. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/BFA/W/198 
12 April 2010 
 (10-1886) 
Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration Original: English 
  
 
JOINT STATEMENT ON REPORT ON DIVERSITY IN THE WTO SECRETARIAT 
 
Brazil, China, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Pakistan and South Africa
 
 
 1. We would like to express our appreciation to you as the Chair for leading us into a continuous 
and dynamic discussion of this important issue. Ou r appreciation also goes to DG Lamy, DDG Yerxa 
and the Secretariat for this informative Report on Diversity in the WTO Secretariat  (CRP(09)29) 
circulated on November 19
th. The prompt and detailed report by the Secretariat is a welcome sign and 
we believe all of us can make progress on this issue on the basis of shared goals. 
2. We welcome that this Report will be circulat ed as a formal CBFA document with updated 
information for the whole 2009 so as to facilitate  information-sharing among Members. We also 
welcome the initiative of DG Lamy to share with CBFA  annually in the future on the efforts made to 
improve diversity as suggested in his 2010-2011 bienni um budget proposals. It is our view that this 
Report will serve as an excellent basis for that initiative in the future. 
3. While appreciating the continuous and acceler ating improvement of diversity of the 
Secretariat since 1995, we note with regret that divers ification remains a serious issue, particularly for 
developing Members. To take just a few examples  as contained in the Report, 79 Members have no 
nationals in the Secretariat at present (paragraph 18), most, if not all, of which are surely developing 
ones; among the top 24 Members with most nationals in the professional staff, though the numbers of 
developing and developed Members are close with  10 developing ones and 14 developed ones, the 
numbers for staff they actually take differ vastly , with only 17.9% for developing ones and 62.4% for 
developed ones (paragraph 19); also for professiona l staff, developing Memb ers take only 31.8% and 
the LDCs among them only 3.6% (Annex 4) while de veloped Members take 68.2%. We remain also 
interested in the information about diversity situat ion at the management level of the Secretariat.  
4. We are encouraged by the positive reaction to the Joint Proposal on the Improvement of 
Diversification of the WTO Secretariat  (WT/BFA/W/191) at this initial stage of our discussion and 
urge the CBFA to continue its work in the future  aiming at systemic and continuous improvement of 
diversity of the Secretariat. While acknowledging the essential objective to have the highest possible 
standards of competence as the primary basis for r ecruitments, we believe th at diversification should 
remain a long term objective of the recruitment policy of the WTO and the two are not mutually conflicting. Therefore, more systemic measures should be taken to increase the diversity of the 
Secretariat.  
5. To facilitate our discussion of this issue under the CBFA, we would like to share some 
preliminary thoughts as followed on the direction and corresponding measures we should take in the 
future:  
 A strengthened diversification policy.  This could be achieved by revising the Staff 
Regulation  with more elaborated language on divers ification or by formulating a separate 
statement or policy paper on diversification to  be approved by the General Council.  The 
language could be closely aligned along UN Or ganizations, World Bank, IMF, ITC, etc. WT/BFA/W/198 
Page 2  
 
   An enhanced recruitment with diversification.  This could be achieved by inserting in 
future recruitment notices a clear-cut langua ge to give preference to candidates from 
under/non-represented members subject to their meeting eligibility criteria.  
 An improved outreach to potential candidates. This could be achieved by adding new 
dimension to existing activities of the WTO, particularly the TRTA activities such as 
Trade Policy Courses, Regional and Nationa l Workshops, Public Forum and Geneva 
Week to further improve the dissemination of relevant information and reach out to potential candidates, particularly those from under/non-represented Members.  
 A regular review of the situation and discussion on way forward. This could be 
achieved with a regular review based on the annual report by the Secretariat on diversity 
as contained in DG’s 2010-2011 biennium budget proposals and subsequent discussion 
among Members on the way forward. CBFA should report such reviews and discussions and possible measures to be ta ken to the General Council.  
6. Finally, we commit ourselves to engage with Members to discuss the above-mentioned 
thoughts as well as ideas from other Members and the Secretariat. And, once again, we thank the 
Chair for your able leadership and the Secretariat for their hard work and look forward to a continuous 
and fruitful discussion in the future. 
 
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