WT/COMTD/W/209  
 
27 May 2015  
(15-2739) Page: 1/48  
Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation    
 
 ANNUAL REPORT ON TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING 
 
2014 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
ACRONYMS ....................................................................................................................... 3  
1   EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................. 5  
1.1   Main evolutions in 2014 compared to 2013 .................................................................... 5  
1.2   Implementation of TA Plan - main feat ures of the WTO Technica l Assistance  in 2014 ........... 5  
1.3   Performance in 2014 and lessons learnt ........................................................................ 6  
2   INTROD UCTION  .......................................................................................................... 7  
3   MAIN EVOLUTIONS IN  2014 COMPARED TO 2013 ....................................................... 7  
3.1   Continued tight management of the TA resources ........................................................... 8  
3.1.1   Resources for TA  decreased further .............................................................. 8  
3.1.2   Stable volume of TA activities ...................................................................... 9  
3.2   Implementation of Results-Based Management ............................................................. 10 
3.3   Improving the substantiv e content of th e TA offer ......................................................... 11 
3.3.1   Continuous improvemen ts in the e-Le arning offer .......................................... 11 
3.3.2   Making RTPCs av ailable in all regions ........................................................... 13 
3.3.3   Recasting the Advanc ed Trade Policy Course ................................................. 14 
3.3.4   Making WTO courses more interactive .......................................................... 15 
3.3.5   Building Geneva-bas ed delegates' capacity ................................................... 16 
3.3.6   Continuing to re spond to Memb ers' needs .................................................... 17 
3.4   Part nerships ............................................................................................................  19 
3.5   Intensified cooper ation with academia ......................................................................... 20 
3.5.1   Reforming the WTO Chairs Programme (WCP) and launching its Phase 2 ........... 20 
3.5.2   Resumption of th e PhD Support Programme ................................................. 21 
3.5.3   ELSA Moot Court Competition in Africa ......................................................... 22 
4   IMPLEMENTATION OF TA PLAN AND MAIN FEATURES OF THE TA PROVIDED 
IN 2014 .......................................................................................................................... 23  
4.1   Participation of least developed countri es (LDCs) .......................................................... 24 
4.2   Geographical  distribution ........................................................................................... 25 
4.3   Product mix .............................................................................................................  26 
4.4   Distributi on by subject .............................................................................................. 29 
4.5   Language mix .......................................................................................................... 31 
4.6   Progressivity of training ............................................................................................. 32 WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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  4.7   Gender mix ............................................................................................................. 33 
5   MONITORING & EVALUATION  OF PERFORMANCE IN 2014 ........................................ 34  
5.1   E-Learning ............................................................................................................... 35 
5.2   RTPCs ................................................................................................................... .. 38 
5.3   Other Face-to- face activities ...................................................................................... 39 
5.4   Netherlands trainee programme (NTP) ......................................................................... 41 
5.5   Supportin g accessi ons ............................................................................................... 42 
5.6   Supporting the production of  improved servic es statistics ............................................... 42 
5.7   Supporting the implementation of the Trade Facilit ation Agreement ................................. 43 
5.8   Providing assistance und er Article 27.2 of the DSU ........................................................ 44 
ANNEX FOLLOW-UP ON THE MAIN  PREVIOUS RECOMMENDATIONS ............................... 45  
 WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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  ACRONYMS 
ACP  African, Caribbean and Pacific group of states 
ACWL  Advisory Centre on WTO Law ALADI  Latin American Integration Association 
AMF  Arab Monetary Fund 
ATPC  Advanced Trade Policy Course BOP  Balance of Payments 
BTOR  Back-to-Office Report 
CARICOM Caribbean Community and Common Market CEECAC Central and Eastern European, Central Asian and Caucasus Countries CEMAC Communauté Economique et Monétaire d'Afrique Centrale 
CHF  Swiss franc 
COMESA Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa CWR  Centre William Rappard (WTO building) 
DDA  Doha Development Agenda 
DDSR  Digital Dispute Settlement Registry DS  Dispute Settlement 
DSA  Daily Subsistence Allowance 
DSU  Dispute Settlement Understanding EAC  East African Community EBRD  European Bank for Reconstruction and Development 
ECOWAS Economic Community for West African States 
EIF  Enhanced Integrated Framework ELSA  European Law Students' Association 
EU  European Union 
FAO  Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FATS  Foreign Affiliate Trade Statistics 
GATS  General Agreement on Trade in Services 
GBCU  Geneva-based Courses Unit GiZ  Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit GPA  Government Procurement Agreement 
GTF  Global Trust Fund 
I-TIP  Integrated Trade Intelligence Portal ICTSD International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development 
IDB Integrated Database 
IDB/INTAL Inter-American Development Bank/Insti tute for the Integration of Latin America and 
the Caribbean 
IGO Intergovernmental Organization 
IICA  Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture IMF  International Monetary Fund IMF-CEF International Monetary Fund Middle East Centre for Economics and Finance 
IPPC  International Plant Protection Convention 
IPR  Intellectual property right IsDB  Islamic Development Bank 
IT  Information Technology 
ITC  International Trade Centre ITTC  Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation 
ITU  International Telecommunication Union 
JVI  Joint Vienna Institute LDC  Least-developed country MA  Market Access 
MCC  Moot Court Competition 
MIP  Missions Internship Programme MOOC  Massive Open Online Courses 
MSITS Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services 
MTS  Multilateral Trading System NGO  Non-Governmental Organization 
NSS  TBT Notification Submission System 
NTP  Netherlands Trainee Programme OAS  Organization of American States OECD  Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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  OIE  International Animal Health Organization 
OIF  Organization Internationale de la Francophonie PEF  Participant's Evaluation Form PIF  Pacific Islands Forum 
PIFS  Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat 
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 
SADC  Southern Africa Development Community SCORM Sharable Content Object Reference Model 
SPS  Sanitary and Phytosanitary 
STDF  Standards and Trade Development Facility TA  Technical Assistance 
TAME  Technical Assistance Monitoring and Evaluation Unit 
TBT  Technical Barriers to Trade TCA  Technical Cooperation Audit Unit TF  Trade facilitation 
TFA  Trade Facilitation Agreement 
ToT  Training of Trainers TP  Trade policy 
TPC  Trade Policy Course 
TPR  Trade Policy Review TRIPS  Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights 
TRTA  Trade-Related Technical Assistance 
UNCITRAL United Nations Centre  for International Trade Law 
UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNECA United Nations Economic Commission for Africa 
UNESCAP United Nations Economic and Soci al Commission for Asia and the Pacific 
UNSD  United Nations Statistics Division UNWTO United Nations World Tourism Organization 
WAEMU Western Africa Economic and Monetary Union 
WCO  World Customs Organization WCP  WTO Chairs Programme 
WHO  World Health Organization 
WIPO  World Intellectual Property Organization WTO  World Trade Organization WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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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 2014 builds on the major reporting transformation undertaken in the last two years.  It follows the same logic by focussing on three types of an alysis: the main evolutions of the TA in 2014 
compared to the previous year; the analysis by re gion, type, subject, language, level of training 
and gender of the participants of the TA activities  implemented; and the evaluation of the delivery 
and results of these TA activities. 
1.1  Main evolutions in 2014 compared to 2013 
1.2.  The TA resources available to the WTO to finance the TA it offers developing country 
Members and Observers reached a new low in 2014.  However, as the volume of TA activities and the related expenses remained stable during the year, thanks to the tight management policy 
implemented by the Secretariat since the 2008 fina ncial crisis, there was no funding difficulty 
during the year.  A cause for concern was the increasing earmarking of voluntary contributions by donors, making the WTO TA increasingly donor-driven instead of demand-driven. 
1.3.  Progress continued on the implementation of the new TA management system based on 
results adopted at the end of 2012.  A new e-BTOR and the related electronic workflow were introduced during the year.  But as experience d last year, limited resources slowed down the 
introduction of result-based management, which will remain work in progress for some time. 
1.4.  The Secretariat worked in 2014 to further im prove the substantive content of its TA offer.  
The most significant evolutions in this regard included: e-Campus , the new state of the art e-
Learning platform went live in July; four new on-line courses (Rules of Origin, RTAs, Transparency 
& Notifications, WTO in 10') were introduced and several existing ones were revised to increase 
the interactive and multimedia content; for the firs t time ever, an RTPC was offered in each of the 
seven TA regions and a revision workshop was held in the last of the 8 weeks of these courses; the 
new ATPC marked a significant improvement on th e previous version as it moved away from a 
mere repetition of RTPCs towards a more analytic al and horizontal approach to the various WTO 
subjects based on case studies; more interactive training methods, and in particular case studies, 
were increasingly used in face-to-face activities in which the average share of time dedicated to 
lectures fell for the first time well below 50%; in response to the needs expressed when preparing the TA Plan 2014-15, new TA activities targeting Geneva-based delegates were organized on trade negotiation skills, agriculture, TBT and DS; effo rts were made in a number of areas (Services, 
Government Procurement, SPS, TBT, TRIPS, etc.) to provide TA better tailored to the actual needs 
of beneficiaries; a new course on trade policy (TP)  analysis was offered an d proved very popular. 
1.5.  Many of these evolutions relied on the ever  increasing network of partnerships developed by 
the WTO with other IGOs and NGOs, on a geographical or subject-by-subject basis.  All these 
partnerships provide either for a sharing of the cost s of the activities, or a contribution in kind of 
the partner on logistics, or a contribution to the substantive content of the activity to better tailor 
it to the actual needs of Members. 
1.6.  Year 2014 also saw an intensification of the WTO cooperation with academia: a second phase 
of the reformed WTO Chairs programme (WCP) was launched, leading to the selection of seven new Chairs, who will operate for four years under stricter management from the Secretariat; 
following the completion of the CWR building re novation, the PhD Support Programme was allowed 
to resume; and going beyond the support traditio nally extended by the Secretariat to the ELSA 
Moot Court Competition, the WTO supported the first regional round ever held in Africa and the 
participation of African teams in the final in Geneva. 
1.7.  Overall, these evolutions demonstrate the co nstant attention paid by the Secretariat to the 
improvement of its TA offer, in terms of both  quality and adequacy to the actual needs of 
Members. 
1.2  Implementation of TA Plan - main featur es of the WTO Technical Assistance in 2014 
1.8.  The Secretariat undertook 273 technical assist ance activities, both in Geneva and in various 
Members or Observers, and participated in 60 other TA-related activities (e.g. conferences or WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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  activities of partner institutions).  The majority of these technical assistance activities were 
organized in partnership with other international, regional or sub-regional institutions.  Overall, close to 14,700 participants were trained during the year, an increase of 7% compared to 2013.  Participation in face-to-face activities was lower, but this reduction was more than compensated by 
the growth in on-line courses, which gathered for the first time more than 50% of the participants. 
1.9.  In 2014 as in previous years, one third of  the 273 activities had a general scope (i.e. multi-
topic coverage), while the other two thirds were spread across specific Agreements or subjects.  
The concentration on general activities was higher for e-Learning courses, as a consequence of the 
prerequisites required to register for many intermediate and advanced face-to-face activities, and for regional or global activities. 
1.10.  The activities most in demand at the national level were Trade Facilitation needs 
assessments, a continuation of last year's tr end, as Members were busy preparing for the 
ratification and implementation of the Agreement approved in Bali.  Standards-related activities (SPS, TBT) were also in high demand.  There continued to be a high demand for multi-topic 
activities covering many issues under the WTO Agreements or the Doha negotiations. 
1.11.  Subject-specific regional seminars were conducted in all regions.  Africa and LDCs remained 
a priority in 2014, as in previous years.  Overall, three quarters of the activities were held at the 
national level and one quarter at the regional/global level.  The former continued to gather larger 
numbers of participants for activities lasting 3 days  at the most, when regional or global activities 
tended to gather smaller audiences (30 persons ma ximum) over close to 4 days on average, which 
facilitated the use of more interactive training methods. 
1.12.  As in previous years, around 60% of the TA was provided in English, 17% in Spanish and 
French, which mirrors approximately the language  preferences of Members and Observers in the 
WTO.  These proportions were more balanced in the on-line courses, as the participation in the 
English, French and Spanish versions of the same courses. 
1.13.  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, but the Trade Facilitation needs assessment programme 
increased the share of advanced activities.  A number of 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. outreach and 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.  There was also a rebalancing of the offer in favour of generalists compared to previous years, as they represented one third of the activities against two thirds for specialists. 
1.14.  Overall, the proportion of women amongst participants stayed almost unchanged compared 
to the last years, in spite of fluctuations in certain regions.  In all, women represented 45% of the participants in WTO activities, whether on-line or face-to-face. 
1.3  Performance in 2014 and lessons learnt 
1.15.  The e-Learning courses remained fairly successful in 2014, with an average success (pass) 
rate of 61% - slightly lower than the year before.  As in previous years, this average hides important variations between courses: Accessions,  Trade Finance and MA intelligence were the 
most successful courses, whilst some others (e .g. Introduction, Multilateral Trade Agreements, 
Services, Agriculture, TRIPS or MA for Goods) were more challenging for participants.  The total number of successful participants in online courses grew by 17% in 2014.  Contrary to last year, 
the success rate was the same between the various linguistic versions this time. 
1.16.  For the face-to-face TA activities, the final exam in RTPCs continued to be the only case in 
which objective performance indicators were used, as in 2013.  RTPCs registered a 97% overall 
success rate, which is very high by any standard.  The immediate results of most other face-to-
face activities continued to be measured essentially on the basis of the opinion of participants.  Progress is still needed in order to base the a ssessment of the immediate results of the activities 
on more objective performance indicators. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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  1.17.  A number of lessons were learnt from the internal evaluation of the RTPC Programme, which 
will be progressively taken into account in future courses.  The objectives of RTPCs should be reformulated and simplified; the harmonization of the course programme across regions should be improved in order to provide a truly progressive training path; the organization of the RTPCs would 
benefit from a simplification, which would make them more effective and efficient activities; and 
the pedagogy, trainers' capabilities and logistics also require various improvements. 
1.18.  Since its origin, the NTP saw the number of its annual participants grow on average, 
especially over the last ten years, whilst the av erage duration of the stay in Geneva of each 
trainee was progressively reduced (9 months during the last three years).  Trainees now dedicate approximately half of their time in Geneva to personal training, the rest being dedicated to their own country review, their participation in the work  of the Secretariat (e.g. in 2014 some of them 
worked as assistant tutor for the Introduction online course) and the monitoring of the programme 
(reports). 
1.19.  Other results that could be measured in 2014 included the support given to accession 
processes to the WTO (e.g. Seychelles became the 161
st Member in April 2015) or the GPA; the 
support provided to improved services statistics, in particular concerning mode 3 (FATS), as demonstrated by the example of Zambia; the support  to the implementation of the TFA, which is 
progressing well so far; and the assistance provided to developing country Members under 
Article 27.2 of the DSU. 
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 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 2014 
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 implement the tools 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 2014. 
2.3.  The report focuses on three main issues.  The first is a presentation of the main evolutions 
seen in the TA provided in 2014 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 long-term results of the TA 
provided by the WTO during the year - and before. 
3  MAIN EVOLUTIONS IN 2014 COMPARED TO 2013 3.1.  During the year under review, a number of changes were introduced in three main domains: 
(i) the stabilization of the TA resources through continued tight management; (ii) the 
implementation of the strategic reforms initiated in the previous two years to better manage TA continued in 2014; 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. 
3.2.  In the absence of any significant change in the various partnerships concluded by the WTO 
with a large number of institutions on all five continents, the report will not elaborate further on 
this subject.  What was presented last year remained entirely true in 2014.  For details on this 
subject, please refer to section 3.2.2 in document WT/COMTD/W/205. 
                                               
1  See document WT/COMTD/W/200 WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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3.1  Continued tight management of the TA resources 
3.3.  The TA Plan for 2014-15 had anticipated a lower level of resources available from donors 
whilst keeping the same objectives for the WTO in this domain.  As in the previous two years, achieving as much with less required a tighter management of the resources available.  The 
actions initiated since 2012 in this regard continued in 2014. 
3.1.1  Resources for TA decreased further 
3.4.  In terms of resources, the level of 
extra-budgetary funding anticipated in 
the TA Plan for 2014 represented an average cut of 22% compared to the biennium 2012-2013.  Meanwhile, the 
share of the regular budget dedicated to 
TA increased marginally in 2014, according to Members' decision, 
reversing approximately half of the 
reductions implemented since 2009.
2 
3.5.  After a short-lived pause in 2013, 
the amount of voluntary contributions 
received by the WTO in 2014 ebbed further to reach its lowest level in a 
decade at CHF 12.4 million.  This represented a 30% reduction compared to 2013.
3  As a result, 
since the 2007-9 peak-years, voluntary contributions received by the WTO have halved.  This 
combined with a further erosion of the pool of donors, as only two thirds of its initial donors maintained their commitment to th e Global Trust Fund (GTF) in 2014. 
3.6.  A balance of CHF 22.1 million,
4 the biggest ever such balance, was carried forward from the 
previous year into 2014.  New contributions of CHF 12.4 million were received during the year, half of them in the last two months of the year, a continuation of donors' practice in previous years.  
This made it possible to implement the TA Plan as approved by Members for 2014 and built a solid 
carry-forward into the next year to support the smooth implementation of the TA Plan for 2015. 
3.7.  The proportion of voluntary contributions earmarked for specific programmes or categories of 
beneficiaries reached its highest ever level in 2014.  Earmarked contributions represented one 
third of all voluntary contributions received by  the WTO in 2014, whilst the share of the GTF 
shrank to 63%, against an average of 84% between 2006 and 2011.  As we are moving away from the objectives of the GTF, this evolution means that  for an increasing share of the TA activities of 
the WTO priorities are no longer defined by the TA Plan. 
                                               
2  Between 2009 and 2013, this represented a reduction of 1.1 million CHF or 20% of the regular 
resources for TA, in spite of the significant regular budget surplus eventually registered in the financial years concerned.  The regular budget registered a surplus of CHF 11.3 million in 2012 (see WT/BFA/W/304).  At the end of 2010, the Surplus Account had a credit balance of CHF 10.5 million (see WT/BFA/W/243). 
3  The trust funds taken into account here are those under 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 Integr ated Framework Secretariat) have been excluded. 
4  This included the GTF (18.1 MCHF) and the earmarked trust funds also financing the WTO TA (Mission 
Internships, NTPs, Trade facilitation, etc.). WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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3.1.2  Stable volume of TA activities 
3.8.  In 2014, the Secretariat 
continued the implementation 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 2014.  As in previous years, no 
activity request was approved in 
2014 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 rigoro us internal approval process for activity requests 
implemented over the past three 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. 
3.9.  The overall volume of TA activities in 2014 was 6% higher than in 2013, but very close to the 
levels seen in 2011 and 2012.  The WTO organized or participated in 333 TA or TA-related activities in 2014, when the average volume over the last four years was 331.5.  However, the 
number of national activities (119 in 2014) was much below the last four year average (131), as it 
fell down 14% compared to 2013.  The total number of requests for national activities received in 2014 remained stable compared to the previous year.
5  A quarter of all the requests received 
during the year were related to standards (TBT and SPS), whilst demand for Trade Facilitation 
needs assessments remained high (10% of all requests), although at a much lower level than in 
2013 when the Trade Facilitation Agreement wa s being negotiated.  As in 2013, the heavy 
workload of the Secretariat in certain areas (e .g. dispute settlement), the concentration of the 
requests in particular areas (e.g. standards) and the current resource freeze limited the capacity of 
the Secretariat to respond to all the requests in 2014. 
3.10.  Meanwhile, the number of regional or global  activities increased by 9% compared to 2013, 
as a result of a 17% increase in the number of e-Learning courses offered, and a more than 
doubling of the number of global face-to-face activities organized in Geneva.  Only two regional activities initially included in the TA plan had to be cancelled in 2014 due to a low level of registration from the invited countries.
6 
3.11.  As a result, the total number of TA activi ties organized by the WTO stood at 273 in 2014, 
which corresponded exactly to the average since 2011.  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 four years, but that the activity mix has evolved in favour of 
activities which have a larger geographical audience, such as global Geneva-based activities or e-Learning courses.  This explains why, in spite of the stable volume of TA activities organized by the 
WTO over four years, the overall audience measured  in terms of participants kept growing in 2014 
(see section 4.3 below). 
3.12.  The number of "Other Activities" in which the WTO participated returned to its level in 2011 
and 2012.  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 
                                               
5  In total, 142 requests were received in 2014, against 141 in 2013. 
6  These were activities on Services (Middle East) and on Rules (English-speaking Africa).  Several 
national activities in Western Africa and WAEMU activities in which the Secretariat was involved were also postponed in 2014, due to the health concerns generated by Ebola. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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partnerships that facilitate the subsequent organi zation and delivery of the WTO TA activities.  
They also include the support provided by the Secr etariat to the TA activities organized by other 
institutions.  For example, missions to identify partners for future activities fall in this category (e.g. partners for future RTPCs), activities organized by WIPO, and other IGOs, board meetings of 
partner institutions such as the Joint Vienna Institute, etc.  In 2014, CHF 1.3 million was spent on 
such Other Activities , i.e. 8% of the total TA expenses of the WTO.  This is higher than in 2013 but 
not excessive.  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.  However, as WTO travel budgets have become tighter, the pressure to include as part of Other Activities  what should normally be regular institutional activities of the Secretariat unrelated 
to TA is growing and is not always easy to resist. 
3.13.  The combination of these various 
factors led to a relative stability of the TA expenses in 2014 compared to the 
previous two years.
7  The internal 
measures implemented in 2012 to better control and manage the TA expenses 
continued unabated.  The stabilization of 
the overall TA expenses in 2014 resulted entirely from the implementation of the higher volume of result-generating TA 
activities analysed above. 
3.14.  As recommended last year,
8 the 
2014 TA expenses were broadly in line 
with the TA resources available during 
that year, in spite of the continuous decrease of the latter.  The year brought 
to an end a situation of structural excess of resources seen in 2012-13.  In 2014, the WTO spent 
93% of its TA resources, against an average of 95% between 2007 and 2011.  That proportion had fallen down to 78% in 2012 and 2013.  For the first time since 2010, the year-end balance of the GTF was lower than twelve months ago.  However, as mentioned above, this was compensated by 
a 33% growth in the earmarked contributions received during the year, which led in equal 
proportions to a higher earmarked year-end balance. 
3.2  Implementation of Results-Based Management 
3.15.  The implementation of the RBM Monitoring  and Evaluation system adopted by Management 
in December 2012 continued during the year.  An electronic back-to-office-report (e-BTOR) was introduced in Spring 2014 to report on the outputs of the TA activities implemented by the 
Secretariat.  The objectives of the change were to require the trainers to measure more precisely 
the immediate results achieved by their activities , on the basis of the key performance indicators 
identified when the activity was requested; to faci litate and accelerate reporting on TA activities 
and eliminate paper through the implementation of an electronic workflow; and to facilitate the 
subsequent analysis of the results of the activities  in the database.  As explained in last year's 
report, in a context of zero nominal budget grow th and of an already fully committed IT budget, 
this had to be achieved within the limits of existing resources, both human and financial, which 
made the task more complex and longer to achieve. 
3.16.  After the implementation in 2013 of two new e-forms to request TA activities, whether 
national, regional or global, the e-BTOR was th e last piece needed to complete the workflow 
governing the design, request, authorization, or ganization, delivery and reporting for any TA 
activity.  For lack of means and not to delay further its implementation, the new e-BTOR could not be made as user-friendly as needed to suppo rt the major change in working habits this 
represented for all those involved in the process.  As a result, what should have been the final step 
                                               
7  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). 
8  See Recommendation 1 in WT/COMTD/W/205. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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  in the implementation of the RBM system be came another intermediary step, pending the 
availability of a programmer to resolve teething problems and improve the process. 
3.17.  The significant challenge that the introd uction of the new e-BTOR represented led those 
involved to focus primarily on form.  As a resu lt, the changes concerning the substantive content 
of the reporting produced by the organizers that  the new e-BTOR was supposed to embody did not 
fully materialise yet.  Most TA organizers concentrated their attention on the technicalities of the production and submission of the new e-BTOR in wh ich they tried to fit the very same old content 
as prior to the introduction of RBM.  As in the pa st, the outputs of most TA activities continued to 
be assessed exclusively on the sole basis of participants' opinion, as if no other key performance indicators had been identified at the time the activity was requested and approved.  This means that the change towards the measurement of the re sults of TA activities on the basis of other, 
more objective, performance indicators initially identified will be progressive and will take more 
time than initially envizaged. 
3.18.  Further to the introduction of the new e-Campus  platform (see section 3.3.1 below), work 
started in 2014 on an online registration system for the participants in face-to-face activities.  The 
registration of participants in the TA database ha s always been a challenge, as 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.  This regularly leads to the creation of multiple records 
for the same person, which reduces the reliability or accuracy and hampers the subsequent use of the information contained in the database.  The new online registration facility, which should be part of the e-Campus  platform, would have to find a way around these difficulties.  This would be 
an important step towards increasing the reliability  of the WTO data on who benefited from its TA 
activities. 
3.3  Improving the substantive content of the TA offer 
3.3.1  Continuous improvements in the e-Learning offer 
3.19.  The main event of the year was the launch of the new e-Learning platform called e-Campus , 
which had been in preparation for almost two years, and its move to a new server.  e-Campus  
went live on 23 July 2014.  The change of platform had become a must as the previous one was 
progressively reaching its limits in terms of simultaneous participant connections and technicalities for the ever increasing pedagogical use of multim edia components and tools designed to make the 
courses more interactive to enhance knowledge transfer.  The transition to e-Campus  proceeded 
as planned and worked very smoothly for the participants.  Beyond the significantly increased 
capacity of the new platform, it also offers mobile learning (e-Learning on mobile phones and tablets) and new browsing facilities making it easier for participants to find a course responding to 
their particular needs. 
3.20.  The e-Campus  platform can also host virtual classrooms tailored to the needs of the WTO 
face-to-face activities.  Virtual classrooms can give an on-line access in a cost-efficient way to the 
course documents and background information.  Th ey allow participants to perform exercises; to 
take quizzes, tests and exams; to follow their progression throughout the course; to interact with the other participants and the trainers through discussion fora; and to give feedback on the activity as required.  In 2014, eleven face-to-face activities used this facility.  In particular, e-
Campus  became the main instrument through which th e follow-up to the advanced SPS course is 
monitored: participants use the platform to report on the progress made in the implementation of their action plans and to remain in contact with the trainers and coaches, paving the way for their 
participation in the follow-up activity held in the subsequent year.  Developing such a tool had 
been one of the recommendations from the eval uation of that programme conducted in 2013. 
3.21.  An alumni platform for interns from the MIP, NTP and RCI programmes was tested in e-
Campus  in 2014.  As of 2015, it could promote th e development of the WTO TA communities and 
networks for those who participated in face-to-face activities. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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3.22.  Further progress was made during the year to 
continue improving the presentation and interactivity of the online courses.  The course on WTO Market Access Databases was revised in 2014 and its name 
changed to WTO Market Intelligence.  The revision 
takes into account new developments and enhances its multimedia content, so as to increase its pedagogical 
impact.  Overall, the number of new multimedia 
components (audio, animations or video) added during the year continued to grow at the same rate as in the previous year.  The use and popularity of these 
components is monitored by the trainers. 
3.23.  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,
9 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 which were developed in 2014.  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 progressively 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. 
3.24.  The number of chat sessions with WTO experts 
offered to participants increased marginally in 2014.  A 
total of 44 chat sessions were organized during the 
year, often in two or three languages at the same time.  This means that the number of chats offered to participants more than doubled since 2011, which 
made it possible to offer a chat on certain subjects 
more than once during the course of the year.  This is getting close to one chat per week, which seems to be 
the maximum number of chats that can usefully be 
offered.  Chats covered a wide range of WTO subjects, generally related to the most recent developments in 
the work of the WTO.  They constitute a useful 
complement to the content of the courses which focus most of the time on the WTO Agreements.  They allow 
participants to interact directly with experts and to 
address topical challenges related to the MTS. 
3.25.  The News Forum introduced late in 2011 is 
progressively reaching its full capacity as well after the 
very rapid growth of the last two years.  In 2014, 85 different threads were launched, either by the 
participants themselves (26) or by the tutors or 
assistant tutors.  Trainers encourage participants to get involved in the News Forum, as this is an 
opportunity to get in contact with other participants; to apply the knowledge from the course; and 
to address specific problems or issues and di scuss possible solutions with participants who had 
similar experiences. 
3.26.  The catalogue of e-Learning courses was enriched with four new courses: (i) Made in…: 
Understanding Rules of Origin; (ii) Regional Trade Agreements; (iii) Transparency and the WTO: 
                                               
9  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. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 13 - 
 
  Notification Obligations; and (iv) WTO in 10', all of which were developed in the latest e-Learning 
industry standard format called SCORM.10  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.  The new courses are shorter 
(especially the last one) and aimed at a more targ eted learning experience focusing on one subject 
(e.g. rules of origin), 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. market access for goods). 
3.27.  The first three new courses are of an intermediate level for specialists, whilst the latter is 
more of an outreach tool for the general public.  Including the Tailored Course, which allows participants to pick and choose the modules of in terest to them amongst those offered in any of 
the other online courses, a total of 21 e-Learning courses, in three linguistic versions,
11 were open 
for registration in 2014.12  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 
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) Made in…: understanding Rules of 
Origin (E) 
 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) 
 Transparency – Notifications (E) 
 WTO Market Intelligence (E, F, S) 
 3.28.  At this stage, a major WTO area not ye t covered by its e-Learning offer is dispute 
settlement.  Work on this subject is in progre ss since 2013, but was delayed by the surge in DS 
activity over the recent past, as the availability of Secretariat experts for work not directly related 
to the current cases was much reduced.  It is hoped that the online course on DS can be released in 2015.  The completion of the thematic online offer would free resources for the revision of 
existing courses in order to make them more interactive and upgrade them to SCORM format.  It 
is also planned to develop shorter courses with a reduced scope on certain of the current subjects (e.g. TRIPS) to narrow their focus, make them more accessible and easier to digest for the participants. 
3.3.2  Making RTPCs av ailable in all regions 
3.29.  Regional Trade Policy Courses (RTPCs) have existed since 2002.  In 2010, when the 
Progressive Learning Strategy (PLS) was introduced, they automatically became the WTO 
intermediate training course for generalists as such courses stopped being organized in Geneva.  
In 2014, for the first time ever, an RTPC was organized by the WTO and its local partners in all of the seven regions used for TA (English and French-speaking Africa, Asia-Pacific, Caribbean, 
CEECAC, Latin America and Middle East).  Thus, for the first time since the introduction of the PLS 
                                               
10  SCORM stands for Sharable Content Object Refe rence Model and is the technical standard for e-
Learning software products.  This form at is used to develop courses that are interactive and offer a variety of 
multimedia components. 
11  The French or Spanish version of some of the most recent courses is still under development and 
should be available in 2015. 
12  Programme available under http://ecampus.wto.org/ . WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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  four years ago, all beneficiary countries were offe red access to a face-to-face intermediate course 
for generalists.  This is a major achievement. 
3.30.  This result was made possible by the substantial rationalization of RTPCs implemented in 
2012: their duration was cut from 12 to 8 weeks;  preparatory workshops and the very generous 
financial conditions granted to partners were discontinued.13 
3.31.  In 2014, the difficulty of holding a course in every region was heightened by two facts: (i) 
an entirely new – although slightly bigger – Secretariat team was responsible for the 
implementation of RTPCs and had to learn on the job; and (ii) RTPCs involved a new partner in 
three of the seven regions (Caribbean: University of the West Indies in Barbados; Latin America: 
University Andina Simon Bolivar in Ecuador; and Middle East: Sultan Qaboos University in Oman).  Even if it was not plain sailing, the team rose  to the challenge and delivered the seven RTPCs. 
3.32.  The main adjustments made to the conten t of the RTPCs in 2014 concerned the revisions.  
The three-day revision workshop, initially developed for the Geneva-based TPCs and abandoned in 
2010, was reintroduced in the programme of the RT PCs for the CEECAC and Asia-Pacific regions in 
2013.  This new pilot confirmed the relevance and validity of the revision for RTPCs and for the 
preparation of the final exam, and it was decided to make it a regular feature of the programme 
from 2014.  A one-day mid-term revision was also generalized in all seven RTPCs to prepare 
participants for the final exam.  This marked a return to part of the pedagogy that had been 
developed for the Geneva-based courses prior to the introduction of the PLS, and contributed to the excellent results registered by the RTPC participants in 2014 (see chapter 5 below). 
3.3.3  Recasting the Advanced Trade Policy Course 
3.33.  The Advanced Trade Policy Course (ATPC) is the most advanced training offered by the WTO 
to generalists outside the internship programmes.  As explained in last year's report,
14 the ATPC 
underwent a major reform in 2014.  The purpose was to move away from the Agreement-by-
Agreement approach and instead to work as much as possible on the basis of case studies 
corresponding to situations that delegates, whether in capitals or in Geneva, would frequently face in the normal course of their work.  This shou ld avoid repeating the content and programme of 
intermediate TPCs or RTPCs, which had been the approach so far, in order to eventually introduce 
a real progressivity in the content of the courses for generalists between the intermediate and advanced levels.  In the process, the duration of the ATPC was shortened from 12 to 8 weeks. 
3.34.  At the request of management, TAME eval uated the first reformed ATPC.  The evaluation 
found that, the reformed ATPC succeeded for the fi rst time in proposing a training which did not 
simply repeat the substantive content of lower level courses, thanks to a more horizontal approach of WTO subjects.  As a result, the course was more advanced and better suited for generalists (as 
opposed to specialists).  Work should continue in this direction to build on this initial progress.  
TAME recommended starting the course with a gene ral revision of the key concepts covered at the 
previous level, a clearer formulation of the objectives of the various modules of the course and a 
simplification of the structure of the programme around key trade policy (TP) subjects, to move 
further away from the Agreement-by-Agreement approach. 
3.35.  However, the first reformed ATPC was only  partially successful, as three quarters of its 
participants did not have a sufficient background  in terms of both WTO knowledge and experience 
to take full advantage of the enriched content of the course.  A rigorous application of the 
prerequisites in the selection process for subsequent ATPCs resulted in considerable improvements in this regard.  This also confirmed the need to continue the Secretariat's efforts to design and 
implement a more coherent progressive training path for generalists.  TAME recommended 
assessing Members' needs for institutional trai ning for generalists before revising the key 
objectives and content of each of the three levels of training currently proposed by WTO, including 
the ATPC; to keep track more systematically of the performance and language abilities of 
participants; and to consider proposing refresher courses to help them consolidate the acquired knowledge. 
                                               
13  See section 3.2.2 in document WT/COMTD/W/197 for a detailed analysis. 
14  See section 3.3.4 in document WT/COMTD/W/205. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 15 - 
 
  
3.36.  The reform of the ATPC was handicapped by a substantial loss of institutional memory and 
know-how in Geneva-based Course Unit over the recent past, which required those involved to reinvent from scratch too many solutions to recurring problems.  This is why TAME recommended returning to a number of the pedagogical solutions that had been designed, tested and fine-tuned 
over many years by GBCU's predecessor.
15  These recommendations and other improvements are 
being progressively implemented. 
3.3.4  Making WTO courses more interactive 
3.37.   It has been a constant 
recommendation in the past to use more interactive training methods when 
delivering TA activities at all 
three PLS levels.  Interactivity is a well-established rule in 
the field of adult training and 
teaching methods to stimulate learning.  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.  In spite of this, five 
years down the road, some 
trends start to appear. 
3.38.  Lectures remained the predominant medium used by WTO to deliver TA activities, but their 
relative importance shrank dramatically in 2014, as recommended last year.  Whereas they used 
to represent on average more than half of the training time and were used in almost all the activities for which data were available, that proportion fell below 40% during the year (37.5%).  As in the past, this average hides significant diff erences between certain types of activities, but it 
seemed that the activities almost entirely based on lectures were on the way out as, on average, 
the share of the time dedicated to lectures was redu ced in most of the activities in 2014.  This was 
the consequence of a much higher proportion of activities using case studies, whose relative 
importance more than doubled in 2014 to reach 24%, since the use of other training methods was 
s t a b l e  b y  a n d  l a r g e .   M o r e  t h a n  h a l f  o f  t h e  a c t i v i t i e s  h a d  c a s e  s t u d i e s  d u r i n g  t h e  y e a r ,  a  progression of six percentage points compared to 2013.  Activities such as Trade Facilitation needs 
assessments, 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. 
3.39.  The rest of the training time was shared on average between exercises (17%), Questions & 
Answers (12.5%), quizzes (2%) and other training methods (7%).  The resumption in the increase 
of the use of exercises as a training method suggests that the surprise decrease in the use of exercises measured in 2013 might well have been caused by the relative poor quality of the data 
and might not have reflected the actual evolution of the practice of trainers during that year.  This 
shows that such data should be interpreted care fully since, for example, the distinction between 
exercises and case studies may vary between trainers and it can be difficult to distinguish inside a 
lecture the time dedicated to the questions by the participants.  Other training methods used in TA 
activities include group work or grou p discussions and panels among others. 
                                               
15  For example: to foster an informal learning  atmosphere and reshuffle regularly sub-groups' 
composition; to have a limited number of trainers to present each module in its entirety; to provide feedback 
to the participants on their communication skills at every opportunity; to focus on participants' negotiation skills and not on negotiations' would-be results; to use the book of WTO legal texts more systematically; to provide proper debriefing at the end of case studies and simulations; etc.  Ot her pedagogical suggestions 
formulated by TAME included: to require all WTO trainers  to follow a Training of Trainers (ToT) and regular 
refreshers afterwards; to make  a greater use of true case studies in an  increased number of domains; to give 
time to the participants to experiment by themselves; to trim down the volume of documents posted on the virtual classroom; etc. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 16 - 
 
  3.40.  One notable innovation introduced in 2014 was the experimentation with a "joint reading" of 
the text of the WTO Agreement introduced in the regi onal activities held on agriculture.  This new 
pedagogical approach of the legal text generated a high level of interest from the participants, who 
found it more beneficial to be directly confronted with the text of the Agreement itself rather than 
with general explanations.  It also confirme d the importance of previous recommendations 
formulated by TAME on various occasions to make a more systematic use of the book of WTO legal texts in the WTO TA and training activities.
16 
3.3.5  Building Geneva-based delegates' capacity 
3.41.  The consultations held in preparation for the 2014-15 TA Plan had shown that delegates 
posted in Geneva – recently or not – had a variety of needs which the WTO did not always address.  In 2014, several initiatives were taken to respond to these needs.  The first one was the 
organization in Geneva of an advanced Trade Negotiations Course.  These courses are usually held 
in the different regions and simulate a multi-track trade negotiation on the basis of modalities similar to those being developed in the context of  the DDA.  Whilst holding a course on negotiating 
skills in Geneva had already been done repeatedly in the past, this was the first time that it was 
specifically targeting Geneva-based delegates with a view to improving their negotiating skills.  Even if the course proved quite intense and technical for many participants, they were generally 
very pleased with its output.  In one week, they considered that their negotiating skills had been 
significantly improved, which was of direct relevance to their responsibilities as delegates of their countries in Geneva. 
3.42.  In addition, a new series of one-day Focus activities for Geneva-based delegates was 
inaugurated in 2014.  These activities are demand-driven and target delegates dealing with a 
specific subject on which they offer an advanced focus.  They are designed to assist these delegates in better understanding the specificities and details of what are fairly technical subjects, 
to allow for more in depth exchanges of views and perspectives, and to provide new networking 
opportunities.  In 2014, four such Focus activities were held in Geneva, one on agriculture, one on TBT and two on dispute settlement. 
3.43.  On agriculture, participation was limited to approximately 30 delegates to foster real 
exchanges amongst them.  The day focused on the role of the regular Committee on Agriculture 
for the implementation of commitments; the functioning of the Agriculture Information Management System and how to use it to monitor Members' trade policy in this area and for 
transparency purposes; and the Bali negotiations, their process and outcome.  Whilst the activity 
was appreciated by delegates, it was felt that in the future it should more clearly target either new delegates or experienced ones, instead of trying  to address both publics together, since their 
needs are not the same. 
3.44.  In June, ten delegates followed a lunch-time training on the online TBT notification 
submission system (NSS).  The training included a presentation of the TBT NSS, followed by an 
exercise requiring participants to submit a mock notification through the TBT NSS training 
environment.  The Secretariat guided the participants through each step.  The training ended with a short question and answer session.  Following the event, several Members started using the NSS 
to submit notifications, and others informed the Secretariat that they would be using it in future. 
3.45.  The other two Focus activities held in Ju ly and September provided training prior to the 
launch of the Digital Dispute Settlement Registry (DDSR) which will replace at some point the 
current paper-based filing system.  They were targeted at those Geneva-based delegates with 
direct responsibility for and experience in WTO dispute settlement.  Participation was also limited 
to approximately 30 delegates, for the same reason.  The training was designed to show case the new system using different communication tools (screen videos were produced and a special step-
by-step user guide booklet was printed for these trainings).  Participants were able to familiarize 
themselves with the key functions of the system (account management, case management and research) using a hands-on approach that allowed them to interact directly with the system using fake dispute files created for that purpose.  The tr aining showed the need fo r a follow-up in smaller 
groups to focus more specifically on particular areas (filing, correspondence, account 
management, etc.).  The focused DDSR training was not only geared towards training delegates, 
                                               
16  This recommendation was repeated again in 2014 when assessing the reformed ATPC and the RTPC 
Programme. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 17 - 
 
  but also towards receiving feedback on the design and functionalities of the DDSR when it was still 
at a development stage.  In this respect, the activities were highly successful and provided for a continued collaboration between the Secretariat an d Members on the project.  The comments of 
the delegates were conveyed to the company deve loping the application and several changes were 
subsequently introduced in the DDSR.  A first pilot of the DDSR is now planned in the summer of 
2015 and will be accompanied with the provision of further training to Members. 
3.46.  Since the direct costs of the above-mentioned activities is negligible (although they 
represent an opportunity cost for the Secretariat) , these results have been achieved in a highly 
efficient way. 
3.3.6  Continuing to respond to Members' needs 3.47.  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. 
3.48.  Upon request of members of COMESA, the Secretariat provided extensive comments on the 
draft final schedules of commitments submitted by  12 COMESA member states in the context of 
regional trade liberalization under the COMESA services regulations.  This was carried out exclusively through e-mail and telephone. 
3.49.  On RTAs, the Secretariat modified in 2014 the pedagogy used in advanced courses.  It 
introduced a new interactive exercise which required the participants to access and exploit the 
information contained in the RTA database to solve various problems.  This approach was then extended to the other WTO databases (IDB, I-TIP,  etc.) and more time was devoted to a deeper 
analysis of the information contained in the factua l presentations.  These exercises produced very 
good results, as they demonstrated how the wealth of data currently available online could assist Members in their analysis and understanding of th e trade environment they operate in, leading to 
better informed decisions. 
3.50.  With the help of the IMF and Thomson-Reuters Foundation, the first Middle-East regional 
workshop for media was held in Kuwait.  The activity was successful in reaching journalists from the region who very often knew little about how WTO operates, takes decisions and influences 
domestic economies and trade.  A mixture of training on economics and trade reporting provided 
by the Thomson-Reuters Foundation provided a basi s for a dialogue on WTO subjects and led to 
subsequent follow-up with the media of the region. 
3.51.  A new Trade Policy Analysis course ran for the first time in May 2014.  It was developed 
with a view to building the capacity of policy makers in formulating and implementing trade policy on the basis of sound trade policy analysis.  It was developed in response to requests from a 
number of delegations to carry out a course similar to a pilot project on modelling techniques 
conducted earlier in the year with the Ecuadorian mission.  The course was designed on the basis of the joint publication UNCTAD/WTO Practical Guide to Trade Policy Analysis.
17  In addition to its 
focus on the use of statistical software for trade flows and trade policy analysis, the course 
provided a platform to consider ways to enhance the use of research in policy making.  While the 
process of accessing data could have been simpler,  participants felt that the course helped them 
familiarize with the sources of trade data, thus im proving their capacity to produce relevant trade 
analysis.  Many recommended lengthening the duration of the activity in the future to increase its 
utility.  The number of applications received for the course was very high,18 which confirmed the 
existence of a real demand for this kind of training. 
3.52.  This course can be seen as the culmination of a project launched in 2006 by the WTO and 
UNCTAD.  The release of the practical guide in 2012 was a first step, which then led some Members like Ecuador to request a course on the book.  Some researchers from Ecuador, who had used the book as reference for some of their work, requested clarifications on part of its content.  
                                               
17  http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/publications_e/practical_guide12_e.htm  
18  89 applications from 73 countries when  the course had only 25 participants. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 18 - 
 
  
Subsequent discussions led to the creation of a course on the topic of trade policy modelling 
derived from the book.  Two other courses using the materials developed by the Secretariat have 
been organized by the UNCTAD Virtual Institute in  Geneva and the practical guide has also been 
used as a textbook for a master's course in Princeton in 2014. 
3.53.  The thematic course for LDCs held annually in Geneva was pitched at an intermediate level 
in 2014 instead of at an advanced level in previous years, in order to better tailor it to the profile of the participants nominated by Members. 
3.54.  Building on a 2013 initiative, participants in the 2014 regional workshop on government 
procurement for Latin America were requested to submit in advance summaries regarding an aspect of their national trade or government procurement policy and/or legal/institutional regime as a personal contribution to the substance of the programme.  These provided a good basis for 
discussion and information sharing.  In this domain, the TA provided by the WTO is increasingly 
benefiting from the growing body of policy analysis  and research conducted by the Secretariat over 
the last few years.  This research focused, inter alia , on the convergence of international 
disciplines in this area and the policy intersecti ons with other areas (e.g. interaction between GATS 
and the GPA; GPA, trade and public health policy intersections; and the relevance of the GPA to infrastructure provision, trade and development in Africa). 
3.55.  A first phase of the e-GPA project was completed in 2014.  The e-GPA project aims to: 
(i) create an integrated database of GPA coverage and related data to serve as a market access information resource, and to better publicize the commercial opportunities available under the Agreement; (ii) create a digital platform for the efficient management of notifications processes; 
and (iii) develop synergies with the efforts to create an integrated database of trade measures 
across the WTO via I-TIP.  The project is strongly supported by the Parties to the GPA.  The first 
phase completed in 2014 already provides online access to the GPA coverage data in a user-
friendly, integrated, interactive database format.
19  The e-GPA platform will play an increasingly 
important role in future technical assistance delivery under the GPA. 
3.56.  In light of the interest expressed and the relatively low participation of Pacific countries in 
the regional SPS workshop held in Asia in 2012, it was decided in 2014 to target specifically the 
Pacific sub-region.  In cooperation with the PIFS, a workshop organized for the Pacific countries in Samoa at the end of the year gathered around 35 participants from the six Members of that region.  It addressed the specific needs of these countries through targeted presentations, 
practical exercises, experience sharing, group discussions, etc. 
3.57.  In addition, the 2014 Geneva-based thematic workshop provided the opportunity to address 
issues specifically raised by Members under the Fo urth Review of the SPS Agreement.  The topic of 
this workshop was decided at the March 2014 SPS Committee meeting, where Members agreed to 
use the occasion of the SPS Thematic Workshop to focus on risk analysis, based on the proposal submitted by the United States, in the context of the Fourth Review.  Although not originally 
envisioned in the TA plan, the WTO partnered wi th IICA to co-fund the participation of nine 
Caribbean participants in this activity.  IICA also provided the use of their web streaming platform 
and the offsite support of one technician. 
3.58.  More TBT-related TA requests were 
received and activities delivered in 2014 than 
in any other year since 1995.  Overall, 32 TBT activities or activities with a TBT 
component (e.g. RTPCs or activities covering 
TBT and SPS together) took place during the year.  This represented a doubling of the 
demand on this subject compared to the 
average over the previous 5 years.
20  T h e  
Secretariat anticipates that demand in this area will remain high in the foreseeable 
future.  However, the current WTO budget 
freeze and the need to reallocate more 
                                               
19  https://e-gpa.wto.org/en/Help/QuickAccess  
20  See section 4 in G/TBT/36. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 19 - 
 
  resources to DS will limit its capacity to respond to  these needs, as it already operates close to full 
capacity in this domain. 
3.59.  In the area of Intellectual Property, the Se cretariat adopted a more holistic approach to its 
capacity building activities in general, putting  the TRIPS Agreement and its policy choices into a 
broader context.  This approach benefited from  a deepening of the collaboration with other 
relevant international organizations, including WIPO, WHO, WCO, ITU and UNCTAD.  It explored the interaction between the TRIPS Agreement and other WTO Agreements.  In 2014, illustrations 
of this approach included, for example, the following activities: 
a. A workshop on Trade and Health held in November in Geneva, which considered the 
various trade Agreements (TRIPS, TBT and SPS, others) which may influence or constrain governments' policy and actions to address public health issues. 
b. A combined programme of activities for Sri Lanka designed to assist in the development 
of its cinnamon sector.  The programme was designed to complement an STDF project which assists processing technology developm ent and improves the value addition in the 
cinnamon value chain, and to build on the spec ific trade concern raised years ago by Sri 
Lanka in the SPS Committee concerning sulphur dioxide residues in cinnamon which had led Codex to issue a new international standard.  The programme involved (i) a national 
workshop and expert mission on technical advice on the protection of the geographical 
indication Ceylon Cinnamon; (ii); a national awareness raising seminar on SPS; (iii) an academic support on the SPS and TRIPS Agreements. 
c. A Workshop on Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights organized in response to a 
specific demand from the CEECAC countries to improve Members' understanding of the 
international legislative framework applyi ng to IPR enforcement.  The workshop 
benefited from the involvement at senior level of the WCO, Interpol and ITU, making it 
possible to address numerous facets of this issue in very concrete and practical ways. 
3.4  Partnerships 3.60.  In 2014, the Secretariat continued to make use of an ever increasing network of 
partnerships to deliver better tailored TA to beneficiaries in a cost-efficient manner.  The main 
thrust of these partnerships continued to be to promote situations whereby the partner contributed to an activity, either in terms of substance or financially.  Many of the long-standing partnerships of the WTO follow this logic, whether at global level for specific subjects (e.g. with WCO on market 
access for goods; IICA, OIE, IPPC and FAO on SPS; WHO and WIPO on TRIPS, ACWL and ICTSD on 
dispute settlement; Friedrish Ebert Stiftung, Tamasek Foundation, Parlatino and parliamentary associations of the Commonwealth and the Francophonie on outreach for members of parliaments; 
Thailand Institute for Trade and Development on trade negotiation skills) or in Asia-Pacific (e.g. 
with UNESCAP, PIFS), Latin America (e.g. with IDB/INTAL, ALADI, OAS), CEECAC (e.g. with the 
JVI), the Caribbean (e.g. with Caricom), the Middle East (e.g. with AMF,IMF-CEF, IsDB) and Africa 
(e.g. with ECOWAS, CEMAC, UNECA, EAC, COMESA, SADC, OIF, Deutsche Gesellschaft für 
Internationale Zusammenarbeit-GiZ). 
3.61.  Many of these partnerships provide for the sharing of part or all the costs related to the 
activities, depending on the financial means of the partners.  The WTO does not have 
comprehensive data on the costs financed by its partners (as most of these costs do not transit 
through WTO accounts), which makes it impossible to present a full picture.  At one end of the spectrum, partners such as IDB/INTAL, AMF, Is DB or IMF-CEF finance almost all the expenses 
related to the activities; costs are split in two wi th other partners such as WIPO, OAS, UNESCAP, 
UNECA, etc.; and at the other end some partners make a substantial contribution by taking care of the logistics, making experts available free of charge and other assistance in kind. 
3.62.  A very successful informal cooperation with  EBRD was developed progressively over the last 
few years for TA in the domain of government procurement.  It included in 2014 the establishment of a new, €1.25 million, EBRD-funded, joint EBRD /WTO GPA Technical Cooperation Facility, to 
support focused capacity building on GPA accession  and related domestic reforms.  In 2014, this 
Facility financed a tailored 4-day capacity building  activity for the GPA observers from the CEECAC 
region (Georgia, Jordan, Kyrgyz Republic, Montenegro, Tajikistan, Turkey and Ukraine).  On the WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 20 - 
 
  
same subject, ongoing informal cooperation with other organizations included the World Bank and 
UNCITRAL. 
3.63.  Beyond the financial benefits of these partnerships, they made a substantial contribution to 
better tailor the TA activities to the actual needs of beneficiaries (see section 3.3.6). 
3.5  Intensified cooperation with academia 
3.5.1  Reforming the WTO Chairs Prog ramme (WCP) and launching its Phase 2 
3.64.  Further to the mid-term review conducted in 2012, a decision was taken in 2013 to recast 
the programme whose management had been found to need reform.  That decision was 
implemented in 2014.  Under each of the thr ee pillars of the WCP (research, curriculum 
development and outreach), the focus was increasi ngly placed on results, quality and relevance 
instead of mere volume, through better reporting from the chairs.  The size of the Advisory Board 
was reduced and its involvement in the manage ment of the programme was beefed-up: it 
contributed to the evaluation of the final report  of each of the 14 original chairs; the Board 
physically met for the first time ever in February 2014 and held consultations with the Secretariat; 
such meetings will now be organized annually.  The laisser-faire adopted during the first three 
years in the name of academic freedom was replaced by a tighter monitoring of the chairs by the Secretariat, in which a new coordinator of the programme was designated to implement these 
reforms. 
3.65.  A good illustration of this new policy was the 
request for the chairs to contribute each a chapter of the book "Connecting to Global Markets: Challenges and 
Opportunities".  The book is a collection of case studies 
produced by the chair holders and edited by the Secretariat.  It was released during the annual WCP 
conference on 11-12 February.  This was the first time the 
chairs were required to work on a common theme, whose relevance had been identified by the Secretariat, and the 
first time that research from the chairs was actually 
published by the WTO.  This gave much more of a spine to the research performed in the context of the programme, and created a sound level of emulation between the chairs.  
The Advisory Board noted in February that this had 
contributed to raising signif icantly the quality of the 
outputs of the chairs.  The book received a rather large 
distribution during the rest of the year: copies were sent 
to many academics and policy makers in Geneva-based missions, international organizations and research 
institutions. 
3.66.  Upon completion of phase 1 in February 201 4, some of the original chairs reimbursed the 
grant they had received – or part of it – to th e WTO, as they had not used it for its intended 
purpose.  This shows that the financial management of the programme too has been reinforced 
during the year. 
3.67.  The reform of the WCP paved the way for th e launch of its second four-year phase in the 
spring.  Compared to the first phase, it is significantly more compact, as the number of chairs was 
halved.  In the last quarter of 2013, a competitive call for tenders gathered 77 applications from 
various academic institutions of developing countries around the world.  The selection involved a two-step process.  In a first step, the Secr etariat established a short-list of the 40 best 
applications based on six selection criteria (quality and relevance of the proposed (i) research, (ii) 
curriculum development and (iii) outreach activities; (iv) management; (v) sustainability; and (vi) feasibility of the proposed work plan).  In th e second step, the Advisory Board members assessed 
the 40 short-listed applications and made a recommendation to the Secretariat.  The list of the 
seven institutions with the best proposals was released mid-May 2014. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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3.68.  As in phase 1, each of the seven new chairs 
will be eligible for an annual grant from the WTO of up to CHF 50,000.  But whereas grant payments used to be almost automatic under 
phase 1, they are now subordinated to the 
approval of a detailed activity plan and budget.  The second part of the year was dedicated to 
multiple exchanges with the new chairs, often 
through video conference, to better specify the intended outputs and the corresponding budget allocations in their activity plans.  By the end of 
the year, six of the seven initial grants had been 
disbursed, leading to six official launch conferences.  These are now followed by monthly 
video conferences with each of the chair holders 
and his team to review and discuss progress in their work, deliverables, difficulties faced and 
possible solutions.  These new monitoring 
mechanisms are another illustration of the much tighter control now exercised by the Secretariat 
over the chairs, in order to improve quality, relevance and accountability. 
3.69.  As part of the second phase of the WCP,  the 14 original chairs have been allowed to 
continue using the WTO chair logo, which was apparently one of the main assets of the 
programme for them.  They were also invited in November 2014 to compete for one-off project-specific grants amounting to CHF 10,000 per project.   Nine project proposals were received by the 
end of November and six of them were retained by the Advisory Board for a grant.  This part of 
phase 2 will be implemented in 2015.  The select ion mechanism should guarantee an increase in 
the quality and sustainability of the projects financed by the programme. 
3.5.2  Resumption of the PhD Support Programme 
3.70.  The PhD student support 
programme was launched in 2004 with the aim of renewing and enlarging the 
academic expertise on WTO-related 
matters in developing country Members.  To achieve this objective, selected 
doctoral students from developing 
countries have been invited to stay in Geneva for periods of three to six 
months to conduct advanced research 
for the final stage of their thesis and provided with mentoring/advice in close collaboration with their academic 
supervisor.  Since its inception, a total 
of 75 students from 33 different 
countries benefited from the 
programme. 
3.71.  Today, approximately six PhD 
students can be accommodated every 
year in the Secretariat, depending on 
the actual duration of their stay.  That level has fluctuated over the years.  The initial years of the programme showed 
that an intake of 15 students per year 
was excessive, as the Secretariat did not have the human resources to offer 
them each the specialised attention they 
required, which reduced considerably the overall effectiveness of the 
programme.  This led to halving the number of beneficiaries in 2008.  Unfortunately, in 2011-13 WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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the programme had to be almost stopped, due to the renovation of the CWR building, as the 
Secretariat did not have any extra office space available to host interns. 
3.72.  Now that the CWR renovation has been completed, 2014 marked a kind of resurrection for 
the programme.  The advertisement for the programme on the WTO website, which had been 
taken down in 2011 for the entire duration of the renovation, was reposted and included guidance 
on how to apply.  This led to a rapid pick up in applications (15 in 2014) and a return to what can be considered as a normal level of activity for the year. 
3.73.  In their thesis, the PhD students have covered a 
large variety of subjects belonging in almost equal proportions to WTO or trade-related economics and law.  Students are chosen according to the academic 
contribution their thesis can make to knowledge of the 
WTO and international trade and must cover an area in which the Secretariat staff can make a substantial 
contribution and provide relevant coaching.  At the end of 
their stay in Geneva, PhD students must present their research in a public seminar organized by the WTO.  This 
contributes to giving a wider audience to their work and is 
an opportunity for them to receive feedback from professionals and practitioners. 
3.74.  Today, all but one student have successf ully completed their PhD.  The WTO has not 
systematically tracked the students' career after completion of their PhD, but anecdotal evidence 
from approximately 20% of the participants in th e programme shows that a majority of them stay 
in academia, in their country or elsewhere, wher e they remain involved in WTO or trade-related 
issues.  Most of the others ended up working fo r IGOs, such as development banks, or for their 
government, in which they also continued working on trade-related issues.  These results show that the programme has been reasonably successful in renewing and enlarging academic expertise 
in developing countries on the subjects of relevance to the WTO. 
3.5.3  ELSA Moot Court Competition in Africa 3.75.  Since 2003, the European Law Students' Association (ELSA) has worked with the WTO to 
organize an annual English-language Moot Court competition (MCC) simulating a WTO panel 
proceeding.  Each participating team represents both the complainant and the respondent in the 
fictional case and prepares both written and oral submissions.  Oral pleadings are made before panels consisting of WTO law experts (academics,  private lawyers, government officials and WTO 
Secretariat officials) first in regional rounds and then, for qualifying teams, in a final round at the 
WTO.  Any student enrolled at an accredited unive rsity that awards a degree permitting graduates 
to practice law, including postgraduate programmes, is eligible to participate.  Today, the 
competition involves teams from universities in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and 
North America. 
3.76.  Since the inception of the ELSA MCC, WTO staff has contributed by reviewing the moot case 
and grading written submissions.  The Academic  Support Programme has provided funding for 
WTO staff to serve as panellists in each of the regional rounds including developing countries 
(Americas, Asia-Pacific and Africa). 
3.77.  The main change in 2014 was the expansion of WTO financial support to assist ELSA 
International, in co-operation with the University of the Witwatersrand, to organize the first ever 
Africa regional round, which took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 31 March to 2 April 2014.  The three highest-ranked teams (from South Africa, Ethiopia and Lesotho) participated in 
the final oral round that took place in Geneva in May 2014.  The WTO, together with a number of 
institutions, firms, and private contributors genero usly covered all the costs of the regional round, 
as well as the costs for the participation of the three best African teams in the final oral round. 
3.78.  The reason for initiating an African round was to ensure that nationals of all WTO Members 
had an opportunity to participate in the only global MCC on WTO law.  In this way, the short and 
long term benefits of the ELSA MCC enjoyed in previous years by nationals of Members in Asia-WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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  Pacific, the Americas and Europe could also be en joyed by nationals of African Members.  Based on 
the feedback from participants, universities and sponsors, the inaugural African regional round was a resounding success.  The increase in 2015 in the number of teams participating in the regional round – from 7 to 10, including several returning schools – is evidence that the competition is 
beginning to take hold in Africa. 
3.79.  Some of the immediate benefits of the ELSA MCC that have impacted not only the Africa 
round but also all the regional rounds of the competition include the following: 
a. The ELSA MCC has been instrumental in fostering awareness and in-depth study of the 
WTO and its dispute settlement system in law schools in many parts of the world, and in particular in developing countries. 
b. The presence of WTO staff as panellists at the regional rounds of the ELSA MCC provides 
a direct educational benefit to competing students by giving them insight into the panel 
process.  It also enables WTO staff to connect with legal practitioners and university professors from the region in question.  WTO staff members are in a unique position to 
provide teams with information and advice on procedural and substantive aspects of 
litigating a case before the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.  This benefit is crucial, as it bolsters the teaching capacity in universities, particularly of the university 
professors involved. 
3.80.  Some of the long-term benefits accruing fr om the ELSA MCC that have a positive impact on 
WTO Members from all over the world include the fact that ELSA participants go on to careers in international trade law or economics as government officials and WTO delegates, academics and 
private practitioners.  Indeed, several of the current DS delegates participated in the ELSA MCC.  
Likewise, approximately ten of the trade policy analysts, economic affairs officers, legal affairs officers and dispute settlement lawyers who have re cently been recruited by the WTO over the last 
five years have participated in the competition.  Participation in the ELSA MCC is now a selection 
criterion for candidates applying for legal internships at the WTO or for recruitment as a dispute settlement lawyer.  Over the last three years, thre e quarters of the interns recruited by the Legal 
Affairs division had particip ated in one ELSA MCC before. 
4  IMPLEMENTATION OF TA PLAN AND MAIN FEATURES OF THE TA PROVIDED IN 2014 
4.1.  As has been customary for a couple of year s, this chapter presents an analysis of the TA 
provided by WTO in 2014 according to various criter ia, such as their distribution by region, by 
subject, by language or by PLS level.  In each case, a distinction will be made between national, 
regional, global or e-Learning activities to give a better grasp of the reach of these activities.  Information on the number of participants in, and duration of, each activity have been added. 
4.2.    On-line courses are available throughout th e year on a permanent basis.  Participants must 
complete the training for which they registered within 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 two 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.
21 
4.4.  In 2014, excluding Other Activities which did not constitute TA per se, the WTO undertook 
273 TA activities, both in Geneva and in beneficiary countries.  The Secretariat continued to place 
particular emphasis on providing assistance to Africa and to LDCs, whose integration into the 
multilateral trading system (MTS) remains a priority for the WTO. 
                                               
21  The WTO accounts for 2014 had not yet been finally closed at the time this report was being 
prepared, which may explain minor variations with the fi gures contained in the financial report for that year. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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4.1  Participation of least developed countries (LDCs22) 
4.5.  Facilitating a fuller integration of LDCs into  the MTS continued to be one of the main priorities 
of the TA provided by WTO, in line with the Doha Declaration.  As last year, LDCs were invited to 58% of the activities organized in 2014.  The increase d proportion 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 offe red by the WTO.  Some of the global activities 
are specifically designed for LDCs (three-week introduction course for LDCs and thematic course 
for LDCs held in Geneva). 
4.6.  Two thirds of the LDCs are in Africa.  The priority given to that continent in the 
implementation of many WTO TA programmes also be nefited the LDCs in 2014.  This confirms that 
both priorities are mutually supportive.  The statistics show that LDCs were invited to participate in 
70% of the activities in this region. 
4.7.  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 four interns selected under the LDC and Accession internship 
programme came from an LDC (from Africa), as 
did 11 out of 16 Mission interns, four out of nine Regional Coordinator interns (LDCs, PIF and ACP) and nine out of 15 Netherlands trainees.  
Overall, this means that 60% of the long-term 
interns invited to spend up to ten months in Geneva to work on WTO issues, either in a 
mission or in the Secretariat, came from an LDC 
in 2014, as has been on average the case over 
the past five years.  This shows a clear preferen ce for LDC candidates in the selection process for 
these programmes.  As in 2013, approximately 60% of the LDC interns came from Africa. 
4.8.  The TA plan 2014-2015 and the new Reference Centre Programme strategy adopted in 2012 
indicated that the RC programme would be part icularly beneficial to the LDCs, Sub-Saharan 
African countries and non-resident countries.  Ou t of the eight Reference Centres upgraded in 
2014, four were in LDCs.
23 
4.9.  After three years of continuous growth, the 
share of LDCs in the participants in online 
courses stabilised in 2014.  Participants 
originating from these countries represented a third of those who attended online courses.  On 
average, they tended to be marginally less 
successful than the candidates originating from non-LDCs.  Given the challenges frequently faced by LDCs in terms of internet connection, this 
situation is highly satisfactory. 
 
 
 
 
                                               
22  LDCs represent less than a th ird of all potential beneficiaries 
23  Burundi, Comoros, Mali and Solomon Islands. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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4.2  Geographical distribution 
4.10.    The activities with a global geographical reach that were organized in Geneva represented 
38% of the 273 activities implemented in 2014, but accounted for only 14% of the participants in 
face-to-face activities and 57% of the number of tr aining days delivered by the Secretariat.  In 
other words, as in previous years, these activities tended to benefit a reduced pool of individuals who stayed extended periods of time in the WTO. 
4.11.  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 165 working days each).  These internship programmes are 
relatively expensive (CHF 1.9 million in total for the four internship programmes in 2014), a reason why the activities held in Geneva represented 45% of the expenses of the year. 
4.12.  To avoid distorting the analysis for other face-to-face activities and repeating each time the 
same explanation, the data and graphs presented in the rest of this chapter will exclude these 
long-term internships. 
4.13.  Setting aside the internship programmes, it  was demonstrated in the TA annual report for 
2012 that other activities 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. 
4.14.  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 2014, but the differences between the regions have been significantly eroded compared to the   National   Regional   Global   e-Learning 
 WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 26 - 
 
  
previous year.  The share of Africa in the TA fiel d activities held outside of Geneva shrank from 
37% in 2013 to 27% in 2014, whether measured in terms of number of activities, of participants, 
of days, or expenses.  In the meantime, the relative importance of the Middle-East grew. 
4.15.   The geographical distribution 
of the participants in e-Learning 
courses continued to be comprehensive and to cover all 
regions.  In 2014, participants from 
139 countries registered in WTO online courses.  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 constant.  The 
breakdown for 2014 is almost the 
same as in 2012, for example. 
4.3  Product mix  Proportion of National/Regional Activities 
 Africa Asia-Pacific Caribbean CEECAC Latin America Middle East 
National 78% 66% 67% 71% 74% 64% 
Regional 22% 34% 33% 29% 26% 36% 
4.16.  In 2014, the WTO TA was predominantly delivered through national activities in all regions.  
National activities continued to gather approximatel y three quarters of the participants in activities 
held outside Geneva and to represent just over half of the days of training.  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. 
4.17.  On average, national activities 
gathered 37 participants in 2014 30% more than regional activities whose 
average number of participants was 
28.5.  The past recommendations of TCA to limit the number of participants to 30 
persons in order to make it easier to use 
more interactive training methods is much more difficult to implement for 
national activities.  In regional/global 
activities, for which the Secretariat selects participants, the average number of participants seemed to have come 
down to desirable levels, even if the 
standard deviation from the average remained fairly high. 
 WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 27 - 
 
  
4.18.  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: even if their average duration in 2014 increased markedly compared to the 
previous year (+20%) to reach 3 days, 
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 3.6 days in 2014, staying at the same 
level as last year. 
4.19.  Cost-wise, the pattern across regions was more contrasted in 2014 than in the previous 
year.  With the exception of Africa, regional activi ties represented between two thirds (Asia-Pacific, 
Latin America) and three quarters (Caribbean, C EECAC, Middle East) of the TA expenses for these 
regions.  That proportion was only 56% in Africa, as  a result of the low share of regional activities 
organized on that continent in 2014.  This shows the relative high cost of regional activities in all 
regions compared to national ones.  In region al 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, 52% of all participants followed e-
Learning activities for less than 5% of the total TA costs of the year, which demonstrates the very 
high efficiency of this mode of training. 
4.20.  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 (trade facilitation needs assessment is a good illustration). 
4.21.  The growth in the number of 
persons trained annually by the WTO has been constant since 2011.  In 2014, the 
WTO trained a total of 14,700 
i n d i v i d u a l s ,  7 %  m o r e  t h a n  i n  t h e  previous year.  That growth came entirely from e-Learning, as participation 
i n  f a c e - t o - f a c e  a c t i v i t i e s  w e n t  d o w n  ( -
12%).  However, in spite of certain annual variations, participation in face-
to-face activities since 2011 remained 
fairly stable: the drop registered in 2014 cannot yet be seen as a new trend.  The 
Secretariat capacity to increase 
participation in face-to-face activities is extremely limited and highly dependent 
on the availability of additional human and financial resources.  As the level of 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 extremely effective means of leveraging the limited resources available to reach an 
ever increasing audience.  In 2014 and for the first time ever, more than half of the participants in 
WTO activities were trained through e-Learning (5 2%).  That proportion was only 25% five years 
ago. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 28 - 
 
  
4.22.  As explained earlier, the four long term internship programmes run by the WTO - Mission 
internships (MIP), Netherlands Trainees (NTP), Regional Coordinator Internships (RCI) and Accession Internships - constitute a hands-on type of  face-to-face TA activity with very particular 
characteristics.  These programmes benefit a small number of participants (44 in 2014, i.e. 8% 
less than in 2013) for extended periods of time (between four months for one Accessions intern 
and two Regional Coordinator interns and eight to  ten months for the others).  In 2014, the 
interns represented 0.6% of the participants in face -to-face activities, but 33% of the training days 
and 12% of the expenses of the year.  These latte r two proportions were lower than in 2013, due 
to the reduced duration of the NTP this year (8  months instead of 10 in 2013), as the trainees 
could not be recruited prior to the receipt of the Dutch contribution at the end of January.  These internship programmes are relatively expensive (CHF 1.9 million in total in 2014) due to their 
duration.  On the other hand, the ex-post evalua tion 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. 
4.23.  In 2014, the size of the 
various long-term internship programmes was relatively stable 
compared to the previous two years.  
The only noticeable change was a slight reduction in the number of MIPs which fell back to its average 
level over the last five years (16) 
after the peak of 2013 (22). 
4.24.  Cost wise, the overall 
expenses under the four 
programmes decreased by 14% (NTP), 28% (MIP), 4% (RCI) and 
29% (Accessions).  The average cost 
of an NTP decreased as the average 
duration of their stay in Geneva was 8.5 months compared with an average of 9.5 months in 2013.  The contribution for that programme was not received until the end of January 2014, which 
delayed the recruitment of the interns and reduced the duration of their stay in Geneva by one 
month compared to 2013.  The same phenomenon had already occurred in 2012.  The average cost of the interns under the MIP was relatively stable.  The reduced expenses under this 
programme resulted essentially from the decreased number of participants.  A slightly shorter 
average duration of the RCIs' stay in Geneva (6 .5 months in 2014 instead of 7 the previous year) 
also explains the lower cost of the programme in spite of having one intern more.  Overall, these 
three programmes have fairly comparable average cost per intern per month.  The lower cost of 
the Accession internships was entirely due to the much reduced total number of months of 
internship that were financed in 2014 compared to  the previous year (25 instead of 37, which was 
exceptionally high), as a result of a different recruitment rhythm. 
4.25.  The respective scale of the long term internship programmes is dependent on the 
earmarked contributions levels from a specific number donors (China-Accessions Interns, Denmark-MIP, France-MIP, Ireland-MIP, Nether lands-NTP), with the exception of the RCI 
programme financed exclusively through the Glob al Trust Fund.  As illustrated by the NTP 
example, given the narrow financial basis of these programmes, the timing of the disbursement of 
these contributions can have a significant impact on the scale of the activities. 
 WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 29 - 
 
  
4.4  Distribution by subject 
4.26.  Excluding the long-term internship programmes, on average, a third of the TA activities 
organized during the year had a general scope and covered, if not all WTO subjects, at least a 
number of them.24  The proportion of activities with a general scope was higher for regional, e-
Learning and global activities (45%, 47% and 44% respectively), and lower for national activities 
(25%).  Activities with a general scope included, for example, all the Trade Policy Courses, 
irrespective of their duration or location (e.g. 3 ATPCs, 7 RTPCs, 1 introduction course for LDCs, 
etc.); training on trade negotiating skills (7 acti vities); the installation or upgrade of Reference 
Centres (8 activities); outreach activities for members of Parliament and civil society (7 activities); Trade and Development (6 activities); two Geneva Weeks for non-residents; etc. 
4.27.  When measured in terms of participants, th e importance of activities with a general scope 
was even greater.  They gathered 45% of participants on average.  However, 61% of those trained on-line followed a course with a general scope.  On the other hand, those who participated in 
national activities with a general scope represented only 23% of all participants in national 
activities.  These proportions remained stable compared to 2013. 
4.28.  The number of days of general training o ffered represented 53% of the total training days, 
i.e. roughly the same proportion as in 2013.  This shows that, if the WTO face-to-face offer in this 
                                               
24  Activities with a general scope include all the activities for generalists (as opposed to specialists), 
such as introduction courses, RTPCs and ATPCs; activi ties 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 those on trade negotiating skills, trade & development or RCs.   National   Regional   Global   e-Learning 
 WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 30 - 
 
  domain also increased in 2014 (more ATPCs and RT PCs), the training days on specific subjects 
grew in the same proportion.  That proportion was 58% of the total days of training offered in global activities (5 percentage points less than in  2013) and 77% in regional ones (six percentage 
points more than in 2013, which shows the impact of  holding three additional RTPCs).  In national 
activities, that proportion remained 22% as in 2013. 
4.29.  Cost-wise, 56% of the TA expenses were dedicated to the activities with a general scope 
(+7 percentage points compared to 2013).  Amongs t the expenses dedicated to global activities 
held in Geneva, 60% were for these activities with a general scope.  However, expenses incurred 
for these activities represented only 26% of the to tal expenses for national activities and 35% of 
the total expenses for e-Learning. 
4.30.  All four long-term internship programmes had a general coverage (Mission Internship, 
Regional Coordinator Internship, Netherlands Trainee and Accession Internship programmes).  In 
2014, these programmes represented on average more than 163 days of general training for each 
participant (20% less than in 2013) for a total of 44 interns (2 less).  CHF 1.9 million was spent on 
these programmes (-20% compared to 2013). 
4.31.  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. 
4.32.  As in 2013, Trade Facilitation remained th e most important individual subject during the 
year, as the demand for needs assessments stayed high.  A total of 31 such activities were 
implemented during the year (6 less than in 2013), most of them at national level.  This was 
linked with the approval of the TFA in MC9, th e requirement to notify Category A measures and 
the ratification process now under way in most Members.  These activities represented 
approximately 10% of the participants, days  of training and expenses of the year. 
4.33.  The second most popular subject in 2014 was SPS, as in 2012.  Demand in this area has 
constantly been relatively high over the years.  Even if overtaken by Trade Facilitation in 2013-14, 
there was no decrease in the interest of Members for that subject.  If combined with the growing 
interest shown by Members for TBT, which was the most significant evolution during the year (see 
section 3.3.6), standards actually became the area for which demand was the highest in 2014.  Together they represented 15% of  the TA activities and of the participants, and a bit less when 
measured in terms of days of training and expenses. 
4.34.  As in 2013, TA in the area of Dispute Settlement remained comparatively low given the ever 
increasing proportion of the Secretariat resources dedicated to it.  As the staff working in this area 
is entirely mobilised by ongoing dispute settlem ent proceedings, the Secretariat's capacity to 
provide TA in this domain is much reduced.  The high number of days of TA offered 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 96 days of TA for th ose countries which benefited from this service.  
The support provided to the ELSA Moot Court compet ition (see section 3.5.3 above) also beefed up 
the number of days for regional events. 
4.35.  The WTO introduction course was by far the most popular e-learning course.  It attracted 
2,200 participants (i.e. 30% of the participants in e-Learning activities, three percentage points lower than last year) in 2014.  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.  SPS 
came next with 700 participants, followed by Trade Economics (over 500 participants) and Multilateral Trade Agreements (over 400 particip ants), and then Legal underpinnings, TBT and 
Trade & Development (over 300 participants).  The hierarchy inside the top four most popular 
courses changed compared to last year but, on av erage, demand remained fairly constant in 2014 
for each of the subjects. 
 
 WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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4.5  Language mix 
4.36.  The breakdown by language of the TA activities organized in 2014 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 60-65% of the total, whether measured in 
terms of number of activities, of participants, of days or expenses.  These proportions were less homogeneous for the activities held in French or Spanish.  Whilst they were equally numerous, 
representing approximately 17% of the total, thos e in French attracted 21% of the participants, 
represented 11% of the training days and 13% of the overall expenses, when these figures for the 
activities held in Spanish were 17% of the participants, 13% of the training days and 15% of total expenses.  Face-to-face activities in Spanish were longer on average, especially regional and 
global ones.  Regional activities held in Span ish during the year were 2.5 times more numerous 
than those held in French, which explains why the proportion of the expenses dedicated to 
activities held in Spanish doubled compared to 2013, in spite of the partnership with IDB/INTAL 
which reduced significantly their cost to the WTO. 
4.37.  The analysis of these figures should take into account the proportion of the Members and 
Observers that use each of the three languages for their work at the WTO: 70% English, 18% 
French and 12% Spanish.  This shows that the current balance between the languages in the WTO 
TA offer is by and large aligned with Members' and Observers' language preferences. 
4.38.  A small share of the TA (6% of the activi ties and 3% of the participants) was provided 
through activities held in more than one language (frequently in all three WTO languages), with 
the assistance of interpretation.  These latter activities continued to be 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 ha ndful of proportionately expensive activities or 
programmes held in Geneva (WTO Chairs Programme, Trade Facilitation or 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 96 days of assistance provided under Article 27.2 of the DSU. 
4.39.  For e-Learning courses, the breakdown was somewhat different: 54% of participants 
followed courses in English, 26% in French and 20% in Spanish.  This is consistent with the high proportion of participants from Africa who regist ered for on-line courses in 2014 and the growth of 
the participation from Latin America compared to 2013 (see section 4.2 above).   National   Regional   Global   e-Learning 
 WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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4.6  Progressivity of training 
4.40.  As a result of the strategy adopted in 2010, efforts to introduce progressivity in the training 
courses concentrated so far on regional, global an d online courses, especially for generalists.  The 
implementation of the PLS continued in 2014, but remained work in progress in a number of 
respects, as can be seen from the – sometimes erra tic – variations over the last three years of the 
various factors analysed in this section.  Consequently, it remains difficult to detect a particular 
trend for the moment in terms of progressivity of training.  The two on-site evaluations conducted 
in 2014 by TAME on the reformed ATPC and the RT PCs confirmed that further work was required 
to transform the programme of these courses in order to generate a real progressivity in the 
training offered by the WTO to generalists.  Many trainers still require to better integrate the PLS 
into their pedagogy.  As a result, the actual content of a training activity does not always reflect the level theoretically ascribed to it by the organizers. 
4.41.  Excluding the internships which are considered advanced activities for generalists, 17% of 
the activities in 2014 could not be given a specified level, representing only 10% of the 
participants, 24% of the training days and 12% of  the TA expenses.  These figures were inflated 
by a small number of global activities, most of them under the academic programme (e.g. WTO 
Chairs Programme) which fall outside of the scope of the PLS, as it does not offer WTO training 
stricto sensus .  These proportions are nevertheless higher than in 2013 (e.g. twice as many 
activities).  As in previous years, more attention should be paid to defining in advance (instead of 
a posteriori) the level of a number of activities, a ccording to the benchmarks adopted at the end of 
2013 and which were not used frequently enough during the year. 
4.42.  As in 2013, the impact of the trade facilitation national needs assessment programme, 
which was classified as advanced activities for specialists, was quite visible in the graphs above.  
This programme represented half of the specialised advanced activities and training days offered in 
2014 and gathering 59% of their participants for on ly 38% of their expenses.  More than 90% of 
the WTO TA on trade facilitation was provided at an advanced level, in contrast with other subjects 
for which approximately the same proportion of the TA was provided at an intermediate level.   National   Regional   Global   e-Learning 
 WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 33 - 
 
  4.43.  Overall, the relative importance of the introduction level grew, while that for the 
intermediate level continued to decline and remained stable for the advanced one.  The introduction level represented around 16% of the activities (+6 percentage points), 23% of the 
participants, and 10% of the training days and expe nses.  The majority of the TA continued to be 
provided at intermediate level in 2014, even if the relative importance of this level declined.  It 
represented 42% of the activities (-14 percentage points), 50% of the participants (-6 percentage 
points), 35% of the training days (-2 percentage  points) and 42% of the expenses (+5 percentage 
points).  The proportion of advanced activities was fairly stable (25% of the activities, only 16% of 
the participants, but 32% of the training days and 36% of the expenses).  As in previous years, 
these figures confirm that advanced activities tended to be proportionately longer and more expensive, but tended to gather less participants, which seems entirely logical. 
4.44.  More than half of the participants are now 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, but is not yet comprehensive, and no advanced online course is 
available for the moment.  The requirement to have completed an introductory level training - in most cases the "Introduction to WTO" e-Learning course - now imposed as a prerequisite to 
register in most face-to-face training courses at regional or global level also contributed to 
increasing participation in the lower level of training. 
4.45.  In total, 30% of the activities were for generalists (16% at introductory level, 11% at 
intermediate level, and 3% at advanced level) and 53% for specialists (30% at intermediate level 
and 23% at advanced level).  Compared to 2013, this marks a rebalancing of the WTO TA offer in 
f a v o u r  o f  g e n e r a l i s t s ,  a n d  a n  i n c r e a s e  o f  t h e  a d v a n c e d  t r a i n i n g  f o r  s p e c i a l i s t s .   A s  l a s t  y e a r ,  activities for generalists gathered close to 40% of the participants and those for specialists 51% 
(proportionately less than in 2013).  But these prop ortions were reversed when measured in terms 
of number of training days or expenses, for which generalists represented around 45% and specialist between 32% and 43%.  This means that activities for generalists were proportionately 
longer and more expensive than those for generalists.  This resulted essentially from the 70% 
increase in the number of 8-week TPCs for generali sts compared to last year (7 RTPCs instead of 4 
and 3 ATPCs instead of 2), whilst the scale of the massive trade facilitation national needs assessment programme was a bit smaller in 2014.  Almost everything else remained as in the 
previous two years.  For example, many othe r advanced trainings we re offered in Geneva: 
approximately 70% of the non-TF advanced activities for specialists, gathering 58% of those who participated in such activities, but representing 70 % of their training days (due to the high impact 
of the advice provided under Article 27.2 of the DSU) and 66% of their expenses. 
4.46.  Inside the generalist path managed by the ITTC, the proportion of participants between the 
three levels did not change compared to the previous two years (61%-36%-3%), which means 
that the pyramidal structure still has a disproport ionately small tip.  There would be merit in 
expanding the reach of the higher level of traini ng, to increase the return on the significant 
investments made to design and organize advanced courses for generalists (see section 3.3.3).  The WTO receives high volumes of applications for these courses and as such the Secretariat 
should continue to increase further advanced training for generalists. 
4.47.  For generalists, two thirds of the face-to-face  activities were held at national level and one 
third at regional or global level, whereas for spec ialists it was half-half, the exact opposite of the 
situation in 2013.  A small number of activities for generalists (RTPCs and ATPCs) gathered a 
limited number of participants for extended durations at a relatively high cost, when national activities tended to gather more participants for a shorter duration at a lower cost.
25  These two 
factors explain the main variations of the various indicators noted above. 
4.7  Gender mix 4.48.  Data on the proportion of women amongst participants were available for 160 face-to-face 
activities, i.e. approximately three quarters of the TA activities organized by WTO in 2014 (once 
Other Activities  are excluded).  This marks a significant improvement compared to the last two 
years for which that proportion was approximately 50% only. 
                                               
25  The WTO does not finance the participants in national activities (see § 4.18 above). WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 34 - 
 
  
4.49.  The average proportion 
of women amongst participants in the face-to-face activities organized in 2014 
was 44%.  That rate has been 
stable over the past four years.  Unlike last year, that 
rate was fairly homogeneous 
across national, regional or global activities in 2014, which marks a return to the pattern 
o b s e r v e d  i n  t h e  p a s t .   Y e a r  
2013 must have been an exception in this regards.  
Patterns continued to vary 
according to the regions: in Latin American, women 
represented 52% of the 
participants and 54% in the Caribbean, whilst that  rate was only 33% in Africa and 25% in the 
Middle East, which saw a sharp drop in the rate of women amongst participants compared to the previous four years.  CEECAC was the only region where that proportion increased noticeably, to 
return closer to its level in 2010-12.  These averages hide significant variations between activities, 
as this rate fluctuated between a low of 0% and a high of 89% in 2014. 
4.50.  In e-Learning courses, the 
average proportion of women was about 
the same as in face-to-face activities.  It stood at 46% in 2014.  In spite of minor 
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 2014.  The significant differences depending on the 
language of the course, which had been 
observed in the past, did not change in 2014: courses in Spanish continued to 
register the highest participation of 
women and those in French the lowest. 
5  MONITORING & EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE IN 2014 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 this represents will take time.  The new tools (e.g. electronic forms and work-flows, database) impl emented thus far remain perfectible, but the 
improvements already identified have been hindered by human resources restrictions. 
5.2.  This means that 2014 was another year of transition in which the old and new M&E systems 
cohabited and overlapped.  The performance of WTO TRTA activities had to be monitored and 
evaluated with a mixture of old and new tools an d processes.  The focus remained on measuring 
the immediate results of the TA activities.  Two on-site evaluations were performed to assess the 
effectiveness and efficiency of the revamped ATPC and the RTPC programme, but no country review could be completed during the year, as the beneficiaries contacted by the Secretariat were 
not in a position to provide the information required.  No action was taken during the course of the 
year to include any such country review as part of  the TPRs of TA beneficiary countries that were 
conducted in 2014.  The two exercises remain completely distinct for the moment. 
5.3.  The various results that have already been presented in the earlier parts of the report (e.g. 
on the ATPC, WCP, PhD Student programme, etc.) will not be repeated here.  This section will focus on the additional elements that could be measured during the year and which constitute WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 35 - 
 
  evidence of the immediate, medium-term or prog ress towards long-term results produced by the 
TA provided by the WTO to its Members and Observers. 
5.1  E-Learning 5.4.  Measuring the immediate results of e-Learning courses is much easier than for most other 
activities, since the results of each participant can be monitored individually and completion of an 
on-line training always requires passing an exam at the end.  As last year, the performance indicators below were used to measure the immediate results of a course: 
 Success rate (proportion of those who passed the exams amongst those who 
attended the course) - the passing rate was 50% on average of correct answers in the final exam at introductory level, and 60% on average at intermediate level, without failing more than one exam. 
 Distinction rate (proportion of 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 50% on average in the course " Introduction to WTO " and 60% on 
average in the other 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 160 121 76% 18 11% 95% 90 74% 
Agriculture 284 154 54% 58 20% 82% 37 24% 
Development 308 191 62% 53 17% 86% 63 33% 
Environment 299 203 68% 43 14% 83% 55 27% 
Introduction to WTO 2,202 1,163 53% 462 21% 80% 262 23% 
Legal Underpinnings 375 257 69% 54 14% 82% 88 34% 
Rules of Origin 30 22 73% 4 13% 82% 6 27% 
MA Intelligence 234 179 76% 25 11% 82% 54 30% 
Multilateral Trade 
Agreements 445 241 54% 86 19% 81% 52 22% 
Market Access Goods 199 102 51% 41 21% 80% 24 24% 
RTAs 292 206 71% 39 13% 90% 109 53% 
Rules 242 175 72% 30 12% 87% 80 46% 
Services 291 156 54% 60 21% 81% 22 14% 
SPS 693 426 61% 121 17% 88% 195 46% 
Tailored Course 113 50 44% 28 25% 87% 21 42% 
TBT 312 222 71% 41 13% 87% 84 38% 
Trade Economics 526 381 72% 65 12% 87% 203 53% 
Trade Finance 227 178 78% 22 10% 88% 86 48% 
Notifications 77 56 73% 9 12% 88% 22 39% 
TRIPS 255 142 56% 51 20% 82% 51 36% 
WTO in 10' 26 22 85% 2 8% 91% 14 64% 
Total 7,590 4,647 61% 1, 312 17% 85% 1,618 35% 
 WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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5.5.  The average success rate 
dropped for the third year in a row and stood at 61% in 2014 (- 9 percentage points compared to 
2013).  However, this remains a 
fairly high average level compared to what can be observed 
elsewhere in the e-Learning 
industry.
26  The standard deviation 
from this average (11%) did not change compared to last year.  All 
courses had a lower rate of 
success in 2014.  Since most of the courses did not change during 
the year, there is no obvious 
explanation for such a general reduction in the performance of 
participants.
27  The lower success 
rate was more than compensated by the significant increase in the number of participants: the total 
number of those who qualified 
through e-Learning in 2014 was 17% higher than in 2013, which is 
a very good result. 
5.6.  Setting aside the tailored 
course, in which participants have 
always been less successful, six 
courses had a rate of success just 
above 50%: Market Access for Goods (51%); Introduction to WTO (53%); Agriculture, Multilateral Trade Agreements (intermediate level course for generalists, which always had relatively low 
results, although not this low) and Services ( 54%); and TRIPS (56%).  At the other end of the 
spectrum, the new course on WTO in 10' was the only one this year with a success rate above 80%.
28  Given its short duration and limited ambition, a high level of success was expected in that 
course.  Otherwise, as in 2013, the courses on Accessions, Trade Finances and Market Access 
intelligence had the highest rates of success (above 75%).  The other three indicators – dropout rate, rate of correct answers and rate of distinctio n – have been relatively stable since 2011, even 
if significant differences exist between courses, in particular concerning the rate of distinction. 
5.7.  Overall, this analysis confirms the differences between the courses already noted in previous 
y e a r s .   S o m e  o f  t h e m  h a v e  t r a d i t i o n a l l y  h a d  h i gher rates of success (e.g. Accessions, Market 
Access Intelligence, Trade Finance and, to a lesser extent, Trade & Environment and SPS), 
whereas some others have been more challenging for participants (e.g. Multilateral Trade 
Agreements, Services or Market Access for Goods), even if they remained successful 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 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.
 29 
5.8.  The same performance indicators can also be used to analyse the results of the courses by 
linguistic version, since they reach different audiences/participants. 
                                               
26  Although the average completion (successful or not) 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 84% (61% successful + 23% 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. 
27 This may be an example of the economic principle of decreasing marginal returns. 
28  However, this was measured on a fairly limited number of participants in 2014, as this course was 
launched on 22 September only. 
29  Some subjects may be more te chnical than others and the scope of the courses is quite variable. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 37 - 
 
  
Language Attended Successful Success 
Rate Dropout Dropout 
Rate Correct 
Answers Distinction Distinction 
Rate 
English 4,117 2,534 62% 702 17% 86% 912 36% 
French 1,974 1,241 63% 330 17% 83% 364 29% 
Spanish 1,499 872 58% 280 19% 86% 342 39% 
Total 7,590 4,647 61% 1, 312 17% 85% 1,618 35% 
 
5.9.  Year 2014 saw the French language 
exception of lower results become the norm, 
as the results for the courses taken in the other two languages came down to the same level, except concerning the distinction rate 
for which the results of the French course 
doubled compared to 2013 to get closer to the rate in the other two languages.  This 
greater homogeneity of the results across all 
linguistic versions of the same course was achieved in a context where participation in 
English language courses increased more 
slowly (+ 22%) than in the other two languages (+ 38% in French and + 80% in Spanish).
30  Since 2011, this means that 
participation in French courses was multiplied by 2.5, when it grew by only 60% in English and 
50% in Spanish courses.  Whereas the respective share of the three languages in e-Learning used 
to be approximately 60-20-20% four years ago, roug hly in line with the si tuation for face-to-face 
activities, the equilibrium between languages has now changed.  This proves that e-Learning allows the WTO to reach out to new publics, especially in the French-speaking parts of the world.  
For example, registration in e-Learning courses was open for the first time in 2014 to some 
academics.  The fact that a much larger public  is now enrolling in e-Learning activities may 
explain, at least partially, the lower results seen above. 
5.10.  In the general WTO context of budget freez e, the very significant growth of the overall 
participation in e-Learning courses could not have been achieved without the new e-Campus  
platform and without streamlining the registration process.  This illustrates how the Secretariat, through ingenuity and efficiency gains, k eeps doing more with identical resources. 
5.11.  An analysis of these results by gender showed that women's average success rate was a 
few percentage points higher than men's one.  The difference was 2 percentage point in 2010; 4.5 
                                               
30  The slower growth of participants in English cour ses occurred in spite of the fact that three of the 
new courses introduced in 2014 were available in English only (Rules of Origin, Notifications and WTO in 10'), 
and that the French and Spanish version of two other co urses were released seven or eight months after the 
English one (Accession and Notifications). WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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  in 2011; 3.6 in 2012; 2 in 2013; and 2.4 in 2014.  However, these averages hide significant 
variations between the courses. 
5.2  RTPCs 5.12.  For the first time since the initiation of the Regional Trade Policy Courses (RTPC) 
Programme in 2002, a course was held in all of th e seven TA regions in 2014.  This constitutes an 
outstanding achievement, to the credit of an entirely new team. 
5.13.  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%) clos e to or above 50% in two regions. 
5.14.  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 2014 were the following: 
 
Oman India Turkey Ecuador Botswana  Barbados  Tunisia Average
Attendance   14 %     4 % 3 %  
Passed 57 % 48 % 61 %  67 %  75 %  67 % 78 % 65 %  
Distinction 43 % 52 % 25 %  33 %  25 %  33 % 19 % 33 %  
Success 100 % 100 % 86 %  100 %  100 %  100 % 96 % 97 %  
Correct Answers 80 % 87 % 80 %  85 %  82% 85 % 71 % 81 %  
Participation 89 % 87 % 76 %  91 %  76 %  83 % 85 % 84 %  
 
5.15.  At 97%, the average success rate is very hi gh, exceeding by far the average success rate in 
e-Learning activities, although the distinction rate is about the same.  Five of the courses had a 
success rate of 100%, which is particularly impressive.  These results demonstrate that, for the most part, the objectives of the RTPCs (i - good understanding of WTO Agreements and 
negotiations; ii - improved analytical and negotiating skills; iii - increased autonomy in using WTO 
information and documentation; iv - strengthened network of contacts; v - better understanding of the regional trade environment) have been satisfactorily achieved in 2014. 
5.16.  The evaluation demonstrated that the RTPC methodology and pedagogy achieved the 
results that were expected from the Programme, irrespective of the initial level of each group. 
5.17.  However, RTPCs were less successful in impa rting a sufficient understanding of the regional 
environment and regional trade policy issues, an objective they are ill-equipped to achieve and 
which should consequently be discontinued. 
5.18.  The weakest point of the Programme was the la ck of progressivity of the training offered by 
the WTO.  The ground work to develop an effective and comprehensive three-level curriculum just 
started and its consequences for the content and pe dagogy of the RTPCs still have to be worked 
out.  In 2014 as in the past, RTPCs did not connect  to the prior knowledge acquired by participants 
at introductory level and some of their modules went into an excessive level of specialization. 
5.19.  RTPCs remained an expensive TA product, due to the highly complex nature of the 
Programme: the same course is expected to run in seven different locations, although implemented by seven different partners through co -training with regional trainers.  The economic 
gains resulting from lower local costs compared to Geneva and from the cost-sharing 
arrangements with partners were cancelled off by the structural costs needed to manage such a 
complex Programme: RTPCs were as expensive as ATPCs as a result. 
5.20.  The rationalization of the Programme impl emented in 2012 (shortening the duration of the 
courses from 12 down to 8 weeks and discontinuing the favourable financial conditions previously WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 39 - 
 
  
extended to partners) was a critical success factor in achieving the 2014 results.  Otherwise, the 
WTO would not have had the human and financial resources to deliver seven RTPCs in one year, on top of its many other TA activities.  The Programme could consequently be considered reasonably efficient. 
5.21.  The shorter RTPC became a very intense course for the participants.  This made them more 
demanding of the organizers and trainers, more sensitive to their mistakes and at the same time less tolerant.  A much higher level of professionalism was now requested from the organizers and 
trainers, at every stage. 
5.22.  Some measures designed to save costs since 2012 have been excessive and have worked 
against the quality and consistency of the Programme across regions (e.g. the complete elimination of any form of preparatory workshop).  Overall, the Programme would benefit from a 
more flexible approach towards its budget. 
5.23.  Many recommendations were formulated  to simplify the Programme (e.g. streamlining 
organizational procedures, tidying up objectives ), so that the exceptional performance of 2014 
becomes the norm and can be repeated in the future with less stress. 
5.24.  The recommendations formulated addressed four main aspects of the Programme: 
a. Main parameters, such as the reformulation, streamlining and simplification of its 
objectives, and the equitable access of beneficiaries to WTO training activities; 
b. Design and content of the courses programme, through better coordination and 
harmonization across regions, and a truly progressive training path articulated around three levels (introduction, intermediate and advanced) in which RTPCs correspond to the 
middle level; 
c. Simplification of the organization of the RTPC Programme (e.g. through the elimination 
of the selection committee for partners and the consolidation of the Secretariat teams), 
to become more effective (e.g. through clea rer Terms of Reference for partners, more 
efficient back-office functions and better reporting) and more efficient (e.g. through longer partnerships or online applications); 
d. Concrete pedagogical elements influencing the delivery of each course such as pedagogy 
(e.g. use of PowerPoint, of the WTO legal text s, of exercises, case studies and examples, 
of posters, of quizzes, etc.), trainers' capabilities (training skills), local logistics (e.g. hotels, catering services, DSA, virtual cl assroom management, seating arrangements, 
internet access abuses, etc.). 
5.3  Other Face-to-face activities 
5.25.  The performance indicators 
available to monitor the results of 
face-to-face activities remain less precise than in the case of e-
Learning: in 2014, 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%. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 40 - 
 
  5.26.  As regards the quality of the reporting on  TA activities and their immediate results, a 
complete BTOR was available for 83% of the TA ac tivities in 2014 (+8 percentage points compared 
to 2013).  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 assessment of their achievement at the end.  As had been hoped last year, the introduction 
of an on-line BTOR in 2014 progressively led to a more systematic use of a BTOR to report on TA activities.  However, the quality of the reportin g on all TA activities, and in particular the 
measurement of the immediate results achieved, remained weak in 2014, for the reasons already 
explained in section 3.2 above. 
5.27.  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 two 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 considered objective enough.  The opinion of the participants should be  one of the elements taken into account by the 
trainers when evaluating the immediate results of  the activity they organized and delivered.  The 
WTO should aim to introduce other more objective performance indicators in the future for face to 
face activities. 
5.28.  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 organized in 2014 had on average 2.8 objectives each, corresponding to a decrease of 10% compared to 2013.  As last year, three quarters of the activities for which a BTOR was 
available had as one of their objectives to impr ove the knowledge of participants about one or 
several of the WTO Agreements.  The improvement of  the autonomy of the participants in dealing 
with WTO issues came next (23%) followed by th e improvement of their negotiating and analytical 
skills and networking (10% - a lower level than in 2013), of the general understanding of the WTO 
(9%) and the identification of implementation issu es in their country (8%).  Overall, the average 
decrease in the number of objectives per activity was accompanied by a greater focus of these objectives on the legal provisions of the WTO Agreements, as all other categories of objectives saw 
a decrease in their relative importance. 
5.29.  When evaluating the achievement of the imme diate objectives of the activities, participants 
gave an average mark of 4.6 out of a maximu m of 5, exactly as in 2013.  Amongst the 428 
immediate objectives of TA activities for which data was available in 2014, only 13 were given a 
mark 3 and three a mark 2 (5 is the maximum and 1 the minimum).  This means that, as in 2013, the achievement of 96% of the objectives was rate d as satisfactory or outstanding in 2014.  Whilst 
there is no doubt that the TA provided by the WT O was of the highest quality and that participants 
got the most out of it, and even if they correspon d to the passing rate seen in the RTPCs in 2014, 
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. 
5.30.  In the area of SPS, in general, the main re sults of all of the planned activities, as indicated 
by participants' evaluation responses, have been identified as the following: enhanced knowledge 
of the main provisions of the SPS Agreement an d of the work of the SPS Committee; improved 
knowledge of the transparency provisions of the SPS Agreement, including how to operate the SPS 
Information Management System and to use the SPS Notification Submission System (NSS); and improved understanding of how the work of Codex,  IPPC and OIE relates to the implementation of 
the SPS Agreement.  Members also indicated in the October SPS Committee meeting that the Risk 
Analysis Workshop had served to improve their knowledge on decision-making and communication 
during the risk analysis process at a technical level and the link to the risk assessment provisions 
of the SPS Agreement.
31  In addition, there have been several notifications submitted from 
                                               
31  Please see the programme of the Workshop on  Risk Analysis (G/SPS/GEN/1358) and technical 
assistance document (G/SPS/GEN/997/Rev.4/Add.1) for more information on this activity.  WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 41 - 
 
  
countries who have never previously notified their SPS regulations to the Committee or at least in 
the recent past.32  This has been as a result of the follow- up by officials who ha ve attended various 
2014 SPS technical assistance activities. 
5.4  Netherlands trainee programme (NTP) 
5.31.  In more than fifteen years of 
existence, the NTP has seen some fluctuations in the number of trainees 
recruited annually and in the duration 
of their stay in Geneva.  After the main reform of the programme in 2005, these fluctuations resulted 
mainly from variations in the level of 
funding provided by the Netherlands and in the timing of the disbursement 
of these contributions, which have a 
significant impact on the scale of the programme, given its narrow financial 
basis (single donor).  In 2014, an 8.5 
month stay in the Secretariat was offered to 15 trainees. 
5.32.  In terms of substance, the most significant evolutions of the programme over the years 
concerned the activities and tasks carried out by the interns during their stay in Geneva and their 
involvement in the work of the Secretariat.  In 2014, the interns spent on average more than half 
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 
organised by the WTO or other international organi zations in Geneva (e.g. ITC, UNCTAD, WIPO), a 
one-week study tour in the Netherlands on international trade trends and policy planning, etc.  The 
importance given to personal training has been gr owing progressively over the years.  The rest of 
the trainees' time was shared almost equally betw een the review of their own country's situation 
to assess its TA needs and update its notification profile; their participation in the work of the 
Secretariat; and the monitoring of the programme (monthly reports and meetings). 
5.33.  As part of their personal training, the trai nees attended meetings of some groupings, with 
the consent of their members, such as the Africa n Group, the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) 
Group and the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) Consultative Group.  Participation in these 
meetings gave the interns an insight into the views held by members of these groups and the 
challenges involved in reconciling positions given the diversity of interests and the disparity of development levels. 
5.34.  Whilst in the first ten years of the programme, each trainee used to become part of one of 
the divisions of the Secretariat in which he would perform regular professional work under the supervision of a colleague, in subsequent years the trainees were regrouped in ITTC for most of their stay in Geneva.  Their interaction with other divisions became more sporadic, as a growing 
importance was given to personal training.  Year 2014 saw the return of a greater involvement of 
the trainees with other divisions, including in th e work of related committees (e.g. on accessions, 
TPR, SPS, economic research, trade & environment, intellectual property, etc.).  For the first time, 
six trainees were selected to act on a part-time basis as assistant tutors for the e-Learning course 
Introduction to the WTO , which allowed them to deepen their understanding and knowledge of the 
course content and involved them in several chats and news fora to which they brought fresh ideas 
and a national or regional perspective.  They were also associated to the production of new 
multimedia elements for other online courses ( WTO in 10' , Transparency  and GATS ). 
5.35.  These changes contributed to making a more effective use of the trainees' time in Geneva 
by giving them a greater exposure to the day-to-day work of the WTO. 
                                               
32  At least 5 African countries submitted a notification for the first time in 2014.  In addition, several 
other Members resumed their submission of notifications, after se veral years of not submitting any. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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  5.5  Supporting accessions 
5.36.  The negotiations on the accession of Seychelles as the 161st Member of the WTO were 
concluded in 2014.  Throughout this long process, the government of that country benefited from a large support from the Secretariat.  This took the form of targeted tailored activities organized 
on specific subjects, according to the progress in the negotiations.  During these national activities, 
the Secretariat assisted the national authorities in their design of national rules which would comply with the WTO requirements and the demands of Members.  This was particularly the case 
during the last few years of the accession negotiations and addressed subjects like Services, TBT, 
SPS, TRIPS or Trade Facilitation for which national rules and regulations had to be reformed.  It can reasonably be assumed that this tailored assistance of the Secretariat to the Seychelles facilitated its accession to the WTO and supported the national authorities in this difficult process. 
5.37.  The Secretariat is also actively involved in supporting the accession to the GPA.  In 2014, 
Montenegro concluded its accession to that Agreem ent, after receiving TA from the WTO on this 
subject almost on an annual basis over the past decade.  Here again, it can be reasonably 
assumed that the technical support provided to the national authorities throughout the process 
facilitated the accession of the country to this plurilateral Agreement.  Other Members currently 
negotiating their accession to the GPA (e.g. China,  Moldova, Ukraine, etc.) also receive the same 
kind of support from the Secretariat. 
5.6  Supporting the production of  improved services statistics 
5.38.  Back in 2009, Zambia requested from the WTO a national activity on the measurement of 
international trade in services to improve the knowledge and understanding of key Zambian actors 
in this domain.  The aims were to improve the availability and quality of national statistics on 
international trade in services and to establish a strategy for future data collection and compilation.  This activity took place on 26- 27 November 2009 in Lusaka and gathered 19 
participants from key ministries, the central statistical office, Bank of Zambia, Zambia Revenue 
Authority, Pension and Insurance Authority, Development Agency and University of Zambia. 
5.39.  The activity contributed to improving the knowledge of (i) the measurement of international 
trade in services according to the concepts of the new Manual on Statistics of International Trade 
in Services developed by the UN Interagency Task Force on Statistics of International Trade in Services in which the WTO acts as coordinator; (ii) the link between trade in services statistics and the GATS; (iii) compilation practices, available serv ices data sources and tools for trade in services 
analysis.  The key stakeholders with an interest in collecting, compiling or using statistics on trade 
in services interacted and realised that their cooperation was critical for collecting relevant statistics on trade in services.  The activity concluded with an agreement on a first set of 
recommendations for the establishment of an appr opriate system to measure trade in services 
according to their possibilities. 
5.40.  The Secretariat did not hear further from Zambia for several years.  On 28-31 January 
2014, SADC organized jointly with the WTO a workshop on trade in services statistics in Gaborone, 
Botswana, as part of a multi-annual project financed by the EU.  The workshop aimed at helping SADC countries (including Zambia) to develop a list of statistics needed by country of the region, according to international standards.  SADC had identified six priority service sectors: tourism, 
transport, energy-related services, communications,  construction, finances and business services.  
SADC hired a consultant to assist its member countries with the development of a template questionnaire and with data collection issues. 
5.41.  At the request of Members, the Secretariat organized on 19 September 2014 a seminar on 
developments in trade in services statistics and the way forward.  The seminar took stock of progress in the definition of key concepts and of the current compilation guidance for the collection 
of statistics on the international trade in servic es.  Three country experiences were presented to 
illustrate how statistics could be compiled by sector and by mode of supply, and in particular on foreign affiliate trade (FATS - mode 3).  Zamb ia was one of them, alongside Brazil and New 
Zealand.  FATS are one of the main areas in which the new Manual on Statistics of International 
Trade in Services innovated.  The presentation by the Zambian delegation demonstrated that the 
national authorities actually implemented the recommendations developed in 2009 with the assistance of the WTO.  Five years later, Zambia n FATS constitute one of the most visible results WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 43 - 
 
  of a national process which benefited from the supp ort of the Secretariat.  This showed that LDCs 
could perfectly reach a high level of sophistication in the analysis of their trade flows. 
5.42.  Although it probably escaped the eye of most laymen, a major event occurred in the world 
of national statistics back in 2008: following ye ars of consultations amongst many agencies, a 
revision of the System of National Accounts an d the Balance of Payments (BOP) was adopted.  
Inter alia , this led the inter-agency task force on international trade statistics33 to revise its Manual 
on Statistics of International Trade in Services (MSITS) initially released in 2002.  That revision 
was completed in 2010.  Statistical concepts and definitions in the System of National Accounts, 
BOP and MSITS are entirely consistent, as a result.  The manual and the associated Compliers Guide (revision completed in December 2014) assist governments in the design and setup of their national statistics system.  According to the Hong Kong mandate to have WTO develop technical 
assistance for trade in services statistics,
34 the WTO is now coordinating the task force's TA efforts 
to help governments adjust their national system to MSITS 2010.  To that effect, the task force 
developed a long-term strategy for the design and implementation of capacity in trade in services 
statistics with a view to: 
a. improve transparency of technical assistance ac tivities in the field of trade in services 
statistics and attempt to avoid overlapping or duplicating projects; 
b. maintain a list of experts available to provide more hands-on and long-term technical 
assistance or participate in capacity building projects; 
c. review existing material/agendas to analyse and identify possible synergies or 
improvements in the way technical assistance is provided; and 
d. explore new ways of providing technical assistance through the use of e-learning. 
5.43.  In 2014, in addition to the organization of a seminar on developments in trade in services 
statistics, the WTO and UNCTAD undertook to develop jointly a trade in services statistics e-
Learning project.  The online course will be based almost entirely on the training material 
developed by the WTO.  It should become available towards the end of 2015. 
5.7  Supporting the implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement 
5.44.  Since 2007 and according to the negotiating mandate adopted by Members, the Secretariat 
has implemented a vast programme of national needs assessments in the area of TF, in cooperation with a large pool of partners (Wor ld Bank, WCO, UNCTAD, EIF, CEMAC, PIFS, OECD, 
numerous national development agencies, etc.).  That programme comprised two phases: Phase 1 
in 2007-10 and phase 2 in 2013-14.
35  One of the aims of these national assessments was to 
assist developing and LDC Members in their assessment of the conformity of their current regulation with the specific provisions included in the successive versions of the text of the 
Agreement, in order inter alia  to make an inventory of their category A, B and C measures.
36  In 
total, 99 Members had performed a needs assess ment by the end of 2014 (27 during phase 1 
only, 10 during phase 2 only and 62 during both phases 1 and 2).  The main difference between 
the two phases was that phase 2 was based on th e final text of the Agreement as approved by 
Members, whereas phase 1 used earlier versions of the text still under negotiation. 
5.45.  Whilst Members are busy ratifying the TF Agreement so that it can enter into force, a 
number of the developing and LDC Members starte d notifying their category A commitments, as 
                                               
33  The task force includes the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the Statistical Office of the 
European Communities (Eurostat), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the 
World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). 
34  Annex C refers in para.10 to WT O, inter alia, providing targeted technical assistance.  It spells out 
that "... such assistance should be provided on, inter al ia, compiling and analysing st atistical data on trade in 
services, [and] assessing interests in and gains from services trade, ..." 
35  See section V.A. in document WT/COMTD/W/169/Rev.1 and section IV.B.3 in document 
WT/COMTD/W/174 for an evaluation of Phase 1. 
36  Category A: Measures that the Members will implement by the time the agreement enters into force; 
 Category B: Measures which the Member will need additional time to implement;  Category C: Measures for the implementation of which the Member will need TA and time. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 44 - 
 
  
required by the Agreement.  Such notifications should be received by the time the Agreement 
enters into force for the Member concerned.37  By the end of April 2015, 59 category A 
notifications had been received.  Since they came in almost exactly corresponding proportions from countries which participated in either phas e 1 (22% of Members, 25% of notifications), or 
phase 2 (8% - 9%), or both (50% - 47%) or none at all (20% - 19%), it seems that the 
programme contributed significantly to the levelling of the playing field amongst Members.  Even if 
no formal link can be made between the assistance provided since 2007 in this domain and the 
submission of these notifications, it can be re asonably assumed that the programme implemented 
by the Secretariat played its part in the proc ess and supported these good initial results. 
5.8  Providing assistance under Article 27.2 of the DSU 5.46.  Article 27.2 of the DSU requires the Secretariat "to provide additional legal advice and 
assistance in respect of dispute settlement to de v e l o p i n g  c o u n t r y  M e m b e r s .   T o  t h i s  e n d ,  t h e  
Secretariat shall make available a qualified legal expert from the WTO technical cooperation services to any developing country Member which so requests.  This expert shall assist the 
developing country Member in a manner ensuring the continued impartiality of the Secretariat." 
5.47.  As a result, the Secretariat is 
remunerating the services of two reputed 
academic experts who can respond to the 
requests from developing country Members in this domain.  Since 2002, 22 different Members and two regional 
groupings of members have called upon 
these experts to assist them on DS related matters.  The support provided by 
the two experts can take the form of a 
legal opinion on a specific legal issue which may or may not be related or lead 
to a dispute (19 since 2002); advice to 
third parties in a dispute (16 since 2002); advice to a complainant (9 since 2002); and advice to a respondent (4 since 
2002).  Advising third parties, complainants or respondents frequently involves preliminary legal 
advice and input into the drafting of submission s.  The overall volume of assistance provided 
annually under DSU Article 27.2 has been fluctuat ing.  Since 2002, on average 3.7 cases have 
been dealt with annually.  In 2014, 6 cases were covered by the two consultants, i.e. almost 
double the average.  These results demonstrate the usefulness of this facility, even if eligible 
Members do not always use it to its full capacity. 
_______________ 
  
                                               
37  Within one year of its entr y into force for LDC Members. WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
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  ANNEX 
FOLLOW-UP ON THE MAIN PR EVIOUS RECOMMENDATIONS 
Previous recommendations found to be fully implemented or non-longer relevant in the report for 
2013 have not been repeated here.  Only the recommendations which remained pending or whose implementation was still in progress are mentioned. 
# Recommendation Action in 2014 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. On-going Work in progress 
3 The Secretariat should dedicate more 
resources in the future to e-Learning to widen 
its coverage of the various WTO subjects and 
improve the presentation, pedagogy and interactivity of the courses when possible, 
since the return on such investment would be 
proportionately much higher. Stability of e-Learning 
resources 
 
New courses and multimedia content 
developed with 
existing resources. Will not be 
implemented due 
to budgetary 
constraints 
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. Number of 
beneficiaries and resources for the second phase of the 
WCP were halved. 
 Management team 
was changed. 
 New management 
tools are being used 
to monitor more closely WCP holders' performance. Implementation in 
progress 
6 The Secretariat should define the substantive 
content of each of the three training levels 
instituted by WTO subject by subject.  It 
should then adjust the content of the training offered by WTO, on-line and face-to-face, 
accordingly.  It should inform future 
participants about the substantive knowledge required in any activity to which they are invited, so they can undertake to bridge in 
advance any gap they would detect. First set of 
substantive 
benchmarks 
developed, subject by subject, level by level, 
for generalists and 
specialists. Partial 
implementation 
 
Adjustment of course content still 
pending 
 Invitation and selection for 
activities waiting 
review. 
8 The immediate results achieved by the TA 
activities organized or delivered by the WTO should be measured as objectively as possible 
by the Secretariat.  Credible performance 
indicators should be identified in advance by the trainers to that effect, such as exams, quizzes, exercises results, etc.  BTORS should 
report systematically the measure shown by 
the indicators chosen.  The opinion expressed by the organizers in the BTOR should be 
grounded on these measures. None Pending WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 46 - 
 
  # Recommendation Action in 2014 Status 
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. Final exams 
generalized in all 
RTPCs. Partial 
implementation 
 
Extension to other activities pending. 
10 A BTOR from the organizers should become 
systematically available for each and every TA 
activity organized or delivered by WTO staff members.  The BTOR should include the 
information required by the WTO reporting 
guidelines, such as immediate objectives, performance indicators, assessments of the immediate results, etc. 96% reporting rate in 
2014. 
83% of reports were BTORs Work in progress 
11 Members should consider including future 
country reviews designed to measure the 
longer-term results of the TA provided by the 
WTO as part of the TPR of these countries. None Pending 
2013 
1 The Secretariat should review its TA budget 
projection and management as a matter of 
priority in order to better tailor the TA it provides to the resources available. A stability of TA 
expenses in a context 
of shrinking un-earmarked TA resources.  In 2014 
TA expenses were in 
line with the contributions 
received. Implemented 
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. No progress was 
reported Pending 
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. Discussions are 
regularly held in the SPS Committee. 
On going Work in progress 
4 The Secretariat should reflect on means to 
increase its advanced training offer for 
generalists. One additional ATPC 
in 2014. Work in progress WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 47 - 
 
  # Recommendation Action in 2014 Status 
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 virtual classroom 
of the new e-Campus  
was used both in the 
main and follow-up courses.  Through 
that medium, 
participants were given an advanced 
access to all relevant 
documents.  An e-platform was 
used to engage 
participants through discussion for a and 
reminders about 
upcoming assignments. 
 
Coaching was provided during the full duration of the 
follow-up activity. 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. Several participants 
from the same 
country were selected to attend the 2014 
course. Work in progress 
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. First advanced TBT 
course modelled on 
the SPS experience 
took place in 2015  
On-line registration 
facility under development in the 
new e-Campus . 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.   
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   
3 Keep track more systematically of the 
performance and language abilities of 
participants; and consider proposing refresher courses to consolidate the acquired knowledge.   WT/COMTD/W/209 
 
- 48 - 
 
  # Recommendation Action in 2014 Status 
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.   
5 Require all WTO trainers to follow a Training of 
Trainers and regular refreshers afterwards.   
6 Reformulate and simplify the RTPC objectives.   
7 Harmonise the course programme of RTPCs 
across regions in order to provide a truly progressive training path.   
8 Simplify the organization of RTPCs to make 
them more effective and efficient.   
9 Improve the pedagogy, trainers' capabilities 
and logistics for RTPCs.   
 
 
__________