WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  IP/C/W/544 
26 October 2009 
 (09-5300) 
Council for Trade-Related Aspects 
of Intellectual Property Rights  
 
 
 
LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRY MEMBERS' PRIORITY NEEDS  
ASSESSMENTS: THE AID-FOR-TRADE INITIATIVE AND  
THE ENHANCED INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK 
 
Note by the Secretariat  
 
 
  
 
   
I. INTRODUCTION 
1. At its meeting of 8-9 June 2009, the Council for TRIPS continued its discussion of least 
developed country (LDC) Members' priority needs for technical and financial cooperation.
1  A  
number of delegations requested the Secretariat to contact the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) 
Secretariat and the coordinator for Aid-for-Trade (AfT) with a view to gathering and presenting information to the Council's meeting in Octobe r 2009 on how these existing multilateral mechanisms 
and the expertise and funds available for trade-rela ted technical assistance could be made use of to 
assist least developed country Members to establish th eir individual priority needs assessments. In 
concluding the discussion under the agenda item on t echnical cooperation and capacity building, the 
Chair requested the Secretariat "to contact the EIF S ecretariat and the coordinator for AfT Initiative to 
work out the details and contents as well as the form at of their contributions" to the Council's October 
meeting.
2  Accordingly, the Secretariat has compiled information received on the respective roles of 
the AfT Initiative and the EIF with respect to the LDC needs assessment process in this note. 
II. THE AID-FOR-TRADE INITIATIVE 
A. WHAT IS AID-FOR-TRADE ? 
2. Aid for Trade (AfT) aims to help developing countries, particularly LDCs, to build the 
supply-side capacity and trade-related infrastructure that they need to assist them to implement and 
benefit from WTO Agreements and more broadly to e xpand their trade.  AfT is the part of overall 
Official Development Assistance (ODA) - grants a nd concessional loans - targeted at trade-related 
programmes and projects.  As trade is a broad activ ity, AfT is broad and not readily defined.   
                                                      
1 See the Decision of the Council for TRIPS of 29 November 2005 on the Extension of the Transition 
Period under Article 66.1 for Least Developed Country Members (IP/C/40) which provides, among others, that "with a view to facilitating targeted technical and fi nancial cooperation programmes, all the least developed 
country Members will provide to the Council for TRIPS, pr eferably by 1 January 2008, as much information as 
possible on their individual priority needs for technical and financial cooperation in order to assist them taking steps necessary to implem ent the TRIPS Agreement". 
2 IP/C/M/60, paragraph 90. This document has been prepa red under the Secretariat's own 
responsibility and without prejudice to the positions of Members 
and to their rights and obligations under the WTO.IP/C/W/544 
Page 2  
 
  3. A work programme on AfT was agreed at the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference in 
December 2005 and operationalized by a T ask Force which reported in July 2006.
3  The Task Force 
recommended that the definition of AfT should rely on it being identified as a trade-related development priority in the partner c ountry's national development strategies.
4  It identified six 
categories which covered AfT: 
(a) Trade policy and regulations, including: 
Training of trade officials, analysis of proposals and positions and their impact, 
support for national stakeholders to artic ulate commercial interest and identify 
trade-offs, dispute issues, institutional and technical support to facilitate implementation of trade agreements and to adapt to and comply with rules and 
standards. 
(b) Trade development, including: 
Investment promotion, analysis and institutional support for trade in services, 
business support services and institutions, public-private sector networking, 
e-commerce, trade finance, trade promotion, market analysis and development. 
(c) Trade-related infrastructure, including:  
Physical infrastructure 
(d) Building productive capacity 
(e) Trade-related adjustment, including: 
Supporting developing countries to put in place accompanying measures that assist 
them to benefit from liberalized trade. 
(f) Other trade-related needs 
B. T
HE AID -FOR-TRADE MONITORING FRAMEWORK  
4. The WTO Task Force underscored the need to  reinforce the global accountability of AfT 
flows.  It stressed that all providers and recipien ts of AfT have a responsibility to report on progress 
and results, and to increase confidence that AfT will be delivered and used effectively.  To perform 
this function, the OECD and the WTO establishe d a monitoring and evaluation framework.  The 
system is being constantly refined.  The centr epiece of the monitoring framework is the joint 
publication "Aid-for-Trade at a Glance".  Two editions  of this document have been published: one in 
2007 and 2009.5  The 2009 edition included analysis of aid flows, self-assessment questionnaires and 
included AfT country fact sheets for the partner-c ountries which responded to the joint OECD/WTO 
questionnaire (88 in total).  
5. In value terms, AfT was estimated at USD 25.4 billion in 2007.  This figure was 
US$4.3 billion higher than during the baseline period of 2002-2005.  Furthermore, this increase in 
                                                      
3 WT/AFT/1. 
4 See document WT/AFT/1. 
5 Aid for Trade at a Glance 2007 is available online at: 
http://www.oecd.org/document/56/0,3343,en_2649_34665_42835064_1_1_1_1,00.html  
Aid for Trade at a Glance 2009 is available online at: 
http://www.oecd.org/document/56/0,3343,en_2649_34665_42835064_1_1_1_37413,00.html   IP/C/W/544 
 Page 3 
 
 
  AfT was not at the expense of overseas development assistance provided in other areas, such as health 
or education.   
C. MONITORING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS -RELATED ASSISTANCE  
6. Support to trade policy and regulation helps low income countries to develop trade strategies, 
negotiate trade agreements and implement their outcomes.  In general, technical assistance 
programmes aimed at building trade-related in stitutional and human capacities are relatively 
inexpensive compared with capital intensive pr ojects, such as infrastructure development. 
Consequently, the share of this category in tota l AfT was only 3 per cent or an estimated US$685 
million in 2007.   
7. Following the six categories established by th e AfT Taskforce (listed above), assistance 
activities in support of trade-related intellectual prope rty rights (IPRs) are typically recorded in the 
category of support to trade policy and regulation.   However, assistance within this category is not 
disaggregated by donors reporting to the OECD's Creditor Reporting System (CRS)6  Hence a multi-
million dollar project providing trade capacity building assistance may cover IPR-related issues.  However, the assistance will not be categorized as sp ecifically IPR-related.  The only way to discover 
if IPRs are covered will be to contact the benefici ary or project implementation team.  Furthermore, 
IPR-related activities may also be listed under other categories of AfT assistance, including trade development and building productive capacity.  Here again the same problem may arise in that it is 
impossible to identify IPR-specific assistance in projects with much broader aims, such as sector 
competitiveness programmes.  Consulting the CRS-data highlights that in the category of support to 
trade policy and regulation IPR-specific activities are sometimes identified. 
8. Prior to 2008, the joint WTO-OECD Doha De velopment Agenda Trade Capacity Building 
Database  (TCBDB)  used the data reported by donors  to the CRS and grouped it according to specific 
trade-related technical assistance categories, includi ng trade-related IPRs.  Some 588 entries for trade-
related IPR activities can be found on the TCBDB for the years 2001-2007 (only partial year data is 
available for 2007).  Assistance is listed as being pr ovided from 15 different sources.  These include 
WTO Members (Australia, the European Commun ities and EC member States, Japan, Korea and 
Norway) and international organizations (inc luding APEC, Inter-American Development Bank, 
Islamic Development Bank, UNESCWA, WIPO and WTO).  The information shows that specific programmes of assistance also exist to further the implementation of IPR regimes. 
9. The TCBDB data records the value of assistance to  trade-related intellectual property reported 
as averaging some US$12.1 million annually between  2002-2005 rising to US$27.4 million in 2007.
7  
However, this figure needs to be treated w ith caution due to under-reporting (i.e. not all donor 
activities may have been reported) and other reportin g (i.e. they were counted as something else e.g. 
general trade policy support as per the example of gi ven above).  Actual levels of assistance may be 
higher, perhaps considerably higher.  The TCBDB information is useful in providing an idea of the type of assistance on offer and the assistance providers.  However it is a snapshot, not a full picture.   
10. Intellectual property has been referenced in th e discussions at the various national, regional 
AfT meetings which have been held since 2007 an d at the two Global Reviews in 2007 and 2009.  
However, the only systematic treatment of inte llectual property as a specific topic occurred at a 
national AfT event in Peru, held in March 2009.  During this event, an Intellectual Property Action 
Plan was presented by two consultants of the In ter-American Development Bank.  As information 
                                                     
 
6 OECD Aid for Trade data is available on-line at:  
http://www.oecd.org/document/21/0,3343,en_2649_34665_43230357_1_1_1_1,00.html  
 7 Data from the joint WTO-OECD Doha Developmen t Agenda Trade Capacity Building Database is 
available online at:  http://tcbdb.wto.org/index.aspx?lg=en&  IP/C/W/544 
Page 4  
 
  becomes available from the LDC prio rity need assessments with respect  to the implementation of the 
TRIPS Agreement, it may be possible to s howcase these needs in future AfT events. 
D. R
EQUESTING AFT  ASSISTANCE  
11. AfT is not a new global development fund, bu t an integral part of normal programmable 
ODA.  In fact, assistance to build supply-side and more specifically trade capacity in developing 
countries has a long history.  Each year, around a fifth of ODA is dedicated to building supply-side 
capacities that - among other objectives - is meant to help low and middle income countries engage in 
international trade.  In short, the AfT Initia tive launched in 2005 at the Hong Kong Ministerial 
Conference did not result in a new type of ODA.  Ex isting mechanisms are used to channel assistance.  
This means expressing trade-related needs in  dialogues with development partners. 
12. Part of the recommendations of the AfT Task Force concerned strengthening the "demand 
side" - in short, ensuring that the demand for AfT assistance is expressed.  Given that this demand is 
predicated on country-ownership and country-drive n approaches, the Task Force placed the onus on 
governments to fully "mainstream" trade into thei r development strategies.  Through this process of 
mainstreaming, AfT assistance priorities are reflecte d as part of the dialogue between the government 
and development partners.  The EIF has a critical ro le to play in this mainstreaming process, as 
discussed below.   
13. Implementation of the TRIPS Agreement is an area which can and does emerge in the 
mainstreaming process and which is then identifie d as a priority in dialogue with development 
partners.  IPR needs assessments can play a potentia lly useful role in this regard by helping 
intellectual property emerge as an identified prio rity area in the mainstreaming process and in 
dialogue with development partners.   
E. CONCLUSION  
14. Due to data disaggregation problems, it is impossible to offer an accurate picture of the 
assistance offered in support of IPR-related activities.  It is clear, however, that implementation of the 
TRIPS Agreement is an integral component of Af T both at the practical level of projects on the 
ground and at the conceptual level of th e coverage of the definition of AfT. 
15. The AfT Initiative works through existing mechan isms; new mechanisms were not envisaged.  
As such, the onus is on developing countries to "mai nstream" trade-related needs into their national 
development plans and to prioritize these needs in discussion with their development partners.  The 
EIF plays a critical role for LDCs in this process.  The same is true of the conclusions which may 
emanate from the LDC IP priority  needs assessments or projects submitted under the Decision of the 
Council for TRIPS of 29 November 2005 on the Extens ion of the Transition Pe riod under Article 66.1 
for Least Developed Country Members.8  If so requested by LDCs, these needs assessments could 
help them to include IPRs in their mainstreami ng processes and highlight it as a priority area in 
dialogue with their development partners. 
III. THE ENHANCED INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK 
A. WHAT IS THE IF/EIF? 
16. The (Enhanced) Integrated Framework is Aid fo r Trade in action for the LDCs.  The EIF's 
structures and processes form the building blocks av ailable to LDCs to operationalise Aid for Trade 
by assisting them in mainstreaming their trade-re lated needs into their development strategy and 
                                                      
8 IP/C/40.  IP/C/W/544 
 Page 5 
 
 
  highlighting them as priority areas in dialogue with  their development partners.  The EIF is an 
international partnership,  through which the IMF, ITC, UNCTAD, UNDP, the World Bank and WTO 
(the IF Core Agencies) combine their efforts with those of LDCs, donors and other development 
partners, such as UNIDO, to respond to the trade development needs of LDCs so that they can 
become full and active players and beneficiaries of  the multilateral trading system.  Experience with 
the IF so far shows that those trade developmen t needs cover a wide area, ranging from increasing 
macroeconomic stability, developing trade polic y and trade administration capacity, enhancing 
efficient management of import and export pro cedures to supply-side constraints, meeting 
international standards, developing infrastru cture, developing export promotion capacity and 
developing targeted economic sectors.  The LDCs ar e leading this process.  The mechanism was first 
created by the IF partners in 1997 at the WTO and si nce then constantly improved. This has led to the 
current EIF which consolidates stronger LDC ownership, increased coordination among and 
commitments from the partners a nd improved global governance structures.  The EIF is not a new 
initiative but an enhanced version of the IF that has evolved since its inception.  The EIF automatically  applies to all IF beneficiaries. 
17. The EIF is exclusively available to LDCs.  Almost all LDCs are at various stages of the EIF 
process.  The EIF is designed to be the overarchi ng mechanism available to LDCs to identify the 
totality of their trade-related needs (upstream and dow n stream), to mainstream those needs into their 
national development strategies,  approach their donor community to seek collaboration and necessary funding over and above that available in the EIF' s own Trust Fund.  It thus establishes the link 
between the demand by LDCs for assistance and the r esponse by the donor community in the form of 
AfT.   It supports LDCs in their efforts to build tr ade capacity and to integrat e trade issues into their 
overall national development strategies, so that trade can effectively contribute to the economic 
development and growth of their economies.  The implementation of the TRIPS Agreement is 
therefore an integral part of the IF/EIF, provided th at the LDCs make it a priority in their EIF process. 
18. The objectives of the EIF are: 
• to mainstream trade into LDCs' nati onal development plans such as PRSPs; 
 
• to assist in the coordinated delivery of tr ade-related assistance in response to needs 
identified by LDCs;  and 
 
• to develop the capacity of LDCs to trade, including through capacity building and 
addressing supply constraints.  
 
19. The EIF process consists of four phases, namely:   
• awareness-building on the importance of trade for development in the beneficiary LDC; 
and establishing/strengthening of the in-country EIF governance structure;  
 
• preparing a DTIS or a DTIS update to identify constraints to overall competitiveness 
and supply chains and sectors of greatest  export potential.  The DTIS includes an 
Action Matrix – a list of trade priorities – fo r better integration into the global trading 
system as well as a write-up on the LDC’s strategy for EIF implementation, and 
executing this strategy:  
 
• mainstreaming trade into the national development strategy,  
 
• seeking financing from the development partners  for priority actions requiring external 
funding. 
 IP/C/W/544 
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  20. The DTIS exercise is an important part of the EIF process.  It is a detailed analysis by the 
LDC identifying constraints to overall competitiveness and supply chains and sectors of greatest export potential.  The DTIS includes an Action matrix – a list of trade priorities – for better integration into the global economy as well as a write-up on the LDC's strategy for (E)IF implementation.  Mainstreaming, or integrating the trade priorities into the country's national 
development strategy, such as the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) or other, will feed them 
into the dialogue between the LDCs and their donors.  This in turn will facilitate the generation of the 
bulk of necessary funding for the priorities resultin g from the EIF process.  In fact, many donors 
require that for any activity to be considered for pos sible funding it needs to be mainstreamed into the 
country's national development strategy.  
21. The EIF process has a global as well as an in -country governance structure and a multilateral 
Trust Fund attached to it.  The Trust Fund manager of the enhanced IF is the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), taking over from UNDP as the Trust Fund manager for the (earlier) IF Trust Fund.   
22. Funding of the actions identified in the DTIS and its Action Matrix can be done through three 
separate channels:  
• the EIF's multilateral Trust Fund (EIFTF);  or   
 
• local, regional or multilateral  donors active in  the respective EIF beneficiary LDC; or 
 
• the national budget.  
 
Activities proposed for EIFTF funding should be translat ed into Tier 1 or Tier 2 projects.  Project 
proposals should be designed and adopted at the lo cal level before submissi on for approval by the EIF 
Board. Specific procedures to ensure accountability and country ownership apply.
9  To obtain funds 
through local, regional or multilateral donor action, it  is advisable that throughout the EIF process, 
LDCs keep their local donors abreast and involve them early on to allow incorporation of trade 
priorities into their aid cycles and assist in project design.  Mainstreaming the DTIS and its Action Matrix into LDCs' national developm ent plans will greatly facilitate th is as donors often look to these 
plans for their overall aid programming decisions.   
 23. Funds in the EIFTF cannot be earmarked for IP R-related technical assistance because they are 
co-mingled.  However, funding of the actions iden tified in the DTIS and its Action Matrix can be 
done through three separate channels of which th e EIF Trust Fund is but one.  Local, regional or 
multilateral donors active in the respective EIF bene ficiary LDC may have set aside or earmarked 
IPR-specific funds. 
B. F
UNDING OF THE LDC  IPR  PRIORITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT UNDER THE EIF  
24. Funding under the EIF umbrella, be it from the EIF Trust Fund or via bilateral or regional 
sources, can only be done as long as the LDC has id entified IPR-related needs as a priority in its 
(updated) DTIS/Action Matrix.  Hence, where LD Cs have included, or referred to, IPR-related 
priority needs assessment projects as a priority in their respective DTIS, funding would be possible.   
25. The EIF also provides for a possibility to update the DTIS.  Some LDCs are in the process of 
doing so and could choose to include IPR-related assistance.   In terms of  choice of funding, it is up to 
the LDC to decide whether  IPR-related needs, once listed in its DTIS, are of such priority so as to 
                                                      
9 See the EIF website:  http://www.integratedframework.org/  or contact the EIF Executive Secretariat 
(at the WTO) for information on detailed procedures.  IP/C/W/544 
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  request funding from the EIFTF.  This is done accordi ng to specific procedures.  Alternatively, once 
included as a priority in its DTIS, the LDC could a pproach its bilateral or regional donors directly and 
request support.   
26. To implement EIF-financed technical assistan ce,  LDCs can choose any partner, including 
WIPO, and need not be limited to the EIF core Ag encies or observers.  The country itself could be 
included as an implementing partner.  The basis wi ll be an existing or ne w Partnership Agreement 
between the implementing partne r and the EIFTF Manager (UNOPS).  
__________