WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/COMTD/AFT/W/8 
2 September 2008 
 (08-4102) 
Committee on Trade and Development 
Aid for Trade  
 
 
 
WTO WORK PROGRAMME ON AID FOR TRADE 
 
SYMPOSIUM ON MONITORING AND EVALUATION 
IDENTIFYING INDICATORS FOR MONITORING AID FOR TRADE 
 
Background Note prepared by the WTO Secretariat in collaboration with IGOs represented on the 
Director-General's Advisory Group on Aid for Trade  
 
 I. INTRODUCTION 
1. The 2006 Task Force on Aid for Trade emphasized the need to strengthen monitoring and 
evaluation mechanisms to build c onfidence that increased Aid for Tr ade would be delivered and used 
effectively, and to provide strong incentives to bo th donors and recipients to advance the Aid for 
Trade agenda.  The Task Force stressed the need for concrete and visible results on the ground, and 
stated that all providers of Aid for Trade and th e recipient countries have the responsibility to report 
on progress and results.
1  With regard to monitoring, the Task  Force recommended that in recipient 
countries it should cover trade mainstreaming in na tional strategies such as PRSPs, the identification 
of priority needs, donor responses, progress in implementing trade-related projects and programmes 
as well as the impact of these efforts.  Donors who have made Aid for Trade commitments should report on the content of such commitments as well as on how they plan to meet the targets for Aid for 
Trade that they have announced.
2 
2. The Task Force recommendations  were endorsed by the Gene ral Council on 12 October 2006.  
In December 2006, the Director-General pr esented his report to WTO Members on how the 
recommendations on monitoring and evaluation would be implemented3.  The Committee on Trade 
and Development is tasked with the role of m onitoring the Aid for Trade work programme and of 
preparing periodic global reviews of Aid for Trade in  the WTO.  Monitoring is to take place on three 
levels covering, respectively, a global assessment of Aid for Trade flows, individual donor and agency 
progress on additionality and effectiveness, and in-c ountry assessments of whether trade needs are 
being met, financial resources are being provided,  and Aid for Trade is effective on the ground. 
3. The success of the monitoring exercise in th e Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) 
and in the periodic global reviews will depend on there being available a steady flow of good quality 
information on the main aspects of the Aid for Trad e work programme.  It is understood that the 
WTO's role should be largely limited to prov iding "outputs" – evaluating information and 
disseminating results and best practices – while re lying on the experience in this area of other 
                                                      
1 WT/AFT/1, Recommendations of the Task Force on Aid for Trade , section F6.  
2 With regard to evaluation, the Task Force recommended in-depth country-impact evaluations of Aid 
for Trade programmes to build knowledg e and facilitate a results-based approach to delivery.  Mechanisms for 
improving the evaluation of Aid for Trade will be take n up in the next stage of the WTO work programme. 
3 JOB(06)/262, Follow-up to the Aid-for-Trade Task Force Recommendations, WTO Monitoring and 
Evaluation , Report by the Director-General. WT/COMTD/AFT/W/8 
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  agencies and organisations in addition to resources on  the ground to provide the necessary "inputs" for 
the monitoring exercise – including data, information and case studies
4. 
4. The results of the first round of monitoring Aid for Trade were presented at the Global 
Review of Aid for Trade in November 2007, when it was suggested inter alia  that future monitoring 
should aim to begin tracking progress in implementation and the impact of Aid for Trade.  That 
prompted the decision to hold a symposium in 2008 in order to identify suitable indicators for 
monitoring the implementation of the WTO work programme on Aid for Trade.   
5. The Director-General's 2008 Aid-for-Trade Ro admap that was presented to the CTD in 
February 2008 set out several tasks for improving the quality of information available for the monitoring exercise
5. 
6. One is to update the donor/agency and the partner (recipient) country questionnaires on Aid 
for Trade and to find ways to increase partner count ry involvement in the preparation of, and response 
to, these questionnaires.  Pilot versions of the ques tionnaires were prepared by the OECD Secretariat 
in 2007 and the results were presented at the fi rst Global Review.  The questionnaires are currently 
being revised to improve the quality,  the timeliness and the usefulness of the information that they can 
provide for the monitoring exercise in the WTO.   
7. The questionnaires designed for donor and partne r (recipient) countries and international 
agencies have been reviewed in the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and the 
Working Party of the Trade Committee.  They will  be considered again in the OECD at a joint 
meeting on Aid for Trade on 11 Se ptember.  New drafts will be presented for discussion to WTO 
Members at an informal meeting of the CTD that is  planned for late-September.  Once finalized, these 
questionnaires will be circulated to capitals, th e responses will be summarized by the OECD and 
WTO Secretariats, and the results will be presente d as a contribution to the monitoring exercise in 
preparation for the next global review that is sche duled to be held in May/June 2009.  The responses 
to the questionnaires will provide va luable information for the monitoring and evaluation exercise in 
the WTO at the two levels of individual donors and agencies and of in-country assessments by 
recipient countries on the effectiveness of their individual Aid for Trade strategies. 
8. A second task is to examine how information on Ai d for Trade that is collected in the context 
of WTO Trade Policy Reviews (TPRs) can contribute  to the monitoring exercise.  Aid for Trade has 
been covered in an increasing number of TPRs sin ce March 2007.  Material from the reviews is 
available from the perspectives of both donor and recipient countries.  The WTO Secretariat is 
examining how this material can best be collate d and presented for the purpose of monitoring Aid for 
Trade, and how input from the work carried out unde r the Enhanced Integrat ed Framework (EIF) can 
be included so as to provide more detailed suppl ementary information on various aspects of progress 
being made by individual LDCs to implement their Aid for Trade strategies.    
9. A third task contained in the Director-General's  Roadmap is to identify a cluster of indicators 
to benchmark progress in building trade capacity.  That is one of the main objectives of this 
symposium. 
II. MONITORING PROGRESS IN BUILDING TRADE CAPACITY 
10. The agenda for this symposium is constructe d around three themes that try to capture the 
main variables that will need to be monitored in the Aid for Trade work programme, in particular to 
begin tracking progress in implementation and the imp act of Aid for Trade in building trade capacity 
                                                      
4 Ibid 
5 WT/COMTD/AFT/W/6  WT/COMTD/AFT/W/8 
 Page 3 
 
 
  at the global, the regional and the country levels, as proposed by the Aid for Trade Task Force.  The 
working hypothesis for the choice of  those three themes is as follows: 
• First, data on Aid for Trade flows provide an indicator of what level of concessional 
financing is being made available to allow progress to be made in building more trade capacity.  These data on aid flows allow the suppl y-side of the Aid for Trade equation to be 
monitored, and provide a context within which to analyse factors that affect the demand for 
Aid for Trade and factors that affect the su ccess of the process of matching supply with 
demand at the individual country and/or regional level. 
 
• Second, building trade capacity is a necessary condition for increasing international 
competitiveness and improving trade performance of developing countries, particularly the 
LDCs.  A range of indicators are available to monitor this at the macro-level and at the 
micro-level.  However, building trade capacity  is usually not a sufficient condition.  Trade 
policies and pro-trade development policies matter as well.  Empirically these can be seen to have exercised a strong influence over (a) whether a recipient country is successful in attracting additional Aid for Trade and (b) whet her the increased trade capacity that results 
from the investment of Aid for Trade is used  effectively to improve trade performance.  
From available empirical evidence, three key determinants of a country's international 
competitiveness and trade performance are a good regulatory environment, good trade facilitation policies and practices, and a good b ase of trade capacity, in particular trade-
related infrastructure.  Governments can influe nce each of these through their policies and 
through the investment of Aid for Trade resources. 
 
• third, building on the previous points, res ponsibility for building a collaborative partnership 
for accessing Aid for Trade is shared by donors and recipient countries/regions.  It is up to each country/region to make its own case for attracting additional flows of Aid for Trade to help build up its trade capacity, and to back up its case with improvements, where necessary, in its trade and development policy framework and in its national or regional Aid for Trade 
strategy.  This includes the quality of the re lationship that it constructs with its donor 
partners to implement the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.  Services offered by 
international development organisations can assist developing countries, and low-income 
countries in particular, to play their part in  constructing a successful relationship of this 
kind.  
 
11. This background paper and the agenda for the sy mposium were prepared in collaboration with 
the intergovernmental agencies that are members of the Director-General's A dvisory Group on Aid for 
Trade.  Many of these agencies collect cross-country information on inter alia the variables that are of 
interest to the Aid for Trade work programme and pu blish data series that provide indicators of trade 
capacity-building.  These have the advantages of bei ng readily available, and in most cases provide 
data series that date back at least to the time of the initiation of the Aid for Trade work programme in 
the WTO.   
12. In selecting indicators for use in the context of  the Aid for Trade monitoring exercise in the 
WTO, it is important to keep a number of factors in mind. 
13. One is that the indicators should be used to provide factual information about the 
implementation and impact of the Aid for Trade wo rk programme, not to try to point to possible 
causation between different variables or to make nor mative statements about what the proper state of 
affairs ought to be.  It is the responsibility of WTO Members through the m onitoring exercise in the 
CTD and the global review to analyse the situati on on the basis of the indicators and to draw any 
conclusions that they think are appropriate. WT/COMTD/AFT/W/8 
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  14. A second is that the monitoring exercise that was agreed to by the General Council on the 
basis of the recommendations of the Aid for Trade Task  Force needs to be well focused if it is to be 
manageable and meaningful.  It needs to cover flow s of Aid for Trade resources, their use in terms of 
progress made in building trade capacity in developi ng countries, in particular LDCs, and their trade 
impact in terms of improvements in the trade performance of the recipient countries.   
15. Naturally, it must be recognized that the Aid for Trade monitoring exercise in the WTO is 
taking place in a broader context of the effectiven ess of Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 
general and its contribution to the atta inment of a range of development goals
6.  Donors and recipients 
may view trade not as an end in itself, but as a means of reducing poverty more quickly and definitively than would otherwise be possible, of increasing food security, of generating employment, 
etc.  It would seem appropriate, therefore, to in clude a few indicators of the broader development 
context within which the Aid for Trade work progr amme is being undertaken so as to allow the CTD 
and the periodic global reviews to take account of this.   
16. Also, under each of the three core issues of Aid for Trade resource flows, resource use and 
their trade impact, there are many sub-themes th at can be taken up and monitored and evaluated 
separately in much greater detail.  It may be appropriate to select and use one or two indicators of 
these sub-themes that are considered to be particular ly relevant to the Aid for Trade exercise at a 
particular point in time, and which could therefore change from one year's monitoring exercise to the 
next.  For example, in the context of the conclu sion of the Doha Round negotiations and the DDA, it 
might be appropriate to focus on the "trade-relate d adjustment" category of Aid for Trade that was 
identified by the Task Force, and to select indicat ors that would be suitable for monitoring this.  
Subsequently, it might be appropriate to switch the focus to monitoring how Aid for Trade is assisting 
developing countries, particularly LDCs, to impl ement and benefit from WT O Agreements, as called 
for in the Hong Kong mandate. 
III. MONITORING AID FOR TRADE FLOWS 
17. It has been accepted that the OECD DAC's existing data collection and reporting system (the 
Creditor Reporting System, or CRS) will continue to be used as the data source and core indicator on 
Aid for Trade flows for monitoring purposes in the CT D and in future global reviews.  The Aid for 
Trade Task Force noted that the CRS is well placed  to provide a global assessment of Aid for Trade 
flows, and CRS data were used successfully at the 2007 Global Review.  The OECD is tracking a new 
category of "trade-related adjustment" under the CRS th at will make it easier to monitor separately the 
different categories of Aid for Trade that were iden tified by the Task Force.  At this session of the 
symposium, the OECD Secretariat will present the lat est CRS data and most recent developments in 
Aid for Trade flows. 
18. One of the conclusions drawn from the technical session on monitoring and evaluation that 
was held at the time of the 2007 Global Review was that Aid for Trade is conceptually difficult to 
measure, and it was suggested that it could be valuable  to use a range of indicators in order to get the 
full picture of what Aid for Trade flows are taking place and whether additional resources are being 
delivered, as well as to increase transparency of donor  pledges and actual disbursements.  The Task 
Force recommended that donors as well as multilateral and regional agencies "should be asked to 
assist in providing input [into] the periodic Global Review in the WTO" , with the agencies asked to 
report regularly on their Aid for Trade activities, progress and impact and the donors "to report on 
funds dedicated for Aid for Trade, how they intend to  meet their announced Aid for Trade targets, the 
                                                     
 
6 That broader context is being provided at the 3rd High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness that will 
take place in Accra, Ghana, on 2-4 September to re view implementation of the Paris Declaration on Aid 
Effectiveness.  The anticipated outcome of that Foru m, the Accra Action Agenda, will provide context and 
inputs for the Symposium in the WTO on monitoring Aid for Trade.  WT/COMTD/AFT/W/8 
 Page 5 
 
 
  Aid for Trade categories covered, and their pr ogress in mainstreaming trade into their aid 
programming" . 
19. An opportunity will be provided at the symposium for discussion of what might be the best 
indicators to use that would capture more comple tely the activities of donors and agencies.  In the 
case of donors, for example, it has been noted that th e data they supply to the OECD for inclusion in 
the CRS database do not always equate with the da ta that they themselves collect on their Aid for 
Trade activities, in part because of the different ways in which trade-related ODA is defined by 
different donors, particularly in the area of infrast ructure and other trade-rela ted needs.  That point 
applies also to multilateral and regional agencies.  An additional point in the case of agencies is that 
much of their assistance is in the form of non- concessional loans to middle-income developing 
countries as well as in the form of technical assistance, project preparation etc.  This is reported to the 
CRS database, but it is not included currently in the calculation of global Aid for Trade flows since the financing does not qualify as ODA.  Some fu rther work may also be needed to ensure 
comprehensive reporting by multilateral and regional agencies of their Aid for Trade activities.  A 
separate point is the importance of identifying in dicators that assess the extent to which donors are 
meeting the Paris Declaration principles on aid effectiveness, in particular harmonization of 
procedures and alignment of support.  At the symposium, representatives of the donors and the 
agencies, including UNDP, will make presentations on these issues. 
20. There has been no support for trying to agree on a common definition of ODA for trade-
related infrastructure for everyone to apply in  the context of the WTO's Aid for Trade work 
programme, in part because it is felt that this woul d turn out to be a very resource-intensive exercise 
with probably limited value.  A more practical c onclusion for purposes of the monitoring exercise in 
the WTO would seem to be to complement the CRS data, as the core indicator, with reports on Aid 
for Trade flows from individual donors and agencies to  supplement the information contained in their 
responses to the questionnaires. 
IV. COMPETITIVENESS, CAPACITY AND PERFORMANCE 
21. The aim of this session of the symposium is to respond to the recommendation made at the 
first Global Review that future monitoring should start to track progress in implementation and the 
impact of Aid for Trade.  This session will focu s on the macro-level, to match the macro-level 
monitoring of Aid for Trade flows that is provided by  the aggregate data collected by the OECD CRS.  
The task is to identify macro-level indicators of the progress that is being made in building trade 
capacity in developing countries, especially the LDCs , and the consequent trade impact in terms of 
improvements in the trade performance of these countries. 
22. The relationship between trade capacity buildin g and trade performance is the one at which 
the whole Aid for Trade work programme is target ed, but that relationship is neither simple nor 
straightforward.  Many variables can affect a country 's trade performance.  The first step is to narrow 
them down and to try to identify those that can be related to the investment of Aid for Trade 
resources.    
23. At the symposium, the World Bank will make  a presentation on the determinants of a 
country's international competitiveness and degree of integration into the global economy.  By 
controlling for standard variables such as distance  from and size of export markets, GDP, GDP per 
capita, obstacles to export market access, etc., it will focus on the importance for trade performance 
of:  (i) a good regulatory environm ent;  (ii) good trade facilitation practices;  and (iii) good trade 
capacity, in particular infrastructure.  These are three key determinants of trade performance that 
governments can influence through their trade and tr ade-related policies and through the investment 
of Aid for Trade resources. WT/COMTD/AFT/W/8 
Page 6  
 
  24. Possible macro-level indicators to monitor tr ade capacity and trade performance, that are 
readily available, are: 
• For trade performance, ITC "Trade Performan ce Index";  WTO data from the World Trade 
Report;  and World Bank "World Trade Indicators". 
• For the regulatory environment and trade facilitation practices, World Bank Group 
"Governance" and "Doing Business" databases. 
• For trade capacity and infrastructure, World Bank "Logistics Performance Index". 
 
V. MONITORING AT THE COUNTRY AND SUB-REGIONAL LEVEL 
25. It is particularly important that data on count ry, sub-regional and regi onal level experience is 
collected and presented to the CTD and future global  reviews to allow them to factor it into their 
monitoring exercises, since it is at this level that the key conditions are established that allow progress 
to be made in advancing the Aid for Trade work programme. 
26. Several key variables that should be monitored re gularly at this level were identified by the 
Task Force, which recommended that recipient countries, through their National Aid for Trade Committees, should " report on trade mainstreaming in national  development strategies, such as 
PRSPs, the formulation of trade strategies, Aid fo r Trade needs, donor responses, and implementation 
and impact ".   
27. The main source of information available to th e WTO on these variables will be the responses 
to the partner (recipient) country questionnaires that  are being prepared by the OECD.  The results 
will be summarized by the OECD and WTO Secret ariats and presented to the CTD as a contribution 
to the monitoring exercise.   
28. In addition, the WTO Secretariat will draw on material available on in-country assessments 
on Aid for Trade from the TPR reports and from work  carried out under the EIF to prepare a summary 
of country and sub-regional experiences for consider ation in the CTD, including evidence of countries 
mainstreaming trade into their national developmen t strategies for which additional inputs will be 
sought from the World Bank and ITC. 
29. Also, with regard to mainstreaming trade in to national development strategies, UNDP has 
sponsored a survey of 72 PRSPs (those available up to April 2008) that will help to shed light on this 
issue and that could provide an important macro-leve l indicator for use in the monitoring exercise.  
Copies of the survey will be made available at the Symposium. 
30. Key indicators of successful Aid for Trade strate gies at the national and regional levels will 
be covered in data gathered by the OECD on ODA more generally to monitor progress in 
implementation of the Paris Principles on Aid Eff ectiveness.  These include, for example, indicators 
of the number of countries with national developm ent strategies (including PRSPs) that have clear 
strategic priorities, among which would be mainstre aming trade.  Targets for 2010 have been set for 
all of the main chapters – Ownership, Alignment,  Harmonisation, Managing for Results, and Mutual 
Accountability – and periodic reports (including  from the upcoming High Level Forum on Aid 
Effectiveness in Accra) on progress towards meeting those targets can help to  inform the exercise in 
the WTO to monitor Aid for Trade. 
31. Indicators of Aid for Trade needs, and of donor  responses to help meet those needs, will 
almost inevitably need to be designed around individual case studies given the wide variety of factors 
that affect each recipient country's situation when it comes to setting priorities and seeking donor or agency support.  For that reason, the monitori ng exercise may best be conducted around in-depth 
examinations of national and regional experience an d of best practices, selecting different candidates  WT/COMTD/AFT/W/8 
 Page 7 
 
 
  for examination at each monitoring exercise.  It is planned to devote part of this session of the 
symposium to a pilot project of this nature, so th at participants can assess its usefulness as a regular 
contribution in future to the monitoring exercise.  
VI. BROAD CONTEXTUAL INDICATORS 
32. The exercise of monitoring Aid for Trade will be enriched by being placed in a broader 
development context that can speak to the point that  the aim of Aid for Trade is not only to improve 
trade performance but also to increase the contribut ion of trade to broader national and international 
development objectives, such as poverty reduction a nd realisation of the Millennium Development 
Goals.   
33. For this purpose, there are a range of general and country-specific indicators available to 
choose from, including the World Bank's "World  Development Indicators" database, periodic 
reporting by the UN on meeting the Millennium Deve lopment Goals, and particularly MDG Goal 8 
(delivering on the global partnership for achievi ng the MDGs), and the UNDP "Human Development 
Index" and "Human Poverty Index". 
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