G/TBT/GEN/142  
 
13 February 2013  
(13-0782)  Page: 1/4  
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
  UNIDO TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND CAPACITY BUILDING 
This document contains information provided by UNIDO at the TBT Committee of 27-28 
November 2012 under Agenda Item 3 (Technical Cooperation Activities).  
 
 
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1  INTRODUCTION  
1.1.  The present document summarizes United Nations Industrial Development Organization 
(UNIDO) trade-related technical assistance and capacity building provided to developing countries. 
1.2.  UNIDO assistance is delivered through count ry, regional and global programmes and global 
forum knowledge-building activities.  The technical assistance is needs-based and established on 
country/sub-regional specific analysis of poverty, industrial development and trade capacity needs, 
and is jointly developed with partner countries' and institutions.  The UNIDO programmes ensure that the principles of relevance, demand - orientation, local ownership, and effectiveness – 
efficiency are followed to achieve sustained benefits for the clients in accordance to the Paris 
Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.  
1.3.  UNIDO strategy is also characterised by strong emphasis on building and strengthening 
existing regional trade-related organisations an d agreements (e.g. CEMAC, EAC, ECOWAS, NEPAD, 
SAARC and UEMOA) which promote harmonization of standards and conformity assessment 
systems.   
1.4.  UNIDO strongly supports AFT (Aid for Trade Initiative), as the organization recognizes trade 
as a very powerful engine for development and sees  AFT as an effective means of bringing people 
and countries out of poverty through economic growth and wealth creation. UNIDO is now one of the major implementing agencies in AFT-related trade capacity building.  
1.5.  All trade-related technical assistance and ca pacity building activities are highly supported by 
the positive trend in the volume of funding for UNIDO technical cooperation programmes in general, which continued in 2011.
1 A s  a  r e s u l t  o f  t h e  h i g h  l e v e l of project funding agreements 
signed in previous years, the net increase of f unds in current project budgets amounted to over 
$230 million, which constitutes a more than 25% in crease over the last year. This record level 
certainly enables further increase in the volume of technical cooperation services actually delivered by UNIDO to its clients.  
1.6.  UNIDO was recognized for activities in its thematic priority of trade capacity-building from 
Norway, one of organization's largest donors. In a recently published study
2 the Norwegian Agency 
for Development Cooperation (NORAD) confirms that UNIDO is "[…] delivering good value for 
money in the field of standards and quality, an area where the organization has a unique 
competence internationally, which also Norway has played a key role to develop". 
                                               
1 For further information please refer to UNIDO’s Annual Report 2011 
http://www.unido.org/index.php?id=1000966  
2 Norway’s Trade Related Assistance through Multilateral Organizations: A Synthesis Study, Report 
8/2011 - Study G/TBT/GEN/142 
 
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  1.7.  The relevance of the UNIDO's mandate was emphasised by the outcome of the Rio +20 which 
stressed the critical role that energy and international trade play in development as both form a part of a Green Industry Platform. On the part of the energy, increased use of renewable energy 
sources and other low-emission technologies, as well as needs for energy efficiency measures is 
included. While the international trade acts as an  engine for development and reaffirms need for a 
universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system.     
1.8.  In its quality infrastructure package, UNIDO, in partnership with key international specialist 
organizations, provides technical assistance for TBT/SPS compliance. It has established formal 
partnerships with international organizations that set rules and harmonize international practices related to standards and conformity. 
1.9.  New emerging field of UNIDO services are st andards and certification in the area of energy. 
For example, voluntary standards (such as ISO 50001) are relevant in the area of sustainable 
energy as their implementation might lead to: in creased competitiveness for industry, facilitation 
of international trade, improved market access and policy-driven market based tools (e.g. ISO 
50001 is expected to achieve long term increase in energy efficiency).      
2  THE UNIDO APPROACH FOR TRADE RELATED TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE / CAPACITY 
BUILDING (TRTA/CB) 
2.1.  In the emerged "rules based" trading system, developing countries stand to gain appreciable 
benefits in terms of economic growth and wealth  creation from greater market penetration and 
fuller participation in global trade.  In order to develop and exploit the full their export potential, developing countries need to strengthen and diversify their productive capacities, overcome 
supply-side constraints, improve competitivene ss and exploit the economies of scale thereby 
integrating in regional and global value chains .  They also need to enhance standardization 
capabilities and compliance with technical standards and market requirements so as reduce in-flow 
of sub-standards goods, heighten consumer conf idence and pursue global acceptance of their 
products. Furthermore, the developing countries need to increase their knowledge of and bargaining-power within the rules-based trading regime.   
2.2.  Many developing countries, however, are il l equipped to take advantage of the opportunities 
provided by trade.  Weak infrastructure, lack of  productive capacities and the inability to meet 
product specifications and increasingly stringent requirements in terms of quality, safety, health, working standards/conditions and the environment play strongly against their successful 
integration into global markets. They lack the su pply capacity to produce goods that can compete 
in terms of quality and price in export markets,  so only by removing supply-side constraints, 
ensuring compliance with technical standards and strengthening negotiating capacities the 
developing countries can aspire to full and effect ive integration in the global trading system on 
mutually beneficial terms. 
2.3.  UNIDO, based on its know-how and over 40 years of experience in industrial development 
and in setting up Standardization, Metrology, Testing and Quality (SMTQ) infrastructures, has 
developed a strategic Trade Capacity-Building (TCB) approach to overcome supply-side and 
conformity constraints hampering effective industrial productive capacity.  Its prime objective is to achieve a palpable increase in developing country Manufacturing Value Added and exports by 
removing supply-side constraints and developing competitive manufacturing capability (Compete), 
developing and ensuring conformity with tec hnical and market requirements (Conform) and 
enhancing integration with and connectivity to markets (Connect). 
2.4.  The stage of development of the standard s and conformity assessment systems in partner 
countries tends to reflect their general level of economic and industrial development and in turn has a bearing on the efficacy of their technical regulation regimes as well as on their need to 
protect consumers, ensure efficiency of productive  and trade activities, and foster market access.  
In order to maximise sustainability, UNIDO's assistance is carefully targeted and sequenced to ensure it is appropriate to the needs of partner countries and regional groupings. 
2.5.  Over the past years there has been signif icant support by UNIDO to developing countries' 
enterprises and standards and conformity assessm ent organisations through strengthening legal, 
institutional and human capacities and infrastructure with emphasis on: measurement standards, G/TBT/GEN/142 
 
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  legal metrology, standards development and harmonization, testing laboratories, certification and 
inspection, accreditation (of testing and inspection bodies and certification bodies), quality, environment, food safety and energy management, working conditions, consumers and environmental protection, social responsibility as well as private standards. 
2.6.  Typical areas of UNIDO intervention are:  
a. Development of National and Regional Quality Policies; 
b. Technical regulations, which includes the development of a technical regulatory regime 
compliant with the WTO TBT Agreement; 
c. Utilization of international standards in technical regulations; 
d. Development of National Standards Bodies  (NSBs), including TBT and Sanitary and 
Phytosanitary (SPS) enquiry points and the u pgrading of national legal and regulatory 
frameworks; 
e. Participation in international standardization and strengthening participation of 
consumers in standardization activities; 
f. Regional harmonization of standards and conformity assessment systems; 
g. Capacity Building in the field of standards to facilitate small and medium farmers and 
industries integration into global supply and retail value chains; 
h. Development of national and/or regional a ccreditation schemes for the accreditation of 
national laboratories, inspectors, certification bodies, etc; 
i. Development of metrology (calibration) capacities towards international recognition of 
their services for the calibration of national product testing equipment; 
j. Development of product testing capacities (micro-biological, chemical, textile, leather, 
electrical laboratories, etc.) towards international recognition of their services for the proof of conformity with foreign buyer requirements; 
k. Establishment and upgrading of inspection an d certification schemes and services for the 
assessment of conformity against products and system standards including ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 22000, ISO 26000, ISO 50001 etc.) with increased emphasis on public-
private partnerships (PPP); 
l. Capacity building in the area of private standards that focus on social, safety and 
environmental issues and are required by  producers and retailers when sourcing 
products (e.g. Globalgap, BRC in the food and feeds domain, FSC in the wood and paper 
sector, AS 8000 for social accountability, FairTrade, GOTS and WRAP); 
m. Supporting SMEs in the implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) 
concepts (ISO 26000), to comply with the ever-growing requirements placed on them 
within the framework of private standards (in particular codes of conduct/ethics or 
specific supplier codes of buyers); 
n. Analysis and development of the food safety systems and SPS measures for a country or 
region in accordance with international best practices and WTO TBT and SPS Agreement 
requirements, including policy and concomitant legislation development; 
o. Environmental concerns have created a need for supporting exporters to deal with the 
compliance requirements regarding environmental management systems such as ISO 
14001 and compliance with standards for renewable or sustainable resource usage, such 
as FSC, MSC, GOTS, BCI and others; 
p. Standards and certification in the field of en ergy (e.g. ISO 50001 as a tool for promoting 
energy efficiency measures); 
q. Pilot projects to assist developing countries to implement farm-to-fork traceability 
systems according to international standards; 
r. Assessment of barriers to trade at the country, sector, and enterprise levels; G/TBT/GEN/142 
 
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  s. In the case of important high profile products important for groups of developing 
countries (e.g.  cotton, sugar, horticulture, fish, garments) develop projects covering supply capacity, value a ddition and conformity; 
t. Upgrading SMEs with focus on quality, productivity and conformity to standards and 
other market requirements. 
3  HIGHLIGHTS OF KEY UNIDO PROJECTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS   3.1.  In addition to country specific projects, UNIDO is increasingly involved in the development 
and implementation of (sub-) regional projects, ranging from the projects in: Arab Industrial 
Development and Mining Organization (AIDMO), th e Economic and Monetary Community of Central 
Africa (CEMAC ), the East Africa Community (EAC), the Economic Community of West African 
States (ECOWAS),  Mekong-bordering countries, the South Asian Association for Regional 
Cooperation (SAARC), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).  
 
 
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