Committee's previous discussions on 
transparency, following a joint proposal for actions related to the fulfilment of transparency 
obligations submitted in the context of the Fourth  Review of the Operation and Implementation of 
the SPS Agreement.19  This workshop brought together a large number of officials from Members' 
Enquiry Points, National Notification Authorities and other relevant authorities for an exchange of 
experiences and discussion on possible solutions on how best to address difficulties in the implementation of the SPS transparency provisions.  The workshop was a highly interactive 
"hands-on" training event focusing on the use of the SPS Information Management System (SPS 
IMS) and on the online Notification Submission Syst em (SPS NSS).  It provided an opportunity to 
present the project to improve and modernise th e SPS IMS and NSS applications.  Participants 
used the test site of the new SPS NSS and made suggestions for improvement which are now 
being incorporated in the new platform. 
3.46.  Several of the recommendations from th e 2013 evaluation of the Advanced SPS Course 
were implemented in 2015 (in addition to those that had been previously been implemented in 
2014).  A new real-life case study highlighti ng the importance of the SPS Committee was 
incorporated into the programme of the 2015 Advanced SPS Course.  As part of the revised criteria 
                                               
17 A 2015 UN Standing Committee on Nutrition discussion paper entitled "Enhancing Coherence between 
Trade Policy and Nutrition Action" recommended that "The WTO Secretariat should, within its mandate, provide TA to enable national trade, nutrition and health officials to better understand the policy space available in multilateral agreements for nutrition action."  See Recommendation 5, p.31 in 
http://www.unscn.org/files/ICN2_TPM/UNSCN_Discussion_Paper_1_Trade_and_Nutrition_2015rev_en.pdf . 
18  On the holistic approach towards IPRs, see § 3.59 in section 3.3.6 in WT/COMTD/W/209. 
19 See document G/SPS/W/278 which is the joint prop osal on transparency submitted by Chile, the 
European Union, Morocco and Norway in the context of  the Fourth Review of the SPS Agreement.  This 
proposal builds on two former proposals regard ing transparency (G/SPS/W/274 and G/SPS/W/277). WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 16 - 
 
  for selection of participants, applicants were requested to provide a proposal for an action plan 
which was evaluated during the selection process. 
3.47.  Training modules on the RTA database in TA activities have been made as practical as 
possible, since the best way to get acquainted with it is to use it.  Elements of the training 
modules have been built so that participants have to actually surf the database online to complete 
the assignments, which consist in TV-like quiz  questions whose answers can be found in the 
database.  Participants' feedback on this approach has been positive. 
3.48.  On the other hand, national requests for RTA-related TA reached a historic low in 2015.  
This was compounded by the fact that most of the TA that was requested could not be matched with the kind of non-partisan training that can be provided by the Secretariat on this subject, since 
it has no mandate to give Members any strategic advice on the RTAs they are negotiating. 
3.49.  The TA provided in the area of Government Procurement has been tailored to respond to the 
needs, interests and requirements of the target au dience.  For example, the activities focused on 
the implementation of the GPA for acceding or  recently acceded GPA members, or on the 
alignment of national legislations to both GPA requirements and other treaty obligations. 
3.50.  In order to better respond to the concerns expressed by Members in the CTD and its 
subsidiary bodies, two new programmes were introd uced in 2015.  One focused on middle income 
developing countries and the other on LDCs.  The first one covered issues such as the contribution 
of trade towards development, the role of tr ade in the post-2015 development agenda, AfT, 
challenges and opportunities experienced by developing countries when linking into global value chains, e-commerce, etc.  The latter dealt with the participation of LDCs in world trade, duty-free 
quota-free market access for LDCs and preferential  rules of origin, services waiver, Istanbul 
programme of action, etc. 
3.51.  Attention was paid in 2015 to the various modules on trade negotiations skills, whether in 
the RTPCs, ATPCs or in the thematic advanced cour ses on this subject.  In the TPCs, the general 
focus was on progressivity, in order to build in th e ATPCs on what had been seen at the previous 
level in the RTPCs, without repeating it as had been too often the case in the past.  This produced 
good results as participants appreciated the improvement this brought to training in this domain.  
In the advanced trade negotiation skills courses, the novelty was to request participants to negotiate their own modalities multilaterally before applying them in bilateral negotiations.  This showed them own the successive stages of WTO negotiations are interconnected. 
4  IMPLEMENTATION OF TA PLAN AND MAIN FEATURES OF THE TA PROVIDED IN 2015 
4.1.  As has been customary since 2012, this chap ter presents an analysis of the TA provided by 
WTO in 2015 according to various criteria, such as  their distribution by region, by subject, by 
language or by PLS level.  In each case, a distin ction is 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.  Online courses are available throughout the year on a permanent basis.  Participants must 
complete the training for which they registered within two months of their start of a course, but the actual number of hours or days they de dicate to the course cannot be known to the 
Secretariat.  For this reason the actual number of days of the training cannot be assessed for  
e-Learning activities.  The graphs in this chapter do not include them. 
4.3.  As in the previous three years, 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 2015, excluding Other Activities which did not constitute TA per se, the WTO undertook 
269 TA activities, both in Geneva and in beneficiary countries.  The Secretariat continued to place WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
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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 (LDCs20) 
4.5.  Facilitating a fuller integration of LDCs into  the MTS continued to be one of the main priorities 
o f  t h e  T A  p r o v i d e d  b y  W T O ,  i n  l i n e  w i t h  t h e  D o ha Declaration.  The proportion of activities 
organized in 2015 in which LDCs were invited to participate increased marginally to 61% compared to the previous year.  The growing propor tion of activities with a regional or a global 
geographical scope in the WTO TA offer, such as  online courses helped sustain a proportionately 
higher access of LDCs to the TA offered by the WTO.  Two of the global activities were specifically designed for LDCs (three-week introduction course for LDCs and intermediate course for LDCs held in Geneva). 
4.6.  Other programmes specifically designed for LDCs include the support for the participation of 
LDCs in selected WTO meetings provided by China, which financed the participation of the C4 focal points in the 23
rd and 24th Round of the DG's Consultative Framework Mechanism on Cotton that 
took place respectively on 9 July and 27 Nove mber 2015 in Geneva.  The focal points made 
detailed presentations at both meetings updating  participants on their latest domestic cotton 
sector reforms.  They also benefitted from updates provided on development assistance aspects of 
cotton.  These meetings were an opportunity to hold bilateral discussions to further advance the 
C4 interests in the cotton negotiations and development assistance. 
4.7.  In 2015, TPR-related TA was essentially limited to TPR follow-up activities for LDCs on a 
demand-driven basis.  These activities were designed to disseminate the facts gathered during the 
review and its results to all national stakeholders.  A more ambitious follow-up involving bilateral, 
regional and multilateral donors that can help national stakeholders implement reforms was successfully held in Myanmar in 2015.  This could inspire other LDCs in the future, even if what 
has been achieved in this particular case may not be automatically replicated in other regions 
where bilateral and regional donors are traditionally not as receptive or active in financing reforms. 
4.8.  WTO collaborated with UNCTAD to build the capacity of LDC delegations (Geneva and capital-
based officials) on issues related to preferential market access and rules of origin.  The strategy 
was to combine an e-Learning course with face-to-face activities immediately before meetings of the WTO Committee on Rules of Origin.  In addition, both UNCTAD and the WTO met Geneva-based delegates throughout the year.  The main re sult which could be noticed was that the group 
became remarkably more active in the WTO Committee and was able to initiate and sustain more 
substantive discussions on issues of interest to the LDCs.  This process culminated with proposals to the Committee
21 and eventually the negotiation and adoption at MC10 of a Ministerial Decision 
on preferential rules of origin for LDCs. 
4.9.  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 2015.  This confirms that 
both priorities are mutually supportive.  The statistics show that LDCs were invited to participate in 
65% of the activities in this region. 
4.10.  As in previous years, LDCs were given 
priority in several WTO programmes, such as 
long-term internships and the Reference Centre 
programme.  Two of the five interns selected under the LDC and Accession internship 
programme came from an LDC, as did 10 out of 
17 Mission interns, two out of seven Regional Coordinator interns (LDCs, African) and nine out 
of 14 Netherlands trainees.  Overall, this means 
that 53% 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 2015.  This is 
                                               
20 LDCs represent less than a third of all potential beneficiaries 
21 See G/RO/W/154 and JOB/TNC/53. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 18 - 
 
  
only slightly lower than the average over the past four years (55%).  This shows a clear 
preference for LDC candidates in the selection process for these programmes.  As in previous years, approximately 60% of the LDC interns came from Africa. 
4.11.  The TA Plan 2014-2015 and the Reference Centre Programme strategy adopted in 2012 
indicated that the RC programme would be 
particularly beneficial to the LDCs, Sub-Saharan African countries and non-resident countries.  Out of 
the nine Reference Centres installed or upgraded in 
2015, six were in LDCs.
22 
4.12.  The share of the participants originating from 
LDCs represented approximately a third of those who 
attended online courses in 2015, marginally above the 
overall proportion of LDCs amongst beneficiaries.  They were as successful in 2015 as the candidates 
originating from non-LDCs.  Given the challenges 
frequently faced by LDCs in terms of internet 
connection, this situation is highly satisfactory. 
4.2  Geographical distribution 
4.13.  The activities with a global geographical reach that were organized in Geneva represented 
39% of the 269 activities implemented in 2015, but accounted for only 17% of the participants in 
face-to-face activities and 56% of the number of tr aining days delivered by the Secretariat.  In 
other words, as in previous years and as expected, these activities tended to benefit a reduced 
pool of individuals who stayed extended periods of time in the WTO. 
                                               
22 Chad, Congo DR, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Lesotho and Uganda.   National   Regional   Global   e-Learning 
 WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 19 - 
 
  
4.14.  The above figures are influenced by the lo ng-term internships under the Mission Internship, 
Regional Coordinator Internship, Netherlands Trai nee and Accession Internship programmes.  On 
average, interns under these programmes stayed between six and ten months in missions or in 
the Secretariat (i.e. approximately 170 working days each).  These internship programmes are 
relatively expensive (CHF 1.9 million in total for the four internship programmes in 2015, as in 
2014), reason why the activities held in Geneva represented 44% of the expenses of the year. 
4.15.  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. 
4.16.  Setting aside the internship programmes, it  was demonstrated in the TA annual report for 
2012 that other activities organized in Geneva are comparatively not more expensive than the 
activities held in the regions.  Given the numerous synergies available in Geneva for the 
participants, in particular concerning 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. 
4.17.  Outside of Geneva, Africa remains the first destination of WTO face-to-face TA, followed by 
Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Central & Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Caribbean.  The 
proportions between the regions remain approxim ately 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 2015.  The share of Africa in the TA field activities held outside of Geneva was 32% in 2015, five percentage points higher than in 2014, but stil l lower than the 37% registered in 2013 (whether 
measured in terms of number of activities, of da ys, or expenses, but not in terms of number of 
participants which were proportionately less numerous in Africa in 2015). 
4.18.  The geographical distribution 
of the participants in e-Learning 
courses continued to be comprehensive and to cover all 
regions.  In 2015, participants from 
145 countries registered in WTO online courses (six more than in 2014).  Africa continued to be the 
region most-represented amongst 
participants, by a good margin.  Over the last four years, in spite of some 
temporary variations, the balance 
between the regional origins of the participants has remained fairly 
stable.  The only noticeable novelty in 
2015 was the higher proportion of participants originating from the 
Middle East. 
4.3  Product mix 
Proportion of National/Regional Activities 
 Africa Asia-Pacific Caribbean CEECAC Latin America Middle East 
National 67% 56% 60% 78% 76% 47% 
Regional 33% 44% 40% 22% 24% 53% 
4.19.  In 2015, the WTO TA continued to be predominantly delivered through national activities in 
all regions except the Middle East.  However, the overall share of regional activities is growing 
since 2013 in all regions except in CEECAC, where it shrank by a third, and in Latin America, 
where it was stable.  As a result, national activities gathered approximately two thirds of the participants in activities held outside Geneva (against three quarters in 2014) and represented 40% of the days of training (against 51% in 2014) .  As in previous years, governments continued 
to gather a rather large pool of interested participants in national activities, though their average 
duration tended to be shorter than the duration of regional ones. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 20 - 
 
  
4.20.  On average, national activities 
gathered 37 participants in 2015 30% more than regional activities whose average number of 
participants was 28.5.  The past 
recommendations 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 to 
have come down to desirable levels. 
4.21.  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 difficult to implement for national activities, whose average duration 
stayed below 3 days in 2015.  Their 
short duration remained the complaint most frequently voiced by 
the participants themselves.  For 
regional/global activities on which the 
Secretariat has more control, the average duration was 3.7 days in 2015, staying at the same 
level as in the last two years. 
4.22.  Cost-wise, the pattern across regions ch anged again in 2015, according to the relative 
importance of regional activities in each region.  This pattern is also directly influenced by the various cost-sharing partnerships implemented in certain regions more than others.  In the 
Caribbean and Middle East, regional activities represented 86% of the TA expenses in these 
regions, in Asia-Pacific three quarters, in Africa and CEECAC two thirds, and only 58% in Latin America.  This shows the relative high cost of regi onal activities in all regions compared to national 
ones.  In regional activities, expenses include the travel and subsistence costs of both trainers and 
participants, whereas for national activities WTO only pays for trainers travel costs.  At the other end of the spectrum, 50% of all participants followed e-Learning activities for just over 8% of the 
total TA costs of the year, which demonstrates th e high efficiency of this mode of training. 
4.23.  The depth and content of regional and nation al activities is quite different.  The former 
generate useful synergies between various Memb ers when they have a certain commonality of 
needs.  Members can register only a limited number of participants to regional activities, whereas 
all interested parties can potentially be invited to national ones.  Moreover the local specificities 
and issues can be addressed more openly in national activities. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 21 - 
 
  
4.24.  The growth in the number of 
persons trained annually by the WTO has been constant since 2011.  In 2015, the WTO trained a total of 
15,000 individuals, 2% more than in 
the previous year.  Unlike in the previous five years, that growth 
came entirely from face-to-face 
activities, as the security breach experienced by the e-Campus  
website at the beginning of May 
2015 led to a stagnation of the 
participation in e-Learning during the year.  In spite of certain annual 
variations, participation in face-to-
face activities remained fairly stable since 2011 (7,600 participants per 
year on average).  The Secretariat capacity to increase participation in face-to-face activities is 
extremely limited and highly dependent on the av ailability of additional human and financial 
resources.  As the regular budget and staffing levels are frozen for a number of years, the relative stability of the number of participants in face-to-face activities since 2011 is entirely logical.  On 
the other hand, e-Learning has been an extrem ely effective means of leveraging the limited 
resources available to reach an ever increasing audience.  The measures taken during the year to secure the e-Campus  website should lead to a resumption of that growth. 
4.25.  Participation figures by language show 
that the security breach that occurred in 2015 had a greater impact on the French and 
Spanish-speaking populations, which saw 
their participation diminish by 18% and 10% respectively, when English-speaking participation rose by 11%.  As discussed in 
last year's annual report,
23 the diversification 
of the languages used in the courses in an otherwise predominantly English-speaking 
international environment was one of the 
strong achievements of e-Learning over the past five years.  The hacking of the e-
Campus website cancelled this completely, as 
English language courses gathered 61% of e-
Learning participants in 2015, the highest proportion of the last five years. 
4.26.  As explained earlier, the four long-term internship programmes run by the WTO - Mission 
internships (MIP),
24 Netherlands Trainees (NTP), Regional Coordinator Internships (RCI) and 
Accession Internships (AIP) - constitute a hands-on  type of face-to-face TA activity with very 
particular characteristics.  These programmes benefit a small number of participants (43 in 2015, 
i.e. 1 person less than in 2014) for extended periods of time (between four months for three 
Regional Coordinator interns and nine to ten months for the others).  In 2015, the interns represented 0.6% of the participants in face-to-fa ce activities, but 40% of the training days and 
13.5% of the expenses of the year.  These latter two proportions were higher than in 2014, due to 
the longer duration of the NTP this year (9.5 mo nths instead of 8.5 in 2014), as a result of an 
earlier receipt of the Dutch contribution.  These internship programmes are relatively expensive (CHF 1.9 million in total in 2015) due to their duration.  On the other hand, the ex-post evaluation 
conducted in 2009 found that, according to beneficiaries, the MIP was one of the two most useful 
programmes offered by WTO, the other one being the three-month trade policy courses held in Geneva. 
                                               
23 See § 5.9 in WT/COMTD/W/209. 
24 The name of this programme was amended in  2016: see section 6.1.1.3 in WT/COMTD/W/211. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 22 - 
 
  
4.27.  In 2015, the size of the 
various long-term internship programmes was relatively stable compared to the previous 
three years, if one excepts the 
unusual peak in the number of MIPs in 2013 (22 instead of its 
average of 16 since 2010). 
4.28.  Cost wise, the overall 
expenses under the four programmes were stable in spite 
of individual variations (AIP 
+53%, NTP +6% and RCI -22%).  The average cost of an 
NTP increased as the average 
duration of their stay in Geneva was one full month longer 
compared to 2014, thanks to the early receipt of the contribution for that programme.  The 
average cost of the interns under the MIP was marginally lower, as their average stay in Geneva was half a month shorter than in 2014.  The average cost of an Accession intern increased as the duration of their stay in Geneva increased by 1. 5 month.  However, the average cost per intern 
per month has been fairly stable since 2012. 
4.29.  The respective scale of the long term internship programmes depends on the level of the 
earmarked contributions from a small number of Members (China-AIP, France and Ireland-MIP, 
Netherlands-NTP), with the exception of the RCI pr ogramme financed exclusively through the GTF.  
The narrow financial basis of these programmes can have a significant impact on the scale of the activities when there is a delay in the timing of the disbursement of these contributions. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 23 - 
 
  
4.4  Distribution by subject 
4.30.  Compared to previous years, 2015 saw an increased focus on activities with a general scope 
covering, if not all WTO subjects, at least severa l of them.  Excluding the long-term internship 
programmes, on average, 43% of the TA activities  of the year fell in that category (i.e. ten 
percentage points more than in 2014).  Activities with a general scope included all the activities for generalists (as opposed to specialists), such as, all the Trade Policy Courses, irrespective of their 
duration or location (e.g. 3 ATPCs, 7 RTPCs, 1 introduction course for LDCs, etc.); activities 
covering several if not all WTO agreements and which cannot consequently be ascribed to one subject rather than another; and activities cutting across all WTO subjects, such as training on 
trade negotiating skills (7 activities); the installation or upgrade of Reference Centres  
(9 activities); outreach activities for members of Parliament, journalists and civil society  (8 activities); Trade and Development (7 activities); two Geneva Weeks for non-residents; etc. 
4.31.  When measured in terms of participants, th e importance of activities with a general scope 
was even greater.  They gathered 51% of particip ants on average, whether in national, regional, 
global or e-Learning activities.  The number of days of general training offered represented 64% of the total training days, again roughly ten percentage points more than in 2013 and 2014.  That 
proportion was 78% of the total days of training offered in regional activities (as in 2014) and 
46% in national ones (double the proportion in 2013 and 2014). 
4.32.  Cost-wise, 60% of the TA expenses were dedicated to the activities with a general scope (a 
further increase of 4 percentage points compared  to 2014).  Amongst the expenses dedicated to 
regional activities, 75% were for these activities with a general scope.  However, expenses   National   Regional   Global   e-Learning 
 WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 24 - 
 
  incurred for these activities represented only 48% of the total expenses for national activities  
(+22 percentage points compared to 2014) and 38% of the total expenses for e-Learning (stable). 
4.33.  All four long-term internship programmes had a general coverage (Mission Internship, 
Regional Coordinator Internship, Netherlands Trainee and Accession Internship programmes).  In 
2015, these programmes represented on average more than 170 days of general training for each 
participant (4% more than in 2014) for a total of 43 interns (1 less).  CHF 1.9 million was spent on these programmes (stable compared to 2014). 
4.34.  Other face-to-face activities with a general scope include ATPCs, RTPCs and Introduction 
Courses for LDCs, which are highly valued by benefi ciaries.  These activities gather proportionately 
smaller numbers of participants for relatively long periods of time (between three and eight weeks), on a regional or global basis.  The overa ll cost of these activities is also significant. 
4.35.  Unlike in 2013 and 2014, Tr ade Facilitation was no longer the most important individual 
subject during the year.  As explained above in sect ion 3.1.1 (see footnote 2 in particular), this is 
essentially due to the exclusion of most of the indi vidual activities on this subject from the scope 
of the  g e ne ral W T O T A P lan and  of  t his  re p ort, a s  a re s ult of  the  c re ation  of a s e p arate  T rade 
Facilitation Facility (TFAF) under the authority of the Trade Facilitation Committee (currently the Preparatory Committee until the TFA enters into force giving effect to the permanent committee).  
The TFAF has its own separate governance and reporting mechanism, reason why the activities it 
finances are not discussed in this report, to avoid any duplication.
25  This subject had represented 
approximately 11% of the activities, participan ts, days of training and expenses in 2014.  
However, all the activities for generalists (e.g. RTPCs, ATPCs) included a module on the new TFA, 
which underlines the complementarity of the activities funded through the GTF and the TFAF, 
irrespective of the segregation of reporting. 
4.36.  The most popular subject in 2015 was SPS (came second in 2013 and 2014).  Demand in 
this area has constantly been relatively high over the years, especially at national level.  If 
combined with the growing interest shown by Members for TBT (+9% compared to 2014), 
standards actually became the area for which demand was the highest in 2015.  Together they 
represented 12% of the TA activities and of th e participants, and a bit less when measured in 
terms of days of training and expenses. 
4.37.  Market Access for goods, which also includes frequently a part on Trade Facilitation, was in 
high demand, followed by Services and TRIPS. 
4.38.  As in previous years, TA in the area of Dispute Settlement (and the related area of Rules) 
remained comparatively low given the ever increasing proportion of the Secretariat resources dedicated to it.  Nevertheless, the constant increase over the past few years in the number of staff 
members working in this area mechanically led to a 20% increase in 2015 of the time dedicated by 
the Secretariat to DS-related TA, in spite of time required by ongoing dispute settlement proceedings.  The high number of days of TA of fered on this subject 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  70 days of TA for those countries which benefited from this service.  The support provided to the ELSA Moot Court competition also beefed up the number of days for regional events. 
4.39.  The WTO introduction course was by far the most popular e-Learning course.  It attracted 
2,088 participants (i.e. 28% of the participants in e-Learning activities, a further two percentage points reduction compared to last year) in 2015.  The high number of participants could be 
attributed to the fact that completing this course is a prerequisite to participate in most 
intermediate level activities and the reduction of its relative importance over the years to the progressive diversification of the e-Learning offer.  SPS came next with 511 participants, followed 
by Multilateral Trade Agreements (over 400 partic ipants), TRIPS, Services, Trade & Development 
and TBT (over 300 participants).  In  spite of some annual variations in this hierarchy, on average, 
demand remained fairly constant in 2015 for each of the subjects. 
                                               
25 A similar approach is adopted for the EIF and STDF, for the same reasons. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 25 - 
 
  
4.5  Language mix 
4.40.  The breakdown by language of the TA activities organized in 2015 is broadly in line with 
what was observed in the previous years.  Excl uding the long-term internships, the face-to-face 
activities held in English represented approximately 55-60% of the total, whether measured in terms of number of activities, of participants, of days  or expenses.  The activities held in French or 
Spanish each represented roughly 20% of the to tal, attracted 17% of the participants and 
represented 14% of the training days.  Close to 16 % of the total expenses were for activities in 
French and 12% for activities held in Spanish, since the partnership with IDB/INTAL reduced 
significantly the cost to the WTO of regional activities held in Latin America. 
4.41.  The analysis of these figures should take into account the proportion of the Members and 
Observers that use each of the three language s 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. 
4.42.  A small share of the TA (5% of the activiti es and 3% of the participants) continued to be 
provided through activities held in more than one language (frequently in all three WTO 
languages), with the assistance of interpretation.  These latter activities remained proportionately 
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, SPS symposia, Geneva Weeks 
for non-residents, etc.).  The importance of the number of days dedicated to such activities is 
mainly the consequence of the 70 days of assistance provided under Article 27.2 of the DSU. 
4.43.  For e-Learning courses, the breakdown was fairly similar: 61% of participants followed 
courses in English, 21% in French and 18% in Spanish.   National   Regional   Global   e-Learning 
 WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 26 - 
 
  
4.6  Progressivity of training 
4.44.  As a result of the strategy adopted in 2010, a set of guidelines on the substantive content of 
each of the three training levels was developed at the end of 2013.  These guidelines define the core substantive elements that should be master ed by the participants.  Efforts to introduce 
progressivity in the training courses concentrated so far on regional, global and online courses, 
especially for generalists.  The implementation of  the PLS continued in 2015, but remained work in 
progress in a number of respects.  Consequently, there is no particular trend for the moment in terms of progressivity of training, as a number of activities are still conceived as isolated training 
events rather than a component in a longer cursus, even when supposed to correspond to a 
specific level.  As a result, the actual content of a training activity does not always reflect the level theoretically ascribed to it by the organisers. 
4.45.  Excluding the internships which are considered advanced activities for generalists, 9% of 
the activities in 2015 (17% in 2014) could not be given a specified level, representing only 5% of the participants, 11% of the training days and 8% of the TA expenses.  As in previous years, 
attention should continue to be paid on defining in advance (instead of a posteriori) the level of a 
number of activities, according to the benchmarks adopted at the end of 2013 and which were not used frequently enough during the year. 
4.46.  Overall, the pattern seen in 2012-13 concerning relative importance of the introduction level 
resumed in 2015 (i.e. lower than in 2014).  It repr esented 13% of activities, 23% of participants, 
8% of training days and 9% of expenses.  The ma jority of the TA continued to be provided at 
intermediate level in 2015.  It represented 57% of the activities and participants, and 
approximately 50% of the training days and expens es.  The proportion of advanced activities was 
fairly stable (21% of the activities, only 15% of the participants, but 30% of the training days and 35% of the expenses).  As in previous years, these figures confirm that advanced activities tended 
to be proportionately longer and more expensive, but tended to have less participants, which 
seems entirely logical.   National   Regional   Global   e-Learning 
 WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 27 - 
 
  
4.47.  Half of the participants were trained through e-Learning (see section 4.3), which has 
historically focused on the first two levels of training, and in particular on the introductory one.  The WTO e-Learning offer at the intermediate level is progressively increased to enlarge its subject coverage, and diversified to increase its flexibility.  No advanced online course is available.  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 contributed to increasing participation in the lower level of 
training. 
4.48.  Overall, 30% of the activities were for generalists (13% at introductory level, 14% at 
intermediate level, and 3% at advanced level) and 61% for specialists (44% at intermediate level and 17% at advanced level).  Compared to 2014, the WTO TA offer in favour of specialists at 
intermediate level grew significantly (+50%).  As in the last two years, activities for generalists 
gathered close to 40% of the participants and those for specialists 55%, and these proportions 
were again reversed when measured in terms of num ber of training days.  Activities for generalists 
and specialist both represented 46% of total expens es.  This means that activities for generalists 
were proportionately longer and more expensive than those for specialists.  Almost everything else remained as in the previous two years. 
4.49.  Inside the generalist path, the proportion of participants between the three levels evolved 
slightly compared to the previous two years (60%-30%-10%).  The relative importance of the advanced level grew significantly, as recommended previously.  This occurred thanks to the organization for the first time of a limited number of advanced level national activities for 
generalists, for example to follow-up on a TPR. 
4.7  Gender mix 
4.50.  Data on the proportion 
of women amongst 
participants were available for 93% of the face-to-face 
activities in 2015 (once Other 
Activities  are excluded).  This 
marks a further improvement in the availability of the data.
26 
4.51.  The average proportion 
of women amongst participants in the face-to-face 
activities held in 2015 was 
43%.  That rate has been stable over the past five years 
and was again fairly 
homogeneous across national, regional or global activities in 
2015.  Patterns continued to vary 
according to the regions: in CEECAC, 
Latin American and the Caribbean, women represented more than half of 
the participants, whilst that rate was 
below 40% in Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East (31%).  These averages hide 
significant variations between activities, 
as the rate of women amongst participants fluctuated between a low of 0% and a high of 80% in 2015. 
4.52.  In e-Learning courses, the 
average proportion of women was about the same as in face-to-face activities.  
                                               
26 That proportion was only 50% three years ago. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 28 - 
 
  Overall, it stood at 45% in 2015.  In spite of mi nor fluctuations, that rate has been relatively 
stable since 2010.  No real pattern could be detected over the last five years when analysing these figures by subject as the rate of women in each of them was close to the overall average in 2015.  
The significant differences depending on the langua ge of the course, which had been observed in 
the past, did not change in 2015: courses in Spanish continued to register the highest participation 
of women and those in French the lowest. 
5  EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE IN 2015 
5.1.  As explained in section 3.2 above, the im plementation of the new M&E system approved in 
December 2012 remains work in progress due to limited dedicated human resources, in particular in the area of IT, and as the cultural change th is represents for the Secretariat takes time.  The 
new tools (e.g. electronic forms and work-flows, database) implemented thus far remain 
perfectible, but the improvements already implemen ted are yet to be fully embraced by all those 
involved in the delivery of WTO TA.  The cyber-attack in May also meant shifting resources to fixing this problem.  This means th at 2015 was another year of transition. 
5.2.  Part of the year was dedicated to the prep aration of the terms of reference for the external 
evaluation of the WTO TA initiated by the donors , and to the launch early December of a call for 
tender to select the most appropriate consultant to perform that evaluation.  No on-site 
evaluations or country review were initiated during the year, for lack of staff availability.  The 
external evaluation will be performed in 2016. 
5.3.  This section will focus on the elements th at could be measured during the year and which 
constitute evidence of the immediate, medium-term or progress towards long-term results 
produced by the TA provided by the WTO to its Members and Observers.  As requested by the 
CTD, this section has been recast to present these elements according to the structure of the TA Plan for 2014-15.  This should make it easier for Members to assess the results produced against 
the plans they had initially approved.  To that effect, each section starts with a short table 
summarising the situation at the end of 2015 for each of the indicators and targets retained in the logframe annexed to the TA Plan 2014-15. 
5.4.  The following codes have been used in this section: 
 Target met: The target identified in the TA Plan logframe has been fully met 
or has been exceeded 
 Target partially met: The target identified in the TA Plan logframe has been missed by 
a small margin, as significant progress has been made towards 
its achievement 
 Target not met: The target identified in the TA Plan logframe has been largely 
missed and progress towards its achievement has been limited 
 Data not available: The data available to the Secretariat is incomplete, if not 
missing completely, or is not reliable or strong enough to 
support any conclusion one way or the other 
5.1  Key Result 1: Government officials ar e implementing WTO Agreements and making 
full use of Members' rights 
Indicators Target 2015 
Level of engagement in WTO negotiations: 
number of meetings of Negotiating Groups Increase in participation / 
activeness Data not available 
Increase in submissions of documents 
from Members in the NG and other bodies Increase in participation / 
submissions of documents Target met 
Number of TA beneficiary Members 
participating in WTO dispute settlement Increase of developing 
economies participation in DS Data not available 
Number of outstanding notifications of TA 
beneficiary Members 5% decrease of outstanding 
notifications Target partially met WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 29 - 
 
  
5.5.  There was only limited negotiating activity in the WTO in 2015 beyond the preparation of 
MC10.  The level of engagement of beneficiary count ries in WTO negotiations will therefore be best 
assessed by focussing on their engagement in the MC10 process. 
5.6.  The first indicator focusing on the number of meetings of Negotiating Groups is clearly 
mistaken, as it is not correlated to the level of engagement of beneficiary Members.  Actually, it 
has been a recurring complain of many beneficiary Members that the more meetings, the less they can participate given the capacity constraints of their – often – small missions.  Consequently, 
there is no point in collecting data on this indicator since no relevant conclusion on the level of 
engagement of beneficiary Members may be reached on this basis.  Data not available  
5.7.  A more relevant indicator of the engagement of beneficiary Members in the MC10 process is 
the number of documents they submitted, either on their own or jointly with other Members.  
Setting aside the ministerial decisions and declarations and the statements made by the 
Secretariat and various chairmen ex-officio, 24 documents were issued for MC10, 21 of them 
(88%) to present the views of at least one beneficiary Member if not many.  By comparison, 
beneficiaries represented at the time 77% of the total WTO membership.  Similarly, out of the  
40 documents issued in MC10 Facilitators' process (excluding those issued by the Secretariat),  38 (95%) were submitted by a beneficiary Member or a group of them, sometimes jointly with 
developed Members.  Finally, if one looks at the consultations held during MC10 on the basis of the 
above-mentioned documents, 48 of the 57 delegations who expressed their views to the Facilitators were beneficiary Members (i.e. 84%), of which 8 were LDCs.  These figures demonstrate a very active engagement of benefici ary Members in the subjects addressed at MC10.  
Target met  
5.8.  Aside from the negotiations, several improvements have been recorded in 2015 in the 
involvement of developing countries in the regu lar work of the WTO bodies.  For example, an 
increasing number of developing countries taking  the floor in the SPS Committee to provide SPS-
related information.  More Specific Trade Concerns (STCs) were raised in the SPS Committee by developing countries who previously did not use th is avenue to address ongoing SPS-related trade 
concerns.  For example, in 2015 Nigeria raised a STC for the first time (STC No. 386) against 
Mexico (this STC was recently reported as being resolved in the March 2016 SPS Committee 
meeting).27  An increased number of submissions of SPS-related documents to the SPS Committee 
by developing countries was also noted.  In 2015, 52 SPS-related documents were submitted by 
21 developing countries (2 were submitted jointly with developed countries), several of whom 
previously did not regularly submit documents to the Committee.28  In comparison, in 2015 there 
were 12 submissions from 6 developed countries to the SPS Committee.  These developments 
show that developing countries are increasingly participating in the work of certain WTO bodies. 
5.9.  The other indicators 
were the number of TA 
beneficiary Members 
participating in dispute settlement, whether as complainant, respondent or 
third party, and the number 
of outstanding notifications of TA beneficiary Members.  In 
the field of dispute 
settlement, the Secretariat only maintains statistics 
concerning the requests for 
consultations initiated in a given year.  What happens in the subsequent stages of the 
                                               
27 For additional details on the acti ve use of STC by developing coun tries, see paragraphs 1.3 and 1.4 
(including charts 1.3a and 1.3b) in document G/SPS/GEN/204/Rev.16. 
28 Antigua & Barbuda (G/SPS/GEN/1460), Belize (G/SPS/W/288, G/SPS/W/286, G/SPS/W/287), Egypt  
(G/SPS/W/282), Jamaica (G/SPS/GEN/1449), Kenya  – Joint proposal with Canada (G/SPS/W/279/Rev.2), 
Morocco (G/SPS/GEN/1414), Nigeria (G/SPS/GEN/1441, G/SPS/GEN/1397, G/SPS/GEN/1398), Senegal  
(G/SPS/GEN/1461, G/SPS/GEN/1451) and Zambia (G/SPS/GEN/1450) WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 30 - 
 
  
procedure can then be monitored exclusively on a country by country basis.  No aggregated data 
are collected either on third parties, even if getting involved in a procedure as a third party is frequently used by developing Members as a learni ng ground.  One may actually challenge the fact 
that increasing dispute settlement volume should be one of the aims of TA.  The involvement of 
beneficiary Members in dispute settlement is highly dependent on a number of externalities, 
reason why this indicator did not make much sense.  It was not kept in the TA Plan 2016-17.  In 2015, 16 beneficiary Members got involved in cons ultations initiated under the DSU, whether as 
complainants (7) or respondents (9).  This is higher than in 2014, but lower than in 2012 and 
2013.  Beyond the unavailability of part of the data, no conclusion can be reached from these figures.  The targeted increase of developing economies' participation in dispute settlement did most probably not materialise, but the reasons why are unlikely to be related to TA.  Data not 
available  
5.10.  The Secretariat continued to 
provide to developing country 
Members the kind of additional legal 
advice required under Article 27.2 of the DSU.  As shown in the 2014 
annual report,
29 demand for such 
services continued to fluctuate over the years.  In 2015, only three separate legal opinions were 
requested by three different 
Members, which was below the annual average (3.6).  One of the 
requesting Members had never used 
this service before. 
 
5.11.  As far as beneficiary Members' outstanding notifications are concerned, according to the 
Central Registry of Notifications (CRN) the figure stood at 3,400 at the end of 2015.  Outstanding 
agriculture notifications represented 61% of this to tal.  This is higher than at the end of 2013 
when the TA Plan was prepared.  However, the fact that approximately 350 new notification 
requirements are added annually to the pool in the field of agriculture should be taken into 
account.  Only 2,840 of the notification requiremen ts as they stood at the end of 2013 remained 
outstanding at the end of 2015, which is 4.5% less than the baseline included in the Plan.  The 
target was a reduction of 5%.  As for dispute settlement, many externalities may also have played 
a role in these results.  Target partially met  
5.12.  Seven developing countries (Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Haiti, Kyrgyz Republic, 
Nigeria, Togo and Tunisia) submitted SPS notifications for the first time in 2015.  The SPS annual 
workshop organized back-to-back with th e Committee meeting in October focused on 
transparency.  Participants were asked, inter alia, to suggest possible solutions to five challenges identified by Members in their responses to th e questionnaire on transparency under the SPS 
Agreement:
30 difficulties in filing notifications; identifying trade facilitating measures; identifying 
and targeting interested stakeholders; handling comments; and dealing with, and obtaining translations for, notified documents not in one of the WTO languages.
31 
5.13.  As agriculture has always represented the lion's share of outstanding notifications, an 
advanced workshop on agriculture Notifications was offered in Geneva for the seventh year in 2015.  Its fourth day was devoted to individual sessio ns with staff ("notification clinic") in order to 
allow participants to discuss country-specific notification issues.  Participants expressed again their 
interests in seeing more time allocated to the notifications requirements in the area of domestic support which are particularly complex.  There is no online notification system at the moment (under development).  The Agriculture Informat ion Management System (Ag-IMS) can only be 
used to search the notification database. 
                                               
29 See section 5.8 in WT/COMTD/W/209. 
30 G/SPS/GEN/1402. 
31 See the suggestions made in the workshop in section 3.8 of document G/SPS/R/80. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 31 - 
 
  5.14.  In 2015, the agriculture notifications workshop was offered for the first time in the three 
official languages.  Although being conducted in  English, the presentations and exercises were 
made available in the three official languages and trainers could also respond to queries in French or Spanish.  Therefore, participants did not have to have proficiency level in English.  It had not 
been possible to hold the workshop in French and Spanish since 2012 because of the small number 
of applications.  The new approach proved eventual ly not to be as effective as expected for some 
participants that had a lower level of English. 
5.15.  Members with a large number of outstanding agriculture notifications and recently acceded 
Members are given priority in the selection for the workshop.  However, the workshop can only address the knowledge gap which might impact their notification compliance.  But for many Members the main challenge when preparing dome stic support notification is proper data 
collection, as many agencies and ministries are responsible for actions in the notifiable domain.  It 
is only once data and information is available that the Secretariat may help in presenting that information in the form of a notification.  The notification workshop cannot assist in the process of 
data collection.  For these reasons, the correlation between improved compliance and usefulness of 
the workshop may not be direct and simple.
32 
5.1.1  Output 1.1: Government official s and other stakeholders have enhanced 
knowledge about the WTO Agreements, formulation of trade policies, conducting trade 
negotiations, and understanding trade compliance obligations 
Indicators Targets 2015 
Number of participants at each PLS level Higher than baseline Target met 
Number of participants with no PLS level Decrease in number of 
participants with no PLS level of training Target met 
Number of participants advancing from 
introductory to intermediate level and 
from intermediate to advanced level  50% of participants in first 
level progressed to middle 
level and 8-10% to top level Data not available 
% of participants passing the course 
exam 70% participants completed 
their course successfully Target not met for 
e-Learning Target met for RTPCs No target for other 
face-to-face activities 
 
5.16.  Section 4.6 above has analysed the number of participants trained at each of the three 
levels (introduction, intermediate, advanced) in  2015.  The logframe identified the following 
indicators: 
a. Participation in the three levels was: 3,451 for introduction; 8,387 for intermediate; and 
2,246 for advanced.  Target met  
b. The activities for which no level could be defined involved only 806 participants, which 
was lower than the baseline identified in the Plan (1,054).  Target met  
c. The progression of participants from one level to the next cannot be analysed by the 
Secretariat with its current tools, for the reasons explained in section 3.2 above.  Data 
not available  
d. The passing rate in course exam is relevant for e-Learning and Regional Trade Policy 
Courses (RTPC) only, since other face-to-face activities do not require the participants to 
take an exam at the end.  This indicator is discussed below. 
5.1.1.1  E-Learning 
5.17.  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 
                                               
32 See the annual report on compliance with agriculture notification requirements in 
G/AG/GEN/86/Rev.23. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 32 - 
 
  on-line training always requires taking an exam at the end.  As in previous years and foreseen in 
the TA Plan 2016-17 for which year 2015 will constitute the baseline, 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 
attended the course) - the passing rate was 60% on average of correct answers in 
the final exam, without failing more than one exam. 
 Distinction rate (proportion of participants who passed the exams with more than 
90% of correct answers on average amongst successful participants) 
 Rate of correct answers in the exams of successful participants, knowing that the 
passing rate is 60% on average in the courses. 
 Dropout rate (share of those who did not complete the course within two months). 
 
Immediate results of on-line courses 
 
Course Attended Successful Success 
Rate Dropout Dropout 
Rate Correct 
Answers Distinction Distinction 
Rate 
Accessions 252 159 63% 42 16% 94% 115 70% 
Agriculture 331 161 55% 77 21% 79% 36 22% 
Copyright 40 31 78% 4 10% 91% 23 74% 
Development 343 219 65% 55 15% 82% 43 19% 
Dispute Settlement 92 51 55% 18 20% 79% 6 12% 
Environment 215 129 60% 39 18% 82% 35 29% 
Introduction to 
WTO 2,088 1,279 63% 364 17% 85% 529 42% 
Legal 
Underpinnings 199 129 65% 32 16% 80% 48 36% 
MA Intelligence 100 62 58% 17 19% 81% 16 31% 
Multilateral Trade 
Ag 290 172 59% 53 19% 81% 37 22% 
Market Access 
Goods 183 103 54% 36 21% 84% 38 39% 
Notifications 112 83 80% 13 6% 83% 21 14% 
RTAs 433 291 69% 65 14% 87% 146 49% 
Rules 199 141 70% 25 13% 85% 45 33% 
Rules of Origin 274 194 75% 35 10% 83% 54 41% 
Services 360 202 57% 71 19% 80% 28 16% 
SPS 511 279 57% 103 19% 85% 98 36% 
Tailored Course 74 48 65% 12 16% 83% 15 31% 
TBT 322 201 63% 55 17% 84% 61 28% 
Trade Economics 268 169 63% 44 17% 82% 76 38% 
Trade Finance 123 94 79% 13 10% 81% 35 32% 
Trip to TRIPS 116 62 46% 24 24% 86% 24 31% 
TRIPS 374 247 65% 57 15% 81% 57 22% 
WTO in 10' 224 193 86% 14 6% 92% 132 66% 
Total 7,523 4,699 62% 1268 17% 84% 1,718 37% 
 WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 33 - 
 
  
5.18.  The average success rate 
increased marginally in 2015 and stood at 62% in 2015  (+1 percentage points compared 
to 2014).  This is lower than the 
target of 70% mentioned in the TA Plan, but remains a fairly high 
average level compared to what 
can be observed elsewhere in the e-Learning industry.
33  T h e  
standard deviation from this 
average (10%) did not change 
compared to previous years.  This confirms that the target included 
in the Plan was unrealistic, since 
the law of diminishing returns and the results registered elsewhere in 
the e-Learning industry show that 
the success rates initially seen in 2011 and 2012 are not sustainable in the long-term.  The higher 
success rate in 2015 more than 
compensated the marginal drop in online courses participation: the 
total number of those who 
qualified through e-Learning in 2015 was 1% higher than in 2014, 
which is a very good result given 
the circumstances.  Target 
partially met  
5.19.  The most remarkable evolution since 2011 has been the regular growth of the average 
distinction rate from 26% five years ago to 37% in 2015.  In a context in which less participants 
were successful on average, this shows that an in creasing proportion of those who were successful 
were actually very successful (more than 90% of correct answers).  This confirms the high quality 
of the WTO e-Learning courses as instruments to transfer knowledge to the participants. 
5.20.  Four courses had a rate of success around 50%: the new Trip to TRIPS (46%); Market 
Access for Goods (54%, marginally better than in 2014); Agriculture and the new Dispute 
Settlement (55%).  These four courses also had the highest dropout rates (24%, 21%, 21% and 
20% respectively), and Dispute Settlement had the lowest distinction rate (12%).  At the other end of the spectrum, WTO in 10' still had the highest success rate (86%), followed by Notifications (80%), Trade Finance (79%), the new Copyright (78%) and Rules of Origin (75%).  These five 
courses had the lowest dropout rates (6% and 10% respectively) and some of the highest 
distinction rate (74% for Copyright, 66% for WTO in 10').  The courses on Accessions, WTO in 10' 
and Copyright had the highest rate of correct an swer (94%, 92% and 91% respectively) and those 
on Agriculture and Dispute Se ttlement the lowest (79%). 
5.21.  Overall, this analysis confirms the differences between the courses already noted in 
previous years.  Some of them have traditiona lly had higher rates of success (e.g. WTO in 10', 
Accessions, Trade Finance and possibly Copyright), whereas some others have been more 
challenging for participants (e.g. Multilateral Trade Agreements, Services, Market Access for Goods and possibly Dispute Settlement), even if they re mained successful overall.  These relatively 
constant results demonstrate that the average level of difficulty of online courses is not 
homogeneous.  The precise reasons behind these disparities (i.e. what makes a course more or 
                                               
33 Although the average completion (successful or no t) rate remains highly confidential for most e-
Learning providers, in most Massive Open Online Cour ses (MOOCs – i.e. courses which charge no fees, provide 
no tutoring and are open to large amounts of students for long periods of time) it does not exceed 10%.  With 
a completion rate of 83% (62% successful + 21% unsuccessful), WTO e-Learning courses are as successful as 
the best short online courses with fixed-dates, close tu toring, a limited number of students and charging high 
fees, which are the most successful of all online courses. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 34 - 
 
  less difficult) remain as difficult to identify as ever, but the pattern evidenced here will be kept in 
mind as the courses are progressively revised and upgraded. 34 
5.22.  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 Successful Success 
Rate Dropout  Dropout 
Rate Correct 
Answers  Distinction Distinction 
Rate 
English 4,556 2,786 61%  797 17% 84% 1,061 38% 
French 1,615 1,056 65%  247 15% 81% 290 27%  
Spanish 1,352 857 63%  224 17% 85% 367 43% 
Total 7,523 4,699 62%  1,268  17% 84% 1,718 37%  
 
5.23.  Year 2015 saw the same pattern as the previous year, with a relatively high homogeneity of 
the results across language versions of the same course.  The only French language exception was the lower rate of distinction, as in the past. 
5.24.  An analysis of these results by gender showed that since 2010 women's average success 
rate has always been a few percentage points higher than men's one.  The average difference 
fluctuated between 2 percentage points as in  2010, 2013 or 2015 and 3.6 percentage points in 
2012 or 4.5 in 2011.  However, these averages hide significant variations between the courses. 
5.1.1.2  RTPCs 
5.25.  Since 2013, a final exam is used to evaluate the participants in all RTPCs.  Participants take 
the exam at the end of a three-day revision worksh op in which they revisit the entire content of 
the RTPC in a horizontal manner.  Each participant's final grade was comprised of an assessment 
of his participation during the course (30%) and the final exam results (70%).  A final grade of 
90% or above merited a certificate with distinction, whilst a grade below 60% received a certificate of attendance.  The results measured in 2015 were the following: 
 Oman Thailand Turkey  Ecuador  Botswana Barbados Tunisia Average 
Attendance 21 30 26 24 30 21 28 26  
Passed 8 17 17 17 24 13 22 17  
Distinction 13 11 8 7 5 8 4 8  
Success 21 28 25 24 29 21 26 25  
Success Rate 100% 93% 96%  100% 97% 100% 93% 97%  
Distinction Rate 62% 37% 31% 29% 17% 38% 14% 31%  
Correct Answers 90% 83% 85% 80% 85% 85% 68% 82%  
Participation 75% 78% 72%  90% 60% 80% 80% 76%  
 
5.26.  All seven RTPCs were successful, some of  them very successful, in transferring an 
appropriate level of knowledge and skills on WT O matters, especially the WTO Agreements and the 
way to use the WTO legal texts, to their participants.  The average success rate of the participants 
was 97%, with more than 80% of correct answers to the final exam on average and a distinction 
rate (i.e. final mark above 90%) above 60% in one region.  These rather exceptional results stay 
at the same level as those registered in 2014. 
5.27.  At 97%, the average success rate is very hi gh, exceeding by far the average success rate in 
e-Learning activities, although the average distinct ion rate is lower.  Three courses had a success 
rate of 100% (against five in 2014), which is particularly impressive.  These results demonstrate 
that, for the most part, the objectives of th e RTPCs (i – deepened understanding of WTO 
Agreements and functioning; ii – better understanding of relevant trade policy issues in the regional context; iii – increased autonomy in using WTO information and documentation; 
iv - strengthened network of contacts) have been satisfactorily achieved in 2015.  Target met 
                                               
34 Some subjects may be more tech nical than others and the scope of the courses is quite variable. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 35 - 
 
  
5.1.1.3  Other Face-to-face activities 
5.28.  The performance indicators 
available to monitor the results of face-to-face activities remain less 
precise than in the case of  
e-Learning: in 2015, only RTPCs used a final exam to measure the 
performance of their participants.  
The immediate results of the other activities had to be measured in the BTOR by the trainers 
themselves.  As BTORs continue 
to be the main evaluation tool for face-to-face activities, 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%. 
5.29.  As regards the quality of the reporting on  TA activities and their immediate results, a 
complete BTOR was available for 89% of the TA activities in 2015 (a further increase of  
6 percentage points compared to 2014).  The remaining activities were reported through simple 
memos or notes, which in most cases deprived the Secretariat of some essential information, such as the objectives of the activity and an asse ssment of their achievement at the end.  The 
introduction of the eBTOR in 2014 progressively led to a more systematic use of a BTOR to report 
on TA activities.  However, the quality of the reporting on all TA activities, and in particular the measurement of the immediate results achieved, remained weak in 2015, for the reasons already 
explained in section 3.2 above. 
5.30.  Recommendations to improve the means used by the Secretariat to measure the immediate 
results of its TA activities in a more objective manner were made three years ago and included the reliance on new means of testing participants’ knowle dge at the end of face to face TA activities 
organized by WTO (document WT/COMTD/W/199).  Leaving RTPCs aside, the other face-to-face 
activities were evaluated predominantly on the basis of the feedback from participants through the Participants' Evaluation Forms (PEFs).  At the end of each activity, participants are requested to 
assess on a scale of 1 (minimum) to 5 (maximum) different aspects, including in particular 
whether each of the objectives assigned to the ac tivity had been achieved.  While feedback from 
the participants is an important element to be taken into account in the assessment of the 
activities, as already explained in previous reports, this approach is not sufficient.  The opinion of 
the participants should be one of the elements ta ken into account by the trainers when evaluating 
the immediate results of the activity they delivered.  The WTO should aim to introduce other more objective performance indicators in the future for face to face activities.  Data not available  
5.31.  As a general rule, it is recommended not to have too many objectives for each TA activity, 
to make sure these objectives are properly achieved.  An analysis of the BTORs revealed that the activities held in 2015 had on average 3 objectives each, a level which has been relatively stable 
over the years in spite of some annual fluctuations.  Two thirds 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 (75% in 2013 and 2014).  The improvement of analytical, 
communication or negotiating skills and of the capa bility to assess the implication and deal with a 
given WTO subject came next (28%), followed by the improvement of their capacity to identify, 
analyse and address technical assistance needs, implementation problems or other aspects of the local context (25%), to build capacity to find, use or disseminate information and document on 
WTO-related issues (22%), the improvement of the general understanding of the WTO and the 
establishment or strengthening of a network of contacts (14% each).  These figures show a certain diversification of the types of objectives assigned  to the TA activities in 2015, and a reduced focus 
on the legal provisions of the WTO Agreements. 
5.32.  When evaluating the achievement of the imme diate objectives of the activities, participants 
gave an average mark of 4.5 out of a maximum of 5, marginally lower than in 2013 and 2014.  WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 36 - 
 
  Amongst the 364 immediate objectives of TA activities for which data was available in 2015, only  
4 were given a mark 1, 2 a mark 2 and 13 a mark 3 (5 is the maximum and 1 the minimum).  This 
means that, as in the previous years, the achi evement of 95% of the objectives was rated as 
satisfactory or outstanding in 2015.  Consequently, the same comment needs to be repeated: 
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, and even if  they correspond to the success rate seen in the 
RTPCs in 2015, these figures look too good to be entirely true.  As demonstrated when more 
objective testing methods are used across the board (for e-Learning courses), the actual success 
rate must probably be somewhere between 70% and 80% on average. 
5.33.  Government procurement is one area where qualitative evidence is also available on the 
results of the WTO TA.  The GPA Committee, Parties and acceding members noted the useful 
contribution of the Secretariat on GPA accessions (two new accessions in 2015: Moldova and 
Ukraine; three new observers: Costa Rica, Pakistan and Seychelles) and to enhancing the understanding of GPA disciplines and their signif icance for good governance and development. 
5.1.1.4  Internship programmes 
5.34.  No indicators, baseline data, target and potential evidence were identified for any of the 
four long term internship programmes in the Logframe attached to the TA Plan.  The main text of 
the Plan explained that the participants in the internship programmes (AIP, MIP, NTP and RCI) will 
acquire in-depth knowledge on WTO matters with the guidance of WTO staff members or the permanent missions or regional secretariats.  The internships are an opportunity to effectively "learn-by-doing" which enables the beneficiaries to contribute to the economic and social 
development of their respective countries. 
5.35.  "Learning-by-doing" is the essence of an internship.  Since measuring how much was 
actually learnt by the interns is almost impossible, a proxy measure should be to report how much 
the interns actually did during their stay in Geneva. 
5.1.1.4.1  Accession Internship programme (AIP) 5.36.  Accession Interns have been closely involv ed in the professional work of the Accessions 
Division.  Working as the Co-Secretary of Workin g Parties, they assisted the Accessions Division 
and the Secretaries of Working Parties in covering WTO meetings related to accessions, including the Informal Group on Accessions, the Sub-Committee on LDCs and the General Council; preparing Working Party documents; drafting background notes and memos; facilitating Working 
Party meetings; and updating the Accessions Commit ments Database.  They also provided support 
to the organization and delivery of accession-related TA activities.  Interns have also functioned as research assistants in specialized areas of access ions.  For example, they contributed to the book 
"WTO Accessions and Trade Multilateralism: Ca se studies and Lessons for the WTO at Twenty" 
launched at the WTO Public Forum in September 2015. 
5.37.  Each intern is supervised by a profession al staff in the Accessions Division, who provides 
day-to-day guidance, coaching and training.  At the beginning of their internship, objectives are 
set by each intern, in consultation with the supervisor and the Director of the Division.  Accession interns provide weekly reports on their activities  and achievements of their objectives to the 
Director of the Division.  One intern also work ed in the Regional Trade Agreements Section. 
5.1.1.4.2  Members internship programme (MIP) 
5.38.  In total, 151 applications were received from 51 countries for this programme in 2015, 
leading to the selection of 17 interns who stayed in Geneva from March to December 2015.  Nine 
of them were from LDCs. 
5.39.  The activities and tasks carried out by the interns can be divided into two broad categories: 
(i) assisting their respective permanent missions in the preparation of WTO body meetings, 
including participation in the meetings, follow-up and preparation of reports for their capitals; 
(ii) participating in training activities organized by the Secretariat (e.g. on Reference Centre management or specific subjects such as TF, Services, notifications, etc.) and other IGOs (e.g. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 37 - 
 
  A C W L ,  I T C ,  U N C T A D ,  W I P O ) .   M o r e  t h a n  9 0 %  o f  the interns' time was dedicated to the first 
category and the remainder to the training activities and the governance of the programme. 
5.40.  The first category encompasses activities relating to regular work of the WTO under the 
auspices of the General Council and trade negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda.  
With respect to the WTO regular work, the interns participated and reported on activities in the 
following areas: 
 Work programme on e-Commerce, including the extension of the moratorium on customs 
duties on electronic transmissions; 
 Moratorium on TRIPS non-violation and situation complaints; 
 Extension of the transition period under th e TRIPS Agreement for LDCs with respect to 
pharmaceutical products; 
 Accessions; 
 Aid for Trade; 
 Enhance Integrated Framework (EIF) phase II; 
 Work Programme on Small Economies;  
 Trade Policy Reviews;  
 Dispute Settlement; 
 Work on trade and transfer of techno logy and on trade debt and finance; 
 Expansion of the Information Technology Agreement (ITA);  
 Work under the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA). 
 
5.41.  As part of the follow-up to the implemen tation of the Bali Package and the discussions on 
the development of a Post-Bali Work Programm e on the remaining DDA issues, the interns 
supported their permanent missions by participating in the work of the various negotiating bodies 
and committees.  The primary issues of interest for most of the interns were agriculture, trade 
facilitation, development and LDCs issues (preferential rules of origin, operationalization of the Services waiver, duty and quota-free market access, and the monitoring mechanism for S&D 
treatment).  Participating in the various meetings enabled the interns to follow developments in 
the implementation of the decisions reached at MC9 in December 2013 and to better understand the issues addressed in the different WTO fora and the concerns of Members. 
5.42.  Subject to the situation and interests of th eir respective countries, a few interns were given 
the opportunity to attend meetings on dispute settlement and on factual presentations of RTAs.  
Several interns also prepared their countries' statements during the TPR of various Members (e.g. Madagascar, Angola and Cabo Verde).  The interns from newly acceded countries (Laos and 
Vanuatu) worked on the follow-up on the implemen tation of their accession commitments.  Interns 
from acceding countries (Liberia and Sudan) took part in the preparation of documents and reports 
for the accession process, participated in working sessions between the negotiation team from 
capital and the Secretariat, and coordinated bilateral negotiations with their capital.  The intern 
from Mali assisted his country and the C-4 Group on cotton-related issues and negotiations. 
5.43.  Several interns were involved in the coordination between the Secretariat and relevant 
government agencies in capital regarding WTO obliga tions in different areas such as notifications, 
TRIPs and Trade Facilitation.  For example, the inte rn from Sri Lanka was involved in the approval 
and notification of the protocol amending the TRIP S Agreement; those from Cote d'Ivoire, Mali and 
Niger in the ratification and notification of the Tr ade Facilitation Agreement.  Over the years, this 
work has also helped to fill many notification gaps on Rules of Origin or Customs Valuation.  Work 
with the West African interns has ensured that th e countries of the region understand better the 
implications of the adoption of a Common External Tariff for their tariff commitments at the WTO: 
all the countries concerned have now submitted their communication for the renegotiation of tariff 
concessions within the prescribed period.
35 
5.44.  In the second part of the year, the in terns devoted a majority of their time to the 
preparation for MC10 held in Nairobi on 15-19 December 2015.  The interns participated in the 
negotiating groups on the deliverables for MC10 and the Ministerial Declaration, which involved 
several preparatory meetings of regional groups or coalitions of interests such as the ACP, African or LDC groups.  These groups met frequently in the lead up to MC10 to coordinate their positions 
and devise a common strategy for the negotiations.  Participation in these meetings enabled the 
                                               
35 See G/MA/308, 310, 314, 321, 322, 323, 324, 325, 326, 327 and 328. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 38 - 
 
  interns to gain a better insight into the views held by Members and the challenges involved in 
reconciling positions given the diversity of interests. 
5.45.  As the submission of WTO notifications is a weak point for many developing country 
Members, many interns helped update their country's  notification obligations.  A number of interns 
also prepared an assessment of their country's TA  needs, which will serve as a starting point for 
the Secretariat to conduct a thorough needs assessment in order to identify priority areas.  The interns took part in the consultations on the prio rities to be included in the 2016-2017 TA Plan. 
5.1.1.4.3  Netherlands trainee programme (NTP) 
5.46.  In 2015, 14 interns were selected (9 from LDCs) to work in the Secretariat from March to 
December.  The activities and tasks carried out by the interns can be divided into three broad categories: (i) performing specific tasks for their co untries in relation to notifications and TA needs 
assessments; (ii) participating in training activities organized by the Secretariat and other IGOs; 
and (iii) participating in the regular work of th e ITTC or other divisions of the Secretariat. 
5.47.  At the beginning of their stay, the intern s prepared an assessment of their country's TA 
needs, which will serve as a starting point fo r the Secretariat to conduct a thorough needs 
assessment in order to identify priority areas.  They also observed the consultations on the 
priorities to be included in the 2016-2017 TA Plan. 
5.48.  As the submission of WTO notifications is a weak point for many developing country 
Members, the interns prepared for their Missions/capitals' attention an update of the notifications outstanding under each of the Agreements for wh ich notification is required.  In 2015, the WTO 
received a number of notifications on SPS and TBT from Rwanda and Uganda, which were a direct 
result from the work of the interns from these countries in 2014.  Progress already reported above 
under the MIP concerning notification on Rules of Origin, Customs Valuation and renegotiation of tariff concessions in West Africa is equally due to NTP former interns. 
5.49.  For several years, self-training has become the centre piece of the NTP.  In 2015, the 
interns spent the majority of their time training on a large variety of trade-related subjects including the use and management of a Reference Centre, WTO online courses, various workshops 
and seminars organized by the WTO or other IGOs in Geneva (e.g. ACWL, ITC, UNCTAD, WIPO) on 
TFA, Services, notifications, etc.  A one-week study tour was organized in the Netherlands on 
international trade trends and policy planning.  As part of their training, the interns also attended meetings of some groupings, with the consent of their members, such as the ACP, African or LDC 
Groups.  Participation in these meetings gave them an insight into the views held by members of 
these groups and the challenges involved in reconciling positions given the diversity of interests.  It allowed them to observe part of Members' travail in preparation for MC10. 
5.50.  The rest of the interns' time was dedicated to supporting the work of various units of ITTC, 
or of some other divisions to which they were temporarily assigned: 
a. As in 2014, eight interns worked as assistant tutors in four e-Learning courses.
36  This 
involved the following tasks: monitor participants' progress; answer questions on the 
course substance, exams or administrative aspects; prepare and participate in the chat sessions; suggest discussion subjects for the News Forum;
37 revision of existing course 
material; development of exam questions including reasons behind correct answers; etc. 
b. According to their personal interest, some inte rns also worked for limited periods of time 
on issues related to TPRs, SDTF, AfT, Trad e & Environment, Intellectual Property, Trade 
in Services and SPS.  This occasionally invo lved attendance at formal and informal WTO 
Committee meetings where this was permitted. 
                                               
36 Introduction to WTO (E, F), Multilateral Trade Agreements (F) and Trade Economics (F). 
37 The interns suggested 16 discussions topics out the 40 that came up in 2015. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 39 - 
 
  5.1.2  Output 1.2: Relevant TA need s of Members are identified annually 
Indicators Targets 2015 
Number of internal and external 
consultations on TA needs Monthly meetings through TA 
Coordination Task Force and 2 consultations annually with each regional group Target partially 
met 
Report on consultations on TA needs Report on consultations available Target met 
 5.51.  The TA Plan stated that the strategy woul d be to address the identified capacity building 
needs and promote cumulative and progressive kn owledge transfer relating to WTO Agreements 
and trade issues.
38  The consultations held in preparation of the Plan had shown that Members' 
priority needs were, in order of decreasing im portance, on the following subjects: SPS, TBT, 
Services, Rules, TRIPS, Agriculture, Market Access for Goods, Trade Facilitation, Dispute 
Settlement, DDA negotiations and notifications.39  The informal consultations between the 
Secretariat and Members held regularly during the course of 2015 confirmed these priorities.  The 
analysis presented in section 4.4 above showed th at the TA provided by the Secretariat in 2015 
responded to the needs identified by Members.  The Secretariat TA Coordination Task Force held 
five meetings in 2015.  Target partially met  
5.52.  Beyond what was already explained above under section 5.1 concerning the general 
consultations held in 2015 on beneficiaries TA n eeds and priorities when preparing the TA Plan 
2016-17, and under sections 5.1.1.4.2 and 5.1.1.4.3 concerning the work performed by the MIP 
and NTP interns on the TA needs of their respective countries, most other consultations were held 
on a bilateral basis with the beneficiaries who requested national activities.  The main purpose of these consultations was to specify more precisely the actual needs of the requesting country in 
order to design the most suited TA activity.  Engaging in this process was a challenge for a number 
of beneficiaries who had difficulties in defining precisely the problem they wanted to fix or the 
objectives they wanted to reach at the end of th e activity.  The result of these consultations is 
embodies in the national activity request eventually submitted.  Target met  
5.1.3  Output 1.3: Effective partnerships result in substa ntive contributions of human 
and financial resources for e-Learni ng and face-to-face activities 
Indicators Targets 2015 
Amount of financial contributions 
from partners Increase in financial contributions Data not available40 
Number of activities co-funded Increase of co-funded TA activities Data not available39 
Number of activities implemented 
in partnership (jointly) 50% jointly implemented TA 
activities Target not met 
 
5.53.  As explained in previous years' annual reports, the Secretariat relies on an extensive network of partnerships to deliver better tailored TA to beneficiaries in a cost-efficient manner.  
For example, outreach activities for MPs, civil society and media were organized quasi exclusively 
through longstanding partnerships with various Foundations, parliamentary assemblies, etc.  The TA Plan 2016-17 identified four domains in which partners can usefully add value to the TA 
provided by the WTO: substance, cost-sharing, logistics and outreach.
41  H o w e v e r ,  i t  b e c a m e  
apparent when preparing this Plan that the Secr etariat did not possess much data on the actual 
contribution from its partners to its various activities.  Tools have consequently been developed at the end of 2015 to collect more systematically in the future data on the contributions made by the 
WTO partners to its TA activities.  In the meantime, this report tries to retrospectively assess the 
situation during the past year. 
                                               
38 See section 6.1 in document WT/COMTD/W/200. 
39 See section 5 in document WT/COMTD/W/200. 
40 The data for 2015 are available but not the baseline data with which to compare them.  No 
progression can consequently be measured. 
41 See section 5.7 in document WT/COMTD/W/211. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 40 - 
 
  
5.54.  In 2015, the WTO cooperated 
with 48 different partners to organise and deliver 51 different activities.  One should also add to these figures the  
21 TA activities of other institutions to 
which the WTO contributed as a partner.
42  Together, these 72 activities 
represent 25% of the TA activities 
which the WTO organized or in which it participated in 2015.  The target included in the TA Plan was 50%.  
However, that figure was not based on 
any analysis of the reality, as the Secretariat did not collect any data on 
partnerships until the end of 2015.  
This has been rectified in the 2016-17 TA Plan.  Target not met  
5.55.  In 22% of the cases, the partner added limited value to the activity whether in terms of 
substance, funding, logistics or outreach, if any.  On average, the partners contributed 13% of the 
substance, 29% of the costs, 44% of the logisti cs and gave access to new audiences in 42% of the 
cases.  The graph shows that, quite logically, th e WTO provided the majority of the substance of 
the activities in 92%, of the funding in 65% and of the logistics in only 49% of the cases.  In the 
absence of comprehensive reliable data for previous years, it is impossible to assess whether there 
was any evolution compared to the past.  Data not available  
5.56.  The 2014-15 TA Plan had placed a disproport ionate emphasis on the financial aspect of the 
cooperation with partners.  This has been rectified in the 2016-17 TA Plan which takes into account 
the contribution of many partner to the substance of the TA activities, their logistical support and 
their capacity to reach a wider audience beyond the traditional constituency of the WTO. 
5.1.4  Output 1.4: Relevant course curr iculum and new courses developed based on 
identified needs and Guidelines introd uced for implementation of the PLS 
Indicators Targets 2015 
Number of new courses developed Training material developed for 
three new courses Target met 
Change in the content of the course 
curriculum Curriculum updated taking into 
account e.g. recent DS 
developments and negotiating issue Target met 
% of participants rating the balance 
between theory, case studies and 
exercises as good or excellent 70% of responses as good or 
excellent Target met 
% of participants rating the quality of 
the course content as good or excellent 70% of responses as good or 
excellent Target met 
Status of PLS guidelines development Refining PLS benchmarks by level 
and path Target not met 
 
5.57.  The TA Plan targeted the development of training material for three new courses, but did 
not define any specific numerical target for changes in the content of course curricula but required their update and adjustment.  Concerning the opinion of the participants, the target was to have 
70% of them rate as good or excellent the bala nce between theory, case studies and exercises, 
and the quality of the courses content in general.  Whilst almost all Participant Evaluation Forms (PEFs) contained one or several questions on the latter, few of them focused on the balance 
between theory and practice. 
                                               
42 See section 3.1.2 above. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 41 - 
 
  
5.58.  Finally, the TA Plan had envisaged the re finement of the PLS guidelines and benchmarks 
developed at the end of 2013.  In retrospect, it would not make much sense to start revising these guidelines before they have been actually implemented, if not in full, at least to a significant extent.  Since no progress was made in 2015 in this domain, the Secretariat had no basis on which 
to start refining the guidelines.  Target not met  
 
5.59.  The use of interactive training methods continued to be recommended when delivering TA 
activities at all three PLS levels.  Research in the field of adult training and education 
demonstrated that interactive training methods stimulate learning and increase significantly the rate of knowledge retention by the participants (i.e. how much they remember after a while).  
Data on the various training methods used in the WTO TA activities are collected since the end of 
2009, but is not yet systematically provided by the trainers and is not always reliable.  For example, it can be difficult to distinguish inside a lecture the time dedicated to the questions of the 
participants, which clearly increase the interactivity of the session. 
5.60.   Lectures are the predominant medium used by WTO trainers to deliver TA activities.  Since 
2014, the share of the lectures provided by the participants themselves (as opposed to by the 
Secretariat staff) is measured separately.  Lectures provided by the Secretariat represented 
approximately 40% of the time on average, and thos e provided by the participants 6%.  As in the 
past, these averages hide significant differences  between certain types of activities, but the 
statistics for 2015 confirm that the activities almost  entirely based on lectures were on the way 
out.
43  The use of other training methods was stable by and large, even if exercises (15%) and 
case studies (15%) were on the rise: only a quarter of the activities for which statistics were available did not use any exercise or case study.  Activities such as support to ELSA Moot Court 
competitions, training courses on Trade Negotiating Skills involve almost no lecture and make an 
extensive use of case studies.  Such activities are also becoming more numerous. 
5.61.  The rest of the training time was shared on average between Questions & Answers (13.5%), 
quizzes (2%) and other training methods (8%).  Other training methods used in TA activities 
include group work or group discussions and panels among others.  These statistics show that, 
independently of the subjective perception of the participants concerning the balance between theory and practice, efforts are objectively made by the WTO in most of its TA activities to 
increase the time dedicated to case studies and exercises which allow participants to apply 
concretely what they have learnt. 
5.1.4.1  Advanced Trade Policy Courses (ATPCs) 
5.62.  Further to the major reform of ATPCs implemented in 2014,
44 new or revised modules were 
introduced in 2015: a "Databases and Analytical Tools Project" was introduced to the 2nd ATPC in 
order to consolidate participants' skills in the use of trade-related databases and associated analytical tools; a new simulation exercise was also introduced in the area of services; and the 
approach to the trade negotiations simulation wa s changed.  Those changes achieved the intended 
results. 
                                               
43 In 2015, lectures represented more than 80% of the time in only four activities for which statistics 
were available. 
44 See section 3.3.3 in document WT/COMTD/W/209. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 42 - 
 
  5.63.  In 2015, a large percentage of participants  rated highly the relevance of the ATPC to their 
professional needs and considered that the cour ses had helped them to enhance their autonomy 
and skills to conduct WTO-related work.  Nevertheless, some participants and trainers believed that there was scope for more hands-on use of databases and for more exercises that encouraged 
critical thinking.  The latter was particularly emphasized in the module dealing with trade policy 
presentations, which participants rated highly but trainers considered did not visibly reach the level of intellectual rigour required to demonstrate participants' capacity to conduct WTO-related 
work on an autonomous manner.  The main challenge was how to sharpen participants' critical 
thinking and their awareness of the formal concepts  that can guide trade policy formulation in an 
economy-wide context.  To address this, improvements will be introduced to the relevant ATPC modules in 2016. 
5.64.  Changes were also made to respond to comments from participants: the ATPC hours were 
adjusted to provide more time for hands-on exercises and discussion; working lunches were discontinued; the number of case studies was reduced in the TBT session; the Moot Court case 
was rescheduled and placed towards the end of the programme; and a new module on services 
and a longer technical refresher on agriculture were introduced.  Target met  
5.65.  The ATPCs aimed to consolidate participants' knowledge of the WTO rules and disciplines 
and how these relate to trade policy formulation and implementation, improv e their analytical and 
negotiating skills, and reinforce their capacity to fi nd information on trade-related issues.  Overall, 
participants and organisers regarded the ATPCs as having reached those objectives in 2015, with between 94% and 100% of participants having deemed the courses either successful or very 
successful.  ATPCs made no use of written exams or other methods to gauge more quantitatively 
the extent to which the overall objectives were actually attained.  Between 90% and 100% of the 
participants rated the quality of the course content as good or excellent.  Target met  
5.66.  Participants appreciated the increased use in 2015 of case studies and simulations like the 
trade negotiations module while providing feedback  on possible improvements to make them more 
flexibility and challenging.  The balance between theory, case studies and exercises can 
consequently be considered as satisfactory.  Target met  
5.1.4.2  Other Geneva-based activities 5.67.  In 2015 as in 2014, the Geneva-based curriculum for generalists included an intermediate 
course for LDCs.  This course was developed in an effort to better meet the needs of LDC Member 
but the interest it generated was limited, with only a relatively low number of applications 
received.  As a result, the trainers recommended th at this course be redesigned or replaced with 
an activity better focused on LDC interests.  In the same vein, the introduction course for LDCs 
had to be cancelled due to an insufficient number of applicants. 
5.68.  New Geneva-based courses were developed and offered in 2015 covering subjects such 
astrade in services and non-tariff trade barriers.
45  All the traditional and new courses for 
specialists that fell within the PLS framework were delivered at the advanced level.  This reflected 
an ongoing drive to phase out lower level courses offered to specialists in Geneva.  Although mentioned in the 2014-15 TA Plan, neither a trade negotiations activity nor focus activities targeting particular issues were offered to Geneva-based delegates in 2015, reflecting the 
apparent lack of demand for these activities.  Target met  
5.69.  The PEFs for these courses did not contain any question on the balance between theory and 
practice but asked the participants to rate separate ly the quality of the presentations, case studies 
and exercises.  Depending on the course, the ra te of good and excellent marks varied between 
74% and 100%.  When participants were asked to rate the overall quality of the course content, the rate of good or excellent marks also vari ed between 73% and 100%.  But as explained under 
section 3.2 above, the limitations in the storage of the information in the current database made 
the compilation of such statistics highly cumbersome.  Targets met  
                                               
45 See section 3.3.3 above for more details. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
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  5.1.4.3  RTPCs 
5.70.  During the biennium, new course curriculum was developed and training materials were 
updated in the areas of Basic Principles and fo r the Negotiating Skills Workshop.  The Dispute 
Settlement module was also updated to include more  simulations and case studies.  In 2016, work 
will be done to update the International Trade Theory module to reflect participants' views that the 
module has been too theoretical and covers too much material for a course which is meant to focus on the WTO Agreements.  In line with the PLS guidelines, the module will be revised to focus 
on one or two trade theories.  The module dealing with Databases will also be revised.  It is 
considered that this part of the Market Access mo dule should be either taught in greater depth 
(i.e. 2 days) or not at all.  A cursory review of databases is not useful to participants whereas a detailed module with practical exercises could be useful if the programme permits the time.  
Target met  
5.71.  Generally, the course content of the RTPCs is  highly appreciated by the participants.  While 
the participants' evaluation forms do not contain a question to rate the balance between theory, 
case studies and exercises, the evaluations do cont ain a question to rate the overall satisfaction 
with the quality of the sessions and presentations.   On average, over the seven courses, 90% of 
the participants rated the quality of the sessions and presentations very good or excellent. This 
figure far exceeds the target rate of 70% as contained in the logframe.  Target met  
5.1.4.4  Other face-t o-face activities 
5.72.  Given that the standard PEF used in most face-to-face activities does not contain any 
specific question on the balance between theory, ca se studies and exercises, or on the quality of 
the course content, no data was available to asce rtain the balance between theory and practice or 
the quality of the course content.  The PEF simp ly includes a general question on the overall 
appreciation of the participants, which is good or very good in more than 90% of the cases on 
average.  Since this part of the 2014-15 TA logf rame was modified in the 2016-17 TA Plan and will 
rely in the future on the existing question s ,  t h e r e  i s  n o  n e e d  t o  m o d i f y  t h e  P E F .   Data not 
available  
5.1.4.5  e-Learning courses 
5.73.  Participants' feedback shows that the qualit y of the training material was highly appreciated 
in 2015: On average, 91% of participants who re sponded to the end-of-course questionnaire rated 
the quality of the course content good or excellent; and 82% of participants rated the balance 
between theory, case studies and exercises good or excellent.  Target met  
5.2  Key Result 2: Acceding governments are participating in accession negotiations, in 
line with WTO accession processes and procedures 
Indicators Targets 2015 
Number of acceding governments with a 
Working Party meeting held 12 acceding governments  Target not met 
Number of acceding governments with initial 
market access offers on goods and services 2 acceding governments Target not met 
 
5.74.  Throughout 2015, the Secretariat provided non-stop technical support to Liberia.  Due to 
travel restrictions, five working sessions with the Monrovia-based negotiating team were held in 
Geneva, (26 January-6 February, 2-15 March, 8-10 May, 22-30 June and 24-28 July).  The objective of these sessions was to finalise the Draft Working Party Report.  In August, the 
Chairman of Liberia's Accession Working Party visi ted Monrovia to discuss the content of the Draft 
Accession Package with the President, the Cabinet and Parliament, and to schedule the final meeting of the Working Party, which took place early October.  Members adopted the Accession 
Package of Liberia on 16 December 2015, at MC10. 
5.75.  In November, the Chairman of Afghanis tan's Accession Working Party visited Kabul to 
discuss the content of the updated Draft Accession  Package with the President, the Cabinet and 
Parliament, and to schedule the final meeting of th e Working Party, which took place in November.  
Members adopted the Accession Package of Afghanistan on 17 December 2015, at MC10. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 44 - 
 
  5.76.  Further to the Secretariat visit to Kazakhstan in May 2014 on the margins of the Astana 
Economic Forum to finalise the Draft Accession Package, a final meeting of the Working Party took place in June 2015.  Members adopted the Acce ssion Package on 27 July 2015 and Kazakhstan 
became the 162
nd Member of WTO on 30 November 2015. 
5.77.  The Annual Report on WTO Accessions for 201546 includes in its Annex 1 several indicators 
on the work performed during the year.  The fo llowing meetings were held during the year: 
a. 6 formal Working Party meetings (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan: 1 each; 
Liberia: 3); 
b. 3 informal meetings or consultations (Kazakhstan: 1, Liberia: 2); 
c. 2 technical verification meetings of the consolidated draft schedule on goods and 
services (Kazakhstan and Liberia); and 
d. 3 plurilateral meetings addressed specific tech nical issues in the area of agriculture and 
SPS (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Liberia). 
5.78.  Draft reports were revised and update d for four Working Parties: Afghanistan and 
Azerbaijan (1 revision each), Kazakhstan (2) an d Liberia (3).  The draft accession packages for 
Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Liberia were prepared and circulated. 
5.79.  At the beginning of 2015, there were 21 Working Parties where work was in active progress.  
The target for the year was to have 12 acceding governments with a working party meeting held 
and two acceding governments making an initial market access offer on goods and services.  Only four governments had a working party meeting in one form or another in 2015 and none made an initial offer.  The assumptions made when defining these targets were that accession negotiations 
would remain active, which was clearly not the case for most of the other Observers, and that 
acceding governments would submit the required documentation to their Working Parties, which 
again did not happen in 2015 for the other Observers.  Despite this, 2015 saw the accession of 
Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Liberia.  The TA provided to these countries over many years 
contributed to these results.
47  For the next biennium, the indicators have been modified to better 
capture how active acceding governments have been.  The new indicator chosen is the number of 
meetings held (14 in 2015).  Targets not met  
5.2.1  Output 2.1: Acceding government s are familiar with WTO substantive and 
procedural matters 
Indicators Targets 2015 
Number of TA activities attended by acceding governments 98 TA activities Target met 
Number of TA beneficiaries from acceding governments 523 TA participants Target met 
 
5.80.  Acceding governments were invited to 79 TA face-to-face activities out of 252 held in 2015 
(i.e. 30%).  Excluding Andorra, whose accession process is inactive, and Sao Tome & Principe, who is under category III administrative measures and cannot be invited to TA activities, the other  
20 acceding governments were each invited on average to 24 face-to-face TA activities.  Taking 
into account the 65 online courses to which Observers are given the same access as Members brings the total for the year to 144 TA activities.  The target in the TA Plan was 98 TA activities.  
Target met  
5.81.  In total, 707 participants from acceding countries are registered in the TA database as 
having participated in TA activities in 2015, whether online or face-to-face.  Some of them participated on more than one activity.  This number includes some unavoidable double counting, 
as a consequence of the difficulties already expl ained above in section 3.2, but these are unlikely 
to represent more than 2 or 3% of the total.  The target included in the Plan for the year was  523 TA participants.  Target met  
                                               
46 WT/ACC/25. 
47 On average, since the creation of the WTO, accessions under Article XII have required more than 
10 years (see Annex 4 in WT/ACC/25). WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
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5.3  Key Result 3: Members are accessing and using WTO-related information enabling 
them to raise awareness of WTO matters with all their stakeholders 
Indicators Targets 2015 
Number of activities organized by the 
RCs At least 1 activity organized by 
RC per year Target met 
Number of visitors to the RCs per month Around 50 visitors per month Target partially met 
Number of the RCs providing access to 
e-Learning 40 RCs offering access to e-
Learning Target not met 
 
5.82.  Since its inception in 1997, more than 150 RCs have been established in beneficiary 
countries.  Over the years, due to the rotation of staff and the obsolescence of equipment, the 
WTO lost contact with many RCs, which means that the Secretariat never operated a network of 
150+ RCs.  RC reporting rate on their activiti es has always been low, which prevented the 
Secretariat from properly measuring the results produced by the programme. 
5.83.  At the moment, the Secretariat has a regi stry of 116 RCs, many of which in established 
more than 10 years ago in developing countries.  More recent RCs are predominantly in LDCs, 
which have become the main target of the prog ramme.  Within the universe of 116 RCs, 57 (49%) 
are considered as active today and 27 are in 25 LDCs.  However, their reporting rate did not increase, despite repeated efforts by the Secretariat. 
5.84.  Three quarters of reporting RCs indicated th at they are open all the time.  Each of them 
organized approximately eight activities during the year on average.  These included technical meetings, seminars and courses for colleagues from the Ministry or Universities.  Some RCs also 
cooperated and exchanged information with each other, like those in Costa Rica and Uruguay.  The 
target had been that RCs would organise at least one activity on average per year.  Target met  
5.85.   Reporting RCs received approximately 
100 visitors per month on average during the 
year, mostly for research purposes.  Two thirds 
of the visitors were from the government sector.  The numbers varied considerably amongst RCs, 
as shown by the graph.  The TA Plan had 
targeted a minimum of 50 visitors per month per RC.  Even if the overall average for the 
programme was boosted by the high level of 
visitors in a small number of RCs (7), the results show that almost half of the reporting RCs did not meet this target.  Target partially met  
5.86.  In 2015, 19 of the reporting RCs facilitated or  coordinated the participation of trade officials 
in WTO online courses.  The target in the TA Plan was 40, which was based on the larger group of RCs (2012).  Seven reporting RCs (23%) produced and disseminated a newsletter, mainly on a 
weekly basis.  Target not met  
5.3.1  Output 3.1: WTO Refere nce Centres (RCs) are established or upgraded in targeted 
Member/Observer economies 
Indicators Targets 2015 
Number of RCs established or upgraded every year 10 RCs Target partially met 
Number of RCs financed by partner institutions 2 RCs co-financed Target not met 
 
5.87.  The Secretariat carried out its mandate of establishing and updating RCs in beneficiary 
countries, giving priority to LDCs while addressing previous commitments for RCs in developing countries.  Nine RCs – six of them in LDCs – were established or upgraded in 2015, almost 
meeting the target of 10 identified in the TA Plan .  The upgrading of 2 RCs had to be postponed to 
2016 due to delays on beneficiary's end.  Target partially met  WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 46 - 
 
  
5.88.  During 2015, the Secretariat did not seek other IGO partners to help finance the provision 
of equipment to RCs.  Target not met  
5.3.2  Output 3.2: Managers and potential users are trained in information management 
Indicators Targets 2015 
Number of participants to the training 
sessions at the national level Around 250 participants trained at 
the national level Target met 
Number of NTP, MIP and RCI interns 
trained every year 39 interns trained Target partially met 
% of questionnaires received on the 
use and functioning of the RCs 60% of questionnaires received Target partially met 
 
5.89.  According to the data collected through th e BTORs, during the nine RC missions held in 
2015 a total of 284 persons were trained on the use of WTO online resources, such as tariff 
databases, WTO documents, etc.  This exceeds the target of 250 defined in the TA Plan.  Target 
met 
5.90.  The 31 NTP and MIP interns received a similar training during their stay in Geneva, but this 
training did not involve any of the 7 RCI interns.  The target for the year was to train 39 interns, 
which can be interpreted as meaning 100% of those hosted in Geneva during the year under each of the three long-term internship programmes.  Target partially met  
5.91.  The TA Plan had targeted to improve the re porting rate of RCs from 56% to 60%.  In 2015, 
33 RCs submitted and activity report, representing 58% of those RCs considered as active.  This 
calls into question the validity of the classificati on as "active" of the 24 RCs which did not provide 
the required information and the capacity of the programme to build a true network to facilitate 
communications between the WTO and LDCs.  Target partially met  
5.3.3  Digital Dispute Settlement Registry (DDSR) 5.92.  The DDSR should progressively replace the current paper-based filing system for dispute 
settlement cases.  The DDSR was not explicitly identified in the TA Plan for 2014-15, which was 
finalized before the need to assist Members in the transition from paper to digital filings was identified.  As a result, the TA Plan did not identify any specific target for the DDSR.  In 2015, 
training on the DDSR continued to be a part of the Geneva-based TA.  A one-day comprehensive 
run-through of the DDSR was added to the Advanced  DS Course in Spanish, shorter introductions 
to the system were part of the DS week of the ATPC in English.  Geneva-based delegates were 
given the option to attend brief lunch time sessions on specific aspects of the DDSR – such as how 
to upload exhibits – and to receive one-on-one support to assist them in making actual filings in on-going disputes.  These sessions were held in July and August to coincide with the first filings in real cases when the pilot DDSR was launched on 1 July. 
5.93.  The direct costs of the 
above-mentioned activities was negligible (they represent an 
opportunity cost for the 
Secretariat) and the activities have achieved results in a highly 
efficient way, as can be seen 
from the increasing number of Members participating in the pilot phase of the DDSR for a 
growing number of disputes.  By 
the end of 2015, 14 disputes involving 21 Members (whether 
as a party or third party) were 
in the DDSR pilot phase.  Two thirds (14) of these Members 
are TA beneficiaries. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 47 - 
 
  
5.4  Key Result 4: WTO-supported academic institutions are applying trade policy and 
WTO-related topics and subjects in their courses and research 
Indicators Targets 2015 
Number of academic research papers on 
WTO-related issues published 15 or more of research 
outputs published Target partially met 
Number of students who participated in 
WTO-related courses and programmes To be estimated end of 2014  Target met 
 
5.94.  In 2015, the seven new Chairs published in total  13 articles in peer-reviewed journals.  Some articles were published in the following journals: International 
Economics; Canadian Journal of Development Studies; 
South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences; Journal of Applied Business Research; World 
Bank Economic Review; and International Business and 
Economics Research Journal.  This global result is not equally shared as three Chairs have not yet published 
research articles in peer-reviewed journals.  The 
publication process takes time and it is expected that in the near future all the Chairs should be in position to disseminate their production through such means. 
5.95.  The target included in the TA Plan was to have 15 or more research outputs published, 
starting from a baseline of 12.  The fact that 40%  of the Chairs did not publish anything in 2015 
clearly penalized the programme in this regard.  Target partially met  
5.96.  In 2015, 1044 students participated in courses 
organized by the Chairs.  The Chair from South Africa has been the most active as the courses offered were 
mandatory and targeted a large cohort of both 
undergraduate and post graduate students.  The other Chairs proposed specialized courses for graduate and post graduate students only, which explains why their figures 
look modest compared to those of from South Africa where 
all students had to follow the courses developed by the Chair. 
5.97.  The baseline regarding the number of students 
trained had to be measured in 2014.  As no reliable data 
are available for 2014, one may reasonably expect each Chair to train at least 30 students per 
year, which represents a total of 210 students per year for the seven Chairs.  A much higher figure 
was reached in 2015 thanks to South Africa.  Excluding South Africa, the other six Chairs trained a total of 244 students in 2015, i.e. 40 students each on average, which is perfectly in line with the target.  Target met  
5.4.1  Output 4.1: Research on trade polic y and WTO-related matters generated by WTO 
Chairs through provisions of grants 
Indicators Targets 2015 
Number of books, research papers 
and articles produced 30 or more research papers, books, articles Target met 
 WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 48 - 
 
  
5.98.  Research is one of the three pillars of 
the WTO Chairs Programme (WCP).  It may eventually influence trade policy (see output 4.3 below).  The TA Plan targeted a 
25% increase in the volume of research by 
the end of the year.  In 2015, the Chairs have collectively published 45 working 
papers and 13 articles in peer-reviewed 
journals.
48  This represents an 88% 
increase compared to the baseline.  Target 
met 
5.99.  It was decided in 2015 to regroup 
key research papers from the Chairs in a joint publication as in 2014.  A call for 
papers on "Reducing Trade Costs for Inclusive, Sustainable Growth" was issued and selected 
papers related to Trade Facilitation and how to reduce the cost of doing business were presented 
in margin of the Public Forum and AfT Global Review.  They included a number of case studies.  A 
book on trade cost and inclusive growth should be released in November 2016. 
5.100.  Beyond this quantitative assessment, effort s were also made to increase the quality of the 
research produced by the Chairs, for example through a better connection to the national trade agenda.  The Chairs in Benin, South Africa or Turkey worked with the ministry dealing with trade 
issues and certain business groups, as illustrated by the paper on "MCA subsidy and port reform in 
Benin: effect of Trade Facilitation" which was prep ared in close cooperation with the Ministry of 
Trade and the Ministry of Harbours and Maritime Affairs, and focused on the efficiency of the 
national ports.  The Chair in Turkey also work ed with the Turkish Steel Exporters Association. 
5.101.  The first phase of the WCP (2011-14) show ed that the attribution dilemma was potentially 
the most serious challenge when trying to measure the results of the programme.  Since the WCP 
relies on academics already active in the field of trade issues and is not the only show in town, it is 
not easy to identify the research which can be confidently ascribed to the programme.  In 2015, the Secretariat tried to mitigate this risk through monthly contacts with the Chairs and through a regular monitoring of their activities.  The monthly videoconferences helped distinguish what was 
directly due to the WCP from what was produced only indirectly.  The Chairs have been requested 
to make the distinction in their future reporting. 
5.4.2  Output 4.2: Academic courses on WT O-related subjects introduced and updated 
with WTO support 
Indicators Targets 2015 
Number of new and updated degrees, diploma 
programmes and training courses implemented by WTO Chairs and other academic institutions 12 or more degrees, diploma 
programmes and academic courses Target met 
African countries represented in ELSA Moot Court 
competition African countries represented 
in ELSA Moot Court Target met 
Number of PhD students completing a WTO 
fellowship 4 PhD students Target met 
 
                                               
48 Working papers are generally presented in seminars or conferences, whilst articles are published in 
journals or other re search publications. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 49 - 
 
  
5.4.2.1  WTO Chairs Programme 
5.102.  In 2015, the Chairs have 
contributed to educate on WTO-related subjects a new generation of students, 
both at the graduate and undergraduate 
level.  Collectively, they designed or updated 26 new or existing courses and 
offered 8 new or updated diploma 
programmes.  The target identified in the TA Plan was to develop or update a minimum of 12 de grees, diploma 
programmes and academic courses.  The 
Chairs achieved almost three times that level in 2015.  Target met  
5.103.  Several partnerships helped the 
Chairs achieve these results.  For example, the Tunis Business School worked with the London School of Economics on didactic tools and with the Virtual Institute of UNCTAD to access 
innovative pedagogical materials; Sultan Qaboos University worked with the Italian Agriculture 
Economics Institute to enhance its pedagogical capacities, especially on Computable General Equilibrium analysis; North-West University worked with the International Trade Centre to develop its curriculum; etc. 
5.4.2.1  ELSA Moot Court Competition 
5.104.  Beyond the WCP, the WTO continued to support the Moot Court Competition (MCC) 
organized by the European Law Student Association (ELSA) and to subsidise the participation of 
some teams of African students therein.
 49  In 2015 WTO staff reviewed the moot problem, graded 
written submissions and served as panellists in each of the regional rounds that included developing countries (Americas, Asia-Pacific and Africa), as usual.  The WTO also maintained its 
seed-funding of the second African regional round held at the University of the Witwatersrand, 
South Africa, but at a lower level than in th e previous year (CHF 20,000 instead of 50,000) 
through a special contribution by Norway.  That went towards facilitating the participation in the final oral round in Geneva of the three best teams from the African regional round.  The WTO, 
ESLA and the organisers worked together to put the round on a more sustainable footing.  During 
the final round in Geneva, the students got an opportunity to meet with representatives of various African delegations, including the Permanent Representatives of South Africa and Lesotho to the 
WTO. 
5.105.  The plan to gradually reduce WTO funding in 2015 was part of the continuing effort to 
ensure the long-term sustainability of the project by finding support within Africa for keeping the 
competition going while at the same time making sure that the competition could continue as 
momentum developed on the continent.  DG Azevêdo agreed to be the patron of the MCC.  This was a resounding success.  With less WTO funding than the year before, ELSA International and University of the Witwatersrand were able to orga nise a round with more teams than the previous 
year.  The local host was also able to organise the event more efficiently and find local sponsors.  
The 2015 African round gathered eight teams from five different countries,
50 i.e. one team more 
but one country less than in 2014.  Compared to year 2012 (identified as the baseline in the TA 
Plan) when no African team took part in the MCC, this is a clear success.  Target met  
5.106.  An immediate result was that the Univer sity of the Witwatersrand modified their LL.B. 
programme to include a course on international trade law, following their participation in the 
second African Regional Round.  Other results already discussed in the annual report for 2014 
continued in 2015.51 
                                               
49 See section 3.5.3 in WT/COMTD /W/209 (2014 TA Annual Report) for a more detailed presentation. 
50 Kenya (2), Lesotho, South Africa (3), Tanzania and Uganda were represented in 2015.  In 2014, the 
seven teams had come from Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia (2), Kenya, Lesotho, South Africa and Tunisia. 
51 See § 3.80 in WT/COMTD/W/209 for a more detailed presentation.  In 2015, both finalists came from 
India, which confirms the high interest of the competition throughout the world. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 50 - 
 
  
5.4.2.2  PhD Support programme 
5.107.  The PhD support programme assists 
doctoral students from developing countries to conduct advanced research for the final 
stage of their thesis at the WTO for periods 
between three and six months and to provide them with mentoring/advice.
52  In 2015, a 
total of six applications from developing 
country PhD students were received, out of which four were admitted to the programme.  This is lower than in 2014, but after three 
lean years imposed by the renovation of the 
CWR, the programme may need a bit of time to return to its cruising level.  The target in 
the TA Plan was to host 4 PhD students.  
Target met  
5.108.  A major benchmark of the programme is whether the mentors assigned to the students 
judged they had made satisfactory progress to present their work to the Geneva trade policy 
community in a seminar organized by the Secretariat.  All four admitted PhD students were able to reach this benchmark in 2015.  The responses to the evaluations filled up by the students and their mentors suggest that the programme significan tly improved the dissertations of the students. 
5.109.  Three of the students have already obtain ed their PhD and the last one is expected to 
receive it during the summer of 2016. 
5.4.3  Output 4.3: Outreach activities on trade policy and WTO-related matters organized 
by WTO Chairs through provisions of grants 
Indicators Targets 2015 
Number of outreach activities and academic events 
organized 20 outreach and academic 
events Target met 
Number of dedicated webpages established related 
to WTO support 7 webpages established Target met 
Number of research award/ competitions organized 4 research awards Target met 
 
5.110.   The Chairs are encouraged to organise 
high-impact events in order to reach a broader audience and enhance its awareness about the WTO and the MTS.  The TA Plan targeted a 43% increase in the number of 
outreach events.  In 2015, the Chairs organized 33 
events, which represent a 130% increase.  The events gathered 2,477 participants, mainly from ministries 
dealing with trade policy formulation and implementation.  
Target met  
5.111.  Beyond this quantitative target, the TA Plan 
insisted on the importance of the quality of the outreach in 
which the Chairs engage, but this is not easily meas ured.  The nature of the events that were held 
can help to make a more qualitative assessment of what was achieved in this domain.  In 2015, the primary focus of the Chairs was their national government agencies, often through small 
meetings where selected topics were discussed with invited experts.  These were generally 
effective in maintaining a constructive dialogue with governments.  For example, the South African Chair trained ten key officers of the Department of Trade and Industry on the use of a Decision 
Support Model to identify export opportunities for South Africa.  It also organized two roundtables 
between the government and private sector on Global Value Chains and Trade Facilitation.  In Turkey, the Exporters Assembly and Ministry of  Economy discussed a new economic integration 
agreement in a workshop on International Trade in Services and Turkey's Competiveness.  In 
                                               
52 See section 3.5.2 in WT/COMTD/W/209 for a more detailed presentation. WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 51 - 
 
  Benin, the Chair held a high level policy dialogue with various ministries on the trade policy in 
Benin.  In Tunisia, Policy panels were held with  various ministries on “Promoting exports in MENA 
countries” and on “SMEs and International Markets: The missing link for inclusive growth”.  Further 
details on these outreach event can be downloaded from the WCP website 
(https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/devel_e/train_e/chairs_prog_e.htm ). 
5.112.  The Chairs have created their own dedicated websites which were fully operational in 
2015.  Some Chairs (e.g. Oman, South Africa and Tunisia) also use social networks like Twitter or 
Facebook to update interested parties on the latest activities of the Chair.  Those Chairs who 
tracked their website's traffic insisted on the value of these media instruments for the promotion for their research and their work more generally.  Target met  
5.113.  In 2015, the South African Chair granted four research awards to promote excellence, 
consolidate its position in the trade community, and reinforce its academic credibility and prestige.  
The prizes were for best Master’s dissertation, most promising honours student, best PhD thesis and highest impact research article.  Since the target in the TA Plan was to have 4 research 
awards in 2015, this result is numerically right on  the mark.  However, the fact that none of the 
other six Chairs contributed to this result means that, from a qualitative point of view, this result is not entirely satisfactory.  Target met  
_______________  
 WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 52 - 
 
  ANNEX I 
FOLLOW-UP ON THE MAIN PR EVIOUS RECOMMENDATIONS 
Previous recommendations found to be fully implemented or non-longer relevant in previous 
reports have not been repeated here.  Only the recommendations which remained pending or 
whose implementation was still in progress are mentioned. 
# Recommendation Action in 2015 Status 
2012 
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. New approach 
towards regional 
activities in the TA 
Plan 2016-17 Implemented 
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. WTO activities for the 
academic world were 
recast as part of the 
preparation of the TA Plan 2016-17 Implemented 
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. Some further 
adjustments to course 
content (e.g. ATPCs, 
RTPCs) Work in progress 
8 The immediate results achieved by the TA 
activities 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. No progress in 2015 Pending 
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 organized 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. Little progress in 2015 Pending 
10 A BTOR from the organisers should become 
systematically available for each and every TA 
activity 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. 94% reporting rate in 
2015. 
89% of reports were 
BTORs. Work in progress WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 53 - 
 
  # Recommendation Action in 2015 Status 
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 
2013 
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. New survey 
performed in 2015, 
but low level of responses Work in progress 
3 Reassess Members' needs in the area of SPS 
ten years down the road; revisit the objectives of the various phases of the SPS advanced 
programme and stabilise their formulation; try 
to lower the hotel accommodation costs of the programme; improve archiving; produce 
BTORs systematically; measure the immediate 
results of the activities through the use of a set of objective performance indicators; and develop ways of better measuring the longer-
term results of the programme, including those 
not directly related to the implementation of the action plans. The 2013 
recommendations are progressively 
implemented. 
Progress monitored by the SPS Committee. Work in progress 
4 The Secretariat should reflect on means to 
increase its advanced training offer for 
generalists. Three ATPCs per year 
seem sufficient to 
respond to the current 
level of demand.  No course application backlog. Implemented 
5 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 giving selected participants and 
early access to relevant documents through the e-Campus; provide coaching to the 
participants during the full duration of the 
follow-up activity and increase the involvement of the Geneva-based permanent missions; 
promote a greater focus of the participants' 
action plans on addressing market access challenges. The 2013 
recommendations are 
progressively being 
implemented. Work in progress 
6 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. The 2013 
recommendations are progressively 
implemented. Work in progress WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 54 - 
 
  # Recommendation Action in 2015 Status 
7 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. The first advanced TBT 
course focusing on the 
implementation of the 
agreement took place in 2015. 
Online registration 
facility postponed until 2017 Implemented 
 
 
  
Work in progress 
2014 
1 Clarify ATPC objectives and simplify its 
structure to move further away from the old 
Agreement-by-Agreement approach.  Start with a general revision of key concepts 
acquired at the previous level. Clarifications and 
simplifications that 
were appropriate have been carried out, 
while revision 
sessions have been introduced when 
justified Implemented 
2 Reassess Members' needs for institutional 
training for generalists before revising the key 
objectives and content of each of the three levels of training currently proposed by WTO Dealt with as part of 
the TA Plan 2016-17 
preparation Implemented 
3 Keep track more systematically of the 
performance and language abilities of participants; and consider proposing refresher 
courses to consolidate the acquired knowledge. Direct verification of 
applicants' language abilities for Geneva-
based courses. 
Requirement for e-learning courses to be 
followed Implemented 
4 Improve the ATPC pedagogy: foster an 
informal learning atmosphere; have a limited 
number of trainers to present each module in 
its entirety; provide feedback to the participants on their communication skills; 
focus on participants' negotiation skills and not 
on negotiations' would-be results; use the book of WTO legal texts systematically; make 
a greater use of true case studies in an 
increased number of domains; provide a proper debriefing at the end of case studies and simulations; give time to the participants 
to experiment by themselves; trim down the 
volume of documents posted on the virtual classroom; etc. Specific changes have 
been introduced as 
appropriate Implemented 
5 Require all WTO trainers to follow a Training of 
Trainers and regular refreshers afterwards. Remains voluntary 
Being reviewed for 
2016-17 Pending 
6 Reformulate and simplify the RTPC objectives. Objectives have been 
streamlined and given 
added precision. Implemented WT/COMTD/W/216 
 
- 55 - 
 
  # Recommendation Action in 2015 Status 
7 Harmonise the course programme of RTPCs 
across regions in order to provide a truly 
progressive training path. The programme is 
structured around a 
generic version which 
forms the basis for every RTPC.  Certain 
regions require slight 
adaptations to this programme.  Public 
holiday and the 
availability of trainers dictate occasional rearrangements of 
modules. 
Efforts have been made to further align 
the content of the 
modules to the PLS guidelines.  This was 
done in particular with 
the Negotiating Skills Workshop, the International Trade 
Theory module and 
module dealing with Market Access and 
databases. Implemented 
8 Simplify the organization of RTPCs to make 
them more effective and efficient. Practices and 
procedures have been 
streamlined and simplified.  Templates have been created 
(e.g. invitation letters, 
programme, selection, evaluations, etc.), and 
efforts are made to 
prepare sufficiently in advance. Implemented 
9 Improve the pedagogy, trainers' capabilities 
and logistics for RTPCs. Logistics has been 
streamlined as the team became more 
experienced. 
Some of the recommendations on 
pedagogy were 
implemented (e.g. more exercises, 
regional trainers, etc.) Work in progress 
 
 
_______________ 
  
  WT/COMTD/W/216  
 
- 56 - ANNEX II 
MAIN RESULTS MEASURED IN 2015 
The information contained in the Remarks column in this annex summarises the analysis presented in section 5 of the report.  Their true meaning can 
only be understood in the light of the comments included in this section.  One should be careful not to read too much in the dr y statements included 
in this table since the results are far from being always attrib utable to the WTO TA.  Year 2015 is the first one for which an attempt is made to assess 
systematically the TA results on the basis of the agreed indicato rs and targets.  As frequently indicated in the body of the re port, unavoidable trials 
and errors also affect the results presented in this report.  The assessment is exclusively based on a desk analysis and was no t complemented in 2015 
with any field visit. 
 
 Results Indicators Targets Remarks 
Outcome 1. Government officials are 
implementing WTO 
Agreements and making full 
use of Members' rights Level of engagement in WTO negotiations: 
number of meetings of Negotiating Groups Increase in participation / 
activeness Data not available 
Increase in submissions of documents from 
Members in the NG and other bodies Increase in participation / 
submissions of documents Target met 
Number of TA beneficiary Members 
participating in WTO dispute settlement Increase of developing 
economies participation in DS Data not available 
Number of outstanding notifications of TA 
beneficiary Members 5% decrease of outstanding 
notifications Target partially 
met 
Output 1.1. Government officials and 
other stakeholders have 
enhanced knowledge about 
the WTO Agreements, 
formulation of trade policies, 
conducting trade negotiations, 
and understanding trade 
compliance obligations Number of participants at each PLS level Higher than baseline Target met 
Number of participants with no PLS level Decrease in number of 
participants with no PLS level of 
training Target met 
Number of participants advancing from 
introductory to intermediate level and from 
intermediate to advanced level  50% of participants in first level 
progressed to middle level and 
8-10% to top level Data not available 
% of participants passing the course exam 70% participants completed their 
course successfully Target not met for 
e-Learning 
Target met for 
RTPCs 
No target for other 
face-to-face 
activities 
Output 1.2. Relevant TA needs of 
Members are identified 
annually Number of internal and external consultations 
on TA needs Monthly meetings through TA 
Coordination Task Force and 2 
consultations annually with each 
regional group Target partially 
met 
Report on consultations on TA needs 
 Report on consultations available Target met  
  WT/COMTD/W/216  
 
- 57 -  Results Indicators Targets Remarks 
Output 1.3. Effective partnerships 
result in substantive 
contributions of human and 
financial resources for e-
Learning and face-to-face 
activities Amount of financial contributions from partners Increase in financial 
contributions Data not available 
Number of activities co-funded Increase of co-funded TA 
activities Data not available 
Number of activities implemented in 
partnership (jointly) 50% jointly implemented TA 
activities Target not met 
Output 1.4. Relevant course 
curriculum and new courses 
developed based on identified 
needs and Guidelines 
introduced for implementation 
of the PLS Number of new courses developed Training material developed for 
three new courses Target met 
Change in the content of the course curriculum Curriculum updated taking into 
account e.g. recent DS 
developments and negotiating 
issue Target met 
% of participants rating the balance between 
theory, case studies and exercises as good or 
excellent 70% of responses as good or 
excellent Target met 
% of participants rating the quality of the 
course content as good or excellent 70% of responses as good or 
excellent Target met 
Status of PLS guidelines development Refining PLS benchmarks by 
level and path Target not met 
Outcome 2. Acceding governments are 
participating in accession 
negotiations, in line with WTO 
accession processes and 
procedures Number of acceding governments with a 
Working Party meeting held 12 acceding governments Target not met 
Number of acceding governments with initial 
market access offers on goods and services 2 acceding governments Target not met 
Output 2.1. Acceding governments 
are familiar with WTO 
substantive and procedural 
matters N u m b e r  o f  T A  a c t i v i t i e s  a t t e n d e d  b y  a c c e d i n g  
governments 98 TA activities Target met 
Number of TA beneficiaries from acceding 
governments 523 TA participants Target met 
Outcome 3. Members are accessing and 
using WTO-related 
information enabling them to 
raise awareness of WTO 
matters with all their 
stakeholders Number of activities organized by the RCs At least 1 activity organized by 
RC per year Target met 
Number of visitors to the RCs per month Around 50 visitors per month Target partially 
met 
Number of the RCs providing access to e-
Learning 40 RCs offering access to e-
Learning Target not met 
Output 3.1. WTO Reference Centres 
(RCs) are established or 
upgraded in targeted 
Member/Observer economies Number of RCs established or upgraded every 
year 10 RCs Target partially 
met 
Number of RCs financed by partner institutions 2 RCs co-financed Target not met  
  WT/COMTD/W/216  
 
- 58 -  Results Indicators Targets Remarks 
Output 3.2. Managers and potential 
users are trained in 
information management Number of participants to the training sessions 
at the national level Around 250 participants trained 
at the national level Target met 
Number of NTP, MIP and RCI interns trained 
every year 39 interns trained Target partially 
met 
% of questionnaires received on the use and 
functioning of the RCs 60% of questionnaires received Target partially 
met 
Outcome 4. WTO-supported academic 
institutions are applying trade 
policy and WTO-related topics 
and subjects in their courses 
and research Number of academic research papers on WTO-
related issues published 15 or more of research outputs 
published Target partially 
met 
Number of students who participated in WTO-
related courses and programmes To be estimated end of 2014 Target met 
Output 4.1. Research on trade policy 
and WTO-related matters 
generated by WTO Chairs 
through provisions of grants Number of books, research papers and articles 
produced 30 or more research papers, 
books, articles Target met 
Output 4.2. Academic courses on 
WTO-related subjects 
introduced and updated with 
WTO support Number of new and updated degrees, diploma 
programmes and training courses implemented 
by WTO Chairs and other academic institutions 12 or more degrees, diploma 
programmes and academic 
courses Target met 
African countries represented in ELSA Moot 
Court competition African countries represented in 
ELSA Moot Court Target met 
Number of PhD students completing a WTO 
fellowship 4 PhD students Target met 
Output 4.3: Outreach activities on 
trade policy and WTO-related 
matters organized by WTO 
Chairs through provisions of 
grants Number of outreach activities and academic 
events organized 20 outreach and academic 
events Target met 
Number of dedicated webpages established 
related to WTO support 7 webpages established Target met 
Number of research award/ competitions 
organized 4 research awards Target met 
 
 
__________