WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/826 
14 March 2008 
 (08-1157) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
  
 
 
UNIDO SPS-RELATED CAPACITY EVALUATION TOOLS – A BRIEF OVERVIEW 
 
STDF Workshop on SPS Capacity Evaluation Tools
 
31 March 2008  
 
 
 The following communication, received on 10 March, is being circulated at the request of UNIDO in preparation of the 31 March workshop  on capacity evaluation tools organized by the 
Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF). 
 
_______________ G/SPS/GEN/826 
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  UNIDO SPS-RELATED CAPACITY EVALUATION TOOLS – A BRIEF OVERVIEW 
 
STDF Workshop on SPS Capacity Evaluation Tools
 
31 March 2008  
 
 
I. INTRODUCTION 
1. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) uses a multifaceted 
approach to make SPS and TBT compliance measures effective in developing countries.  SPS-related 
technical assistance activities involve support fo r enterprises in the agro-business value chains, 
assistance to governments and trade, business and industrial associations, as well as actions for strengthening standards and conformity assessment in frastructure.  With respect to the standards and 
conformity assessment infrastructure, which UNI DO has contributed se tting up and upgrading in 
numerous developing countries in the last 40 y ears, the Organization has established strategic 
partnerships with international standards, measu rement and accreditation organizations, including the 
International Organization for Standardization (IS O), the  International Laboratory Accreditation 
Cooperation (ILAC), the International Accreditati on Forum (IAF), the International Bureau of 
Weights and Measures (BIPM) and the Internationa l Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML).  In 
addition, UNIDO is a founding member of the Joint Committee on Coordination of Assistance to Developing Countries in Metrology, Accred itation and Standardization (JCDCMAS). 
2. As one of the top providers of  Trade-Related Technical Assistance (TRTA), with emphasis on 
TBT and SPS matters, UNIDO im plemented national and regiona l projects amounting to about 
US$181 million over the 2001-2007 period. To resp ond to the Doha Development Agenda, UNIDO 
has been refining its needs assessment and project development, implementa tion and monitoring tools 
to respond more effectively to a growing demand fo r technical assistance by developing countries and 
countries with economies in transition. These to ols are based on accumulated expertise and 
knowledge of challenges and opportunities of developing countries in the process of integration in the 
multilateral trading system with regards to their s upply-capacity, their ability to comply with growing 
market demands in terms of standards and conf ormity assessment, as well as their capacity to access 
national, regional and international markets thr ough the UNIDO 3Cs approach (compete, conform, 
connect). 
Connect 
to the 
MarketM 
A 
R 
K 
E 
T 
SP 
R 
O
D 
U 
C 
T 
SProducts to Market
….by upgrading supply capacities and quality infrastructureDevelop
Competitive 
Supply-side
CapacitiesProve Conformity 
with Market 
Requirements
Compete Conform ConnectUNIDO TRADE CAPACITY BUILDING
Connect 
to the 
MarketM 
A 
R 
K 
E 
T 
SP 
R 
O
D 
U 
C 
T 
SProducts to Market
….by upgrading supply capacities and quality infrastructureDevelop
Competitive 
Supply-side
CapacitiesProve Conformity 
with Market 
Requirements
Compete Conform ConnectUNIDO TRADE CAPACITY BUILDING
 
  G/SPS/GEN/826 
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  II. DEMAND AND CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION 
3. With regards to the demand for advisory services and technical assistance, UNIDO projects 
are conceived and developed through communicati ons received via different channels through a 
participative and inclusive approach.  Among them, typical schemes are:  
(i) Government requests for TBT/SPS-related TRTA to cover legal framework, institutional and 
human capacity and physical infrastructures (a daptation of regulati ons to TBT and SPS 
agreements, national testing laboratori es, mobile calibration units, etc.);  
(ii) Requests by business associations such as nationa l/sectoral industrial associations, chambers 
of commerce and industry, trade groups, cluste rs or local institutions such as standards 
bodies, certifiers, inspection bodies, laboratories;  
(iii) Identification of new standards or conform ity assessment procedures which might have a 
significant impact on developing countries’ export or import; 
(iv) Request for action to overcome problems wh en products are banned to export due non 
conformity;  or 
(v) Assistance required in the process of bilateral,  regional or multilateral trade negotiations.   
4. Usually, donors are associated with the project development process from the initial 
development phase and often UNIDO allocates seed money either to carry out the initial needs 
assessment or to contribute to trouble-shooting ac tions tackling urgent problems and requests. The 
UNIDO methodology for needs assessment involves bot h desk research and field work and it is 
supported by the UNIDO field representation sy stem covering over 70 countries through UNIDO 
national/regional offices/desks and technical netw orks which include: National Cleaner Production 
Centres, Technology Centres, Investment and Pa rtnership Promotion Offices and Units as well as 
Sub-Contracting Exchanges.  
5. A brief presentation of the key needs assessment tools developed and applied by UNIDO is 
provided below.  
III. UNIDO CAPACITY EVALUATION AND NEEDS ASSESMENT TOOLS 
A. CONTEXT -SPECIFIC NEEDS ASSESSMENT  
6. Based on the request for the formulation of a project, UNIDO undertakes context-specific 
desk research as well as a preparatory/needs assessment missions  to clearly identify the 
challenges at the level of (a) government policy a nd regulatory framework;  (b) institutional capacity 
specifically in the quality-related institutions deali ng with Standards, Metrol ogy, Testing and Quality 
(SMTQ);  (c) sector(s)/value chains; and (d) enterprises.  
7. The desk research involves the review of ava ilable diagnostic studies such as the Diagnostic 
Trade Integration Study (DTIS), the national strategi es such as the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers 
(PRSPs) or the Export Development Strategies,  as well as any specific needs evaluations and 
technical assessment done previously  by UNIDO or other institutions.  
8. The preparatory assistance often involves capacity evaluation of the Standards Methodology 
Testing Quality (SMTQ) institutions in the country, collection of baseline data on the quality of 
targeted products, as well as the quality and quanti ty of services provided by the relevant testing G/SPS/GEN/826 
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  laboratories and other service providers, value-chain analysis of the sectors identified as strategic or 
requiring support, as well as the relevant legal framework.  
9. To respond to growing demand for greater coherence and to the Paris Declaration on Aid 
Effectiveness , UNIDO is increasingly cooperating with and associating other bilateral and multilateral 
organizations in the needs assessment and project development and implementation process such as 
the WTO, ITC, UNCTAD, STDF, etc.  
B. T
RADE -RELATED CHALLENGES SURVEYS AT THE ENTERPRISE LEVEL  
10. UNIDO has developed a methodology for ente rprise-level surveys on "Trade-Related 
Challenges Faced by Exporters" aimed to qualify and quantify the problems exporters in developing 
countries are facing in the regional and internati onal trade environment by identifying common trade 
barriers related to supply side, standards and c onformity assessment and integration into the multi-
lateral trading system and reviewing the possi bilities of overcoming these obstacles through Trade-
Related Technical Assistance and Capacity Building (TRTA/CB)1.  
11. In particular the survey aims to: 
• Explore the nature and extent of challenges to the trade capacity of exporters in the 
respective country; 
• Determine the factors associated with standards compliance across sub-sectors; 
• Assess the impact of technical  standards and regulations on the value of export sales;  
and 
• Identify mechanisms through which export performance could be enhanced. 
12. Based on the methodology developed, pilot surv eys were carried out in various countries 
(including Armenia, Bahrain, Cambodia, Jordan, Guinea, Ghana, Kenya, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam, and also initiated in  Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Libya, Maldives, and 
Nepal) from different geographical areas, on differe nt levels of economic development and having 
different economic structures.  
C. K
EY EXPORT SECTORS SUPPLY -SIDE CONSTRAINTS – UNIDO  COMPETITIVENESS ANALYSIS 
TOOL 
13. Since 2004, UNIDO has been building up a competitiveness analysis programme  to help 
countries identify sectors and products with competitive potential and the supply-driven obstacles affecting their export growth. UNIDO’s Trade and Industry Competitiveness Analysis tool comprises 
several services/products: 
• Nation-wide assessment of trade and industry competitiveness
. It positions the 
country in the international industrial scene and analyses the factors that drive national manufacturing growth;  
• Value chain analysis of key strategic sectors
. It identifies high value-added stages in 
the production process and the conditions under which a country can benefit from specialization. It also analy ses the potential markets for export; 
                                                     
 
1 For example please refer to : http://www.unido.org.lb/macle/downloads/macle_presentation.pdf  or 
http://www.un.org.pk/unido/trta-interventions.html .   G/SPS/GEN/826 
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  • Product analysis methodology for trade negotiations . It gives negotiators an objective 
tool to identify potential winning and vu lnerable products in trade agreements; 
• Cost and transactions of doing business.  It presents the framework conditions that 
influence investment decisions in key strategic sectors (e.g. labour and other industrial costs, infrastructure and logis tics, laws and regulations, institutional 
arrangements, incentives in industria l zones, trade agreements, etc.)
;  and 
• Industrial observatory.  It gives on-line access to all indicators of trade and industry 
competitiveness (both national and sectoral) to benchmark a country’s performance against main competitors, role models and global threats.  
14. UNIDO’s approach in the competitiveness analys is programme is to build the institutional 
capacity of national counterparts through awaren ess raising, training, transfer of databases and 
methodologies, and the creation a nd supervision of specialized inter-institutional units in key 
Ministries and Chambers.  
15. UNIDO has trained more than 60 professionals in several countries, and has so far set up two 
specialized units (UTEPIs) in Ecuador ( www.micip.gov.ec/utepi
) and Paraguay ( www.mic.gov.py ).  
• UTEPI Ecuador has produced Industrial Co mpetitiveness Reports in 2004 and 2006; 
Cost and transactions of doing business in  2004 and 2005 (2008 updated on-line); and 
value-chain studies in pineapple, lime-lemon, cocoa2 (i.e. http://www.unido.org/file-
storage/download?file_id=72404 ) , orange, and palm oil; 
• UTEPI Paraguay has published the Indust rial Competitiveness Report 2007, and is 
about to launch the cost and transaction of doing business in Paraguay 2008. Value 
chain studies have been completed in leather and soya. 
16. UNIDO has developed an exchange programme  to strengthen inter-institutional cooperation 
and information sharing among assisted countries.  
D. ANALYSIS OF QUALITY INFRASTRUCTURE CONSTRAINTS  
17. In its efforts to contribute to make the Ai d for Trade initiative a su ccess for Africa, UNIDO 
elaborated a questionnaire to identify the gaps and asses s the specific needs of African countries 
in the field of quality infrastructure3 (quality promotion, metrology, accreditation, standardization 
and conformity assessment) that should allow better elaboration of trade capacity building projects at 
the national and sub-regional leve ls.  The UNIDO survey of the existing situation of quality 
infrastructures was the basis for the elaboration of an Action Plan for Africa to address the 
weaknesses of those infrastructures with a view to  building trade capacity in African countries and 
improving the prospects of economic development on th e continent. The findings of this survey and 
the proposed UNIDO action plan were presented and discussed during the "Standards Compliance 
and Conformity Assessment for the Development of Sustainable Trade in Africa" Expert Group 
Meeting organized jointly with the African Union (AU) and held in Tunis in February 2007.  
18. Building up on the initial survey, which covere d 32 African Countries, UNIDO is currently 
updating the already received data while expanding at the same time the scope as well as the 
                                                      
2 See for example;  http://www.unido.org/file-storage/download?file_id=72404 .  
3 See for example: http://www.unido.org/file-storage/download?file_id=81710 . 
 G/SPS/GEN/826 
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  geographic coverage.  Besides Africa, the current survey includes Asia, the Pacific Island States as 
well as the Arab region. 
19. In particular the survey aims to: 
• Assess the priority needs for quality infrastructure upgrading; 
• Advocate more effective technical assistance;  and  
• Develop tailored projects for countries and sub-regions. 
20. A similar survey was conducted at the end of 2006 in the six Gulf Cooperation Council 
(GCC) country members (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman , Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab 
Emirates) at the request of the Standardization Organization of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GSO-
GCC).  The results of the survey led to the formulation of a number of national/regional assistance intervention proposals that included concrete ac tion plans aimed at strengthening the existing 
capacities. These were presented and discussed in  a joint GSO-UNIDO workshop held in the 
beginning of June 2007 at the headquarters of  the Saudi Arabia Authority of Standards and 
Specifications in Riyadh.  Among others, the interventions proposed by UNIDO target the 
harmonization of standards and tec hnical regulations at the regional  level, increased coordination and 
cooperation in the area of metrology, as well as establishing a GCC-wide regional accreditation mechanism and a GSO-led Management System Certification Body. 
E. A
NALYSIS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES PRODUCT REFUSALS /NOTIFICATIONS  
21. Starting from the analysis of product refusals/notifications for developing countries originated 
by the United States Food and Drug Administration (US-FDA), European Union Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (EU-RASFF) and Japan (Min istry of Health, Labour and Welfare), UNIDO 
worked out an enhanced classification of Non-Tari ff Measures (NTMs)/Non-Tariff Barriers 
(NTBs) to trade .  The classification was developed in the context of the Multi-Agency Support Team 
established by the Group of Eminent Persons on N on-Tariff Barriers (MAST) through the SPS/TBT 
Sub-Groups with the participation of several inte rnational organizations (C odex Alimentarius, FAO, 
ITC, OECD, UNCTAD, WTO, US-ERS, and US-ITC) led by OECD and UNIDO.  
22. UNCTAD, UNIDO and ITC in cooperation with other MAST members (IMF, FAO, OECD, 
WTO, WB) launched in 2007 a Pilot Project on Collection and Quantification of Non-Tariff 
Measures (NTMs) Database  (UNCTAD-DITC Draft, 18 July 2007). Aimed at developing a 
systematic methodology of definition and collec tion of Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) the project 
covers nine pilot countries (Brazil, Chile, Indi a, Kenya, Mozambique, Philippines, Switzerland, 
Thailand and Zambia). The objective is to initiate a country level data collection on NTMs that will 
help MAST to draw up an analytical framework to carry out a multi-agency effort in data collection 
process and prepare studies on the impact assessment of NTMs. 
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