WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/COMTD/W/153 
17 October 2006 
 
 (06-4994) 
Committee on Trade and Development  
  
 
STRATEGIC REVIEW OF WTO-PROVIDED TRTA 
 
Management Response
 
 
  
I. BACKGROUND AND TERMS OF REFERENCE 
1. The Strategic Review (SR) of WTO-provided Training and Technical Assistance (TRTA) 
(WT/COMTD/W/152), presented to the Secretariat in Ju ly 2006, is the first external evaluation of 
TRTA provided by the Secretariat conducted by a team of independent consultants.  The start of this 
process goes back to July 2003, when donors proposed  that an external (independent) evaluation of 
WTO TRTA activities be commissioned.  Terms-of-R eference (TOR) of a Strategic Review were 
prepared and endorsed by Members in May 2005 at  the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) 
(WT/COMTD/W/140).  A Steering Committee (SC) was set up, consisting of six members, including 
donors and beneficiaries, to conduct the selection pro cess for the evaluation team and to monitor the 
process of the review.  A consortium made up of CUTS, NSI and FLACSO
1 was retained.  The 
contract was signed in November 2005, following whic h work was initiated.   According to the TOR, 
the review would be conducted in 2005 and comple ted within six months (Spring 2006).  The Final 
Report of the Strategic Review of WTO-provided TRTA Activities was presented to the Secretariat 
on 29 July 2006 and will be discussed at the CTD on 3 November 2006. 
2. The timing for the review process, as stated in the TOR, had been chosen to permit the 
outcome of the review, following discussion with th e Members, to be reflected in the Technical 
Assistance and Training Plan 2007 (the TA Plan), wh ich is drafted and coordi nated Secretariat-wide 
in the summer.  Due to delays in the strategic re view process, the discussion of the SR now coincides 
with the first reading of the TA Plan 2007. The S ecretariat has nevertheless incorporated several key 
recommendations of the SR in the TA Plan, but fu rther changes can only be contemplated after an 
in-depth discussion of the Report by the Members.  
3. In line with the TOR, the SR focuses on three main issues: WTO's comparative advantage in 
offering TRTA vis-à-vis  other agencies; the relevance of WTO TRTA to Members and to participants, 
and the efficiency and management of WTO TRTA.  The TOR define the objectives, the stakeholders, 
provide the scope of the review and give de tailed information on the aspects to be addressed, 
including a number of questions that would need to be covered in the review.  They define the review 
methodology, expected outputs, implementation arrangements etc.  Based on the outcome of the review, the report presents the findings, lessons  learned and recommendations, followed by 
conclusions and future scenarios.  The Annex es contain the TOR, the questionnaires used for 
evaluation purposes and the summaries of country  reports on Bangladesh, Barbados, Cambodia, 
Ecuador, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Senegal and Yemen, which had been identified for field 
visits.  The Secretariat, especially staff of the Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation 
                                                     
 
1 CUTS-Consumer Unity-Trust Society (India); Flacs o-Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales 
(Argentina); NSI-North-South Institute (Canada). WT/COMTD/W/153 
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  (ITTC), as well as the Technical Cooperation Audit Un it (TCA), interacted regularly with the SR 
Team, and provided relevant  documents, information and data for the Review.  
4. The TOR state, inter alia , that the Review will cover TRTA provided by WTO since 2002, 
solely or in cooperation with other agencies, and cites ITC, UNCTAD, WB, IMF, OECD etc.  They 
also indicate that the report, rather than repea ting JITAP and IF multi-year programme evaluations, 
should include the assessment of WTO's role, input s and performance in contributing to those 
programmes, as appropriate.  The Review is expected  to be forward-looking and result in what outside 
experts can offer by the identification and analysis  of new priorities and/or modalities for the TRTA; 
formulation of recommendations and lessons lear ned for future improvements and suggestions of 
creative ways to maximize TRTA benefits.  The out put should be user friendly in order to facilitate 
consideration of all stakeholders of WTO TRTA .  The review should be based on desk studies, 
questionnaires and interviews with key staff of co -operating agencies in offering TRTA etc.  The 
report resulting from the review is required to re late the conclusions and recommendations to 
evidence.   
II. OVERALL ASSESSMENT 
5. The report contains a useful review of WTO- provided TRTA, which is positively rated and 
makes welcome suggestions and proposals that are aimed at improving quality and sustainability 
through planning, preparation, delivery and fo llow-up to TRTA.  Many key suggestions and 
recommendations are duly reflected in the TA Plan 2007;  others would first need to be considered by 
Members.  By way of illustration, the draft TA Plan for 2007, is designed in such a way as to: 
• put more emphasis on the quality of the activities; 
• enhance the methodology of training and of the material itself, course content etc.; 
• use needs assessment more systematically as a basis for the delivery of assistance;  
• further strategic cooperation with other ag encies, based on comparative advantage;  
• strengthen the selection process of participants;  
• work towards a follow-up to activities; 
• strengthen the use of e-training, as a tool for disseminating information, enhancing the 
 knowledge base, a precursor to the face to face courses and for selecting participants;  
• explore effective ways to outsource so me activities, including with academics. 
6. The report confirms overall levels of satisfa ction with WTO's delivery of TRTA through 
ITTC, both from a donor and a beneficiary perspectiv e.  Given the number of subject areas and the 
number of Members that technical assistance must serve,  the fact that WTO has been able to draw up 
a framework and undertake activities with a 95 per cen t success rate, as measured by interviewees, is 
noteworthy.  The report confirms that 89 per cent of  participants consider th e training received to be 
good or very good and 87 per cent are actually applyi ng the knowledge gained in the regional courses.  
It is equally re-assuring to find widespread agreement that the WTO has strong comparative 
advantage in knowledge and information about the WT O rules and procedures.  But there is no room 
for complacency: there is scope for improvement and the report provides several welcome indications 
to that effect.    WT/COMTD/W/153 
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  7. In consultation with Members, the TA Plans have gradually evolved and contain a broad 
menu of products that are all geared towards human  and institutional capacity building, as well as 
towards enhancing ownership of the TA programmes by the beneficiaries. The Secretariat has made 
considerable efforts to improve didactic methods or  approaches to teaching, other than in relation to 
greater use of simulations and exercises. The in novations and introduction of new products by the 
Secretariat into its approach to TRTA have generally been welcomed by Members. A fuller 
appreciation of this reality would have been useful for the reports' assessment of how these 
improvements have contributed to a more effectiv e delivery of TRTA.  Also, a closer focus on the 
efforts to forge partnerships might have allowed th e authors to offer further suggestions of how to 
manage these relationships. The s uggestions made in the review on  didactic methods are welcome, 
but more specific guidance could have been pr ovided on how these methods could be strengthened 
further.  
8. The WTO Secretariat TRTA delivery is flexible as long as it remains within the limitations of 
its mandate.  The mandate given to the Secretariat by  the Members clearly requires it to be neutral   
9. With regard to the methodology used in the review, it is noted that the quantitative data 
supporting the findings and conclusions are base d on nine countries that were visited, and 
118 participants interviewed, compared to more  than 14000 participants benefiting from WTO TRTA 
per year.  Given this (understandable)  limited ma gnitude, and in order to support and validate the 
views and findings contained in the report, and pr ovide evidence (as required in the TOR), the report 
could usefully have included a formal desk-review  of the documentation and made specific references 
to official WTO documents, e.g. the minutes of the m eetings of the CTD.  In fact, there is only scarce 
reference to official WTO TRTA related documents and none at all to the official records of CTD 
meetings.  The review of the literature could have contributed to a solid foundation for the 
recommendations, but for this it would have benef ited from being  more broadly based. This could 
have at least partly avoided the issue of not know ing what degree of suppor t a particular statement 
and/or recommendation in the report has.  In one in stance, off-the-record remarks are generalised and 
then presented in the findings and recommendations.  It would also have been helpful if the report had provided more systematic indications whether a nd to what extend a particular recommendation 
applies to the Secretariat or the beneficiary (e.g. selection process). 
10. In terms of the methodology used, and more par ticularly from the point of view of coverage, 
most of the data refer to the period 2002-2004 a nd only some qualitative statements are made on the 
basis of information from 2005.  More importantly , the TOR are not systematically referred to 
throughout the Report.  Therefore, some of the issu es in the TOR, e.g. as in the following sentence: 
"The Review should be based on an appropriate set of performance indicators and targets, which can 
be used in assessing the effectiven ess, efficiency and relevance of the TA Plan, as a whole as well as 
those of the individual products included in the TA Plan", are left out. 
11. While it is stated in the report that the key pl ayers have been interviewed, it is unclear how 
many and to what extent staff members were consu lted.  Several key senior WTO officials, including 
at the management level, directors and members of the Technical Assistance Management Committee 
(TAMC), have not formally been interviewed.  Meetings and discussions with these officials would 
have completed the broader picture on how TRTA activities are coordinated in a Secretariat-wide 
manner, enhanced the review te am's understanding of how each Divi sion uses partnerships in the 
delivery of their activities with specialized agenci es. It would also have contributed to their 
understanding of the critical importance of the academic component in the TA Plan.  
12. It would have been useful for the SR team  to address the question to what extent the 
institutional mechanisms in the Secretariat, includi ng the establishment of the ITTC in Spring 2003, 
are adequate in meeting the objectives of the TRTA  programme, and to ensure synergies between two 
core elements in trade capacity building, i.e. tr aining and technical coopera tion.  This could have WT/COMTD/W/153 
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  included a discussion of the TAMC, as well as other forms of regular interaction with members, e.g. 
through the Committees, the informal consultations with donors and beneficiaries, the regular CTD 
meetings, and interaction with re gional groupings.  This interactive network has led to excellent 
working relations between all stakeholders; it has paid dividends in both the design and the delivery 
of TRTA.  Such analysis could also have included feedback and suggestions relating to the process of 
preparation of the TA Plans, as coordinated within  the Secretariat and with partner agencies, based on 
comparative advantage, and with Members, and how th is process could be further improved.  In fact, 
it is through this process that all activities contained in  the TA Plan, not just the national activities, are 
the result of a demand driven process, taking into a ccount the views of the beneficiaries, as well as 
those of WTO Committees.  
13. While the financial constraints (funding) are a serious issue for the Secretariat, regularly 
brought to the attention of Memb ers, the report contains recommendations that are not accompanied 
by an analysis of the financial implications, as well as the implications for the programme as a whole.  
It should be clear, however, that with a constant budge t, if the Secretariat  does more in one area, it 
will have to reduce its activities in another area, even if changes of fo cus are accompanied by 
efficiency gains in some instances.  What is need ed are useful, practical suggestions to address the 
financial constraints that the Secretariat faces, a nd the review could have made a useful contribution 
to this.  The Report could have given more specific guidance for the future directions of TRTA, i.e. 
how long term financing could be  assured and how it can be impr oved and enhanced further, as 
stipulated in the TOR.  It is important to have a forward looking, longer term vision, e.g. in light of 
the DDA negotiating context, and suggestions about "str ategic" directions and priorities in light of the 
limited financial resources available. 
14. The Strategic Review could obviously not c over all products and aspects of WTO's TRTA 
programme, but there are a number of products in th e Plan which are considered important elements 
in the Secretariat's trade capacity building effort s and on which the report is silent.  This includes inter 
alia, the academic partnership programmes, the Netherlands Trainee Programme (NTP) as well as 
mission intern programmes, which are instrumental in enhancing ownership in the beneficiaries and 
are all geared towards human and institutional capacity  building.  The same applies to JITAP and IF 
(referred to in Chapter III), but the elements presented in the relevant parts are not used in the review 
process, i.e. providing indications on how they cont ribute to attaining some of the key objectives.  
There are some other products that have hardly been covered: the refe rence centres, which are 
increasingly used by beneficiaries as a source of WTO information, and as a means to undertake 
distance learning; the Secretariat's efforts to build and strengthen beneficiarie s' negotiating skills, both 
at the national and regional level; and the Geneva-based Trade Policy Courses, as well as the Regional 
Trade Policy Courses (RTPCs), to which together a considerable portion of the TRTA budget is 
devoted.    
15. The chapter providing a broad evaluation of various agencies involved in the delivery of 
TRTA, which also contains observations on JITA P and the IF, seems to stand alone and is 
disconnected from the report itself.  The SR could have usefully injected relevant findings in the analysis and established links between what the WTO can do in relation to what is already effectively 
done by other agencies, thus enhancing efficiency in the delivery of TRTA.  Also, the assessment of 
JITAP is based on the evaluation of JITAP I, whic h was done in 2002 and not on JITAP II, and which 
has undergone a metamorphosis sin ce. If that evaluation had been available to the review team, 
further lessons could have been dr awn, which would have been useful  to the overall review, including 
the recommendation that WTO TRTA should move from mere technical assistance to capacity 
building.  Even without that evaluation it would have  been interesting to consider if there are aspects 
of the JITAP II approach that can be applied in ot her parts of TRTA.  JITAP II is a capacity building 
initiative, as expressly acknowledged by the current JITAP evaluation.  The SR also recommends 
greater use of inter-agency cooper ative frameworks like JITAP to attain a qualitative expansion of 
WTO TRTA.   Indeed, the review acknowledges that greater cooperation with other TRTA agencies is  WT/COMTD/W/153 
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  an important requirement if WTO is to move to wards capacity building.  Such cooperation has 
already been achieved in JITAP.  In the same vein , the enhanced IF provides a response to many of 
the earlier shortcomings, as it is geared towards strengthening the institutional capacities to implement 
and benefit from the multilateral trade agreemen ts and address LDCs' specific trade capacity 
constraints. 
III. FINDINGS, LESSONS LEARNED AND RECOMMENDATIONS 
(a) Comparative Advantage 
16. The report recognizes the strong comparative advantage the WTO Secretariat has in 
knowledge and information about the WTO, but suggests that the neutral approach can limit the scope for advice, and can appear to be pro-liberalization.  Also, it is suggested that WTO has less capacity to 
address the development dimension of trade rules,  on the political aspects of negotiations and on 
analytical techniques.  As indicated earlier, the mandate given to the Secretariat by the Members 
clearly requires it to be neutral.  This is generally considered a strength, rather than a weakness.  The 
mandate given by trade ministers in Hong Kong to  enhance the IF, as well as the one on Aid for 
Trade, were taken at least partly precisely because the WTO does not have the mandate to cater to all 
issues relating to trade and development, and yet it is clear that through their actions, Members wish 
the WTO to have a central role in these initiatives.  They fundam entally promote closer cooperation 
between all stakeholders, and more coherence betwee n trade, finance and development Ministries, to 
enhance beneficiaries' institutional and human capaciti es in the area of trade.  As to its advocacy of 
liberalization, this again is part of WTO's co re mandate, in addition supported by economic and 
empirical evidence.  
17. On partnership arrangements, the Secretariat has at present some 30 MOUs, but generally it 
favours and follows a pragmatic approach, whereby the WTO partners with those agencies that can 
add value in the implementation of activities, irrespective of an MOU.  It is  felt that the signing of an 
MOU, as recommended by the SR, does not per se  change the nature of the cooperation or add value.  
The WTO closely cooperates with partner organizati ons in preparing the TA Plans, including the 
regional activities, in order to avoi d overlap, duplication and to build synergies.  The Annex of the TA 
Plan lists all the partner agencies in the activities.   The Secretariat has, nevertheless, launched a 
reflection process on its approaches to partnership arrangements.  
(b) Relevance 
18. With regard to needs assessments, it is recal led that the Secretariat has developed several 
tools to assist beneficiaries in undertaking need s assessment, including suggested guidelines, linking 
the needs assessment process to th e Trade Policy Reviews, recruiting trainees under the Netherlands 
Trainee Programme etc.  Ways will be considered to strengthen this process further and render it more 
effective.  To that effect the Secretariat will further intensify cooperation with beneficiaries to 
overcome their institutional weaknesses limiting th eir capacity to assess needs.  All relevant 
documents and information available to support need s assessment will be used, as they are already, 
including the Diagnostics Trade Integration Studies (DTIS) undertaken in the IF process, with the 
support of the main agencies, which are a key el ement in the needs asse ssment process.  The 
Secretariat will also continue to urge beneficiar ies to indicate and prioritize their needs, before 
committing to technical assistance activities. The regi onal desk officer and the beneficiary interact 
permanently.  Furthermore, ITTC regularly interacts with regional groups to ma ke them aware of their 
entitlements and what process should be followed.  But there is a limitation of how far the Secretariat 
can go without compromising the principle of ownership by beneficiaries.  Members have repeatedly 
indicated that the responsibility for undertakin g needs assessments prim arily rests with the 
beneficiaries.   WT/COMTD/W/153 
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  19. The report makes welcome suggestions for im proving course content, using relevant 
examples, making it interactive with case studies, simulations, with hands-on training as opposed to theoretical lectures, preparing lists of readings, e xpanding pre-training, e.g. through electronic means, 
and including an academic dimension.  This is work in progress and will get progressively more 
attention.  WTO staff involved in the delivery of TR TA are aware of this and have been requested to 
ensure that training material is always adjusted in or der to be directly relevant for the audience that is 
targeted.  From the Back to Office Reports (BTORs ) received in the Secretariat, following activities, 
it is noted that increasingly the TRTA activities are hands-on, with simulations and exercises and training material.  It is a permanent feature of the Geneva-based as well as the Regional Trade Policy Courses.  The suggestion to ask participants to prepare brief reports on country-specific problems 
and/or issues, for presentation and discussion in the courses is equally helpful and will be pursued.  
Also, research is very much promoted at the na tional level, e.g. through the academic support for 
training and capacity building, which is a key element in  the TA Plans.  It is also a main element in 
the RTPCs.  In line with the recommendations contained in the report, the duration of some courses can be extended, so as to provide more time to  treat the subject matters in depth, undertake 
simulations and to absorb the information.  It is felt that this will contribute to further enhancing the 
quality of WTO's TRTA.   
20. The report notes that, while the quality of trainers  is high, there is room for improvement.  
The Secretariat agrees.  Efforts to provide WTO officials with (enhanced) training skills should be 
pursued further.  The suggestion to enrol some of WTO's staff, especially those that are more 
systematically engaged in training activities, in Trai ner of Trainer (TOT) courses could be pursued, all 
the more so that most WTO staff, including those at the Institute, are not 'trainers' per se, but are hired 
as experts in specific areas.  In addition to provi ding TRTA, most officials perform other Secretariat 
tasks, e.g. servicing the Committees, assisting and advising Geneva- and cap ital-based delegates, 
preparing reports for management and servicing panels.  
(c) Management and Efficiency 
21. The report notes that "there is a lack of missionary zeal in the management of the ITTC.  The 
approach is characterised by routine churning out of TRTA activities within a pre-determined static 
framework".  It would have been more useful, however, if the review had developed performance 
indicators both at the level of the Plan and its products, as provided for in the TOR, which in turn could have been used as yardsticks to measure  the performance of the management of ITTC.  This 
not having been done, the statement is not supported by evidence. It is misplaced and inappropriate, 
all the more so that it is based on remarks "off th e record".  Leaving aside the question of whether 
"missionary zeal" is something the Members would lik e to see in the WTO, the TA Plans are prepared 
in close interaction with Members, beneficiaries an d donors, and have a specific budget that needs to 
be accounted for.  Donors are requested to pledge their contributions corresponding to the cost of the 
TA Plan into the DDAGTF.  The TA Plans are exp ected to be implemented in full, which on an 
annual basis represents some 500 discrete activities.  The review could have focused more on the 
institutional mechanisms for the management of TRTA programmes, as indicated in the TOR (cf 
para 12).   
22. As for the selection process, the record here is patchy.  For activities he ld in Geneva, and for 
some of those held in the field, the WTO follo ws a well established and transparent process.  The 
Geneva-based Trade Policy Courses (TPCs) and the Regional Trade Policy Courses (RTPCs), in 
particular, have detailed selecti on criteria, which are applied rigor ously, so as to ensure homogeneous 
groups of participants, and fair access for all.  For topic-based, specialized activities, the WTO 
Secretariat always sends out letters of invitation,  which specify the requirements for the activity and 
the profile of the candidate.  Here , the responsibility of identifying the most appropriate officials for a 
particular activity primarily rests with the beneficiary.  Increasingly, the Secretariat uses electronic 
means to 'test' the candidates prior to the activity , but this approach has limitations.  It should be  WT/COMTD/W/153 
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  possible to do more, and the suggestions containe d in the report will be taken into account as the 
Secretariat pursues options in this area.  This is, nevertheless, a matter of some sensitivity in 
beneficiary countries.  
23. The suggestion in the report that the WTO n eeds to adopt a programmatic approach and 
develop an overarching long-term plan for its traini ng courses is welcome.  To some extent this is 
what the existing TA Plans try to do, admittedly w ith a relatively short time horizon.  The attainment 
of longer-term planning largely depends on the Me mbers, particularly in terms of making the 
corresponding longer-term financial commitments.  S ecuring timely, predictable and stable funding in 
accordance with established rules has been a permanent challenge for the Secretariat.  Also, if a 
programmatic, longer-term approach is pursued, it should be kept in mind that the TA Plans are 
permanently adjusted in light of the negotiating dynamics.  The Secretariat needs to maintain 
flexibility to respond to beneficiaries' demands and needs in a timely fashion and in the most 
appropriate way.  Hence the development of a prog rammatic approach could be considered in close 
consultations with the Members.  But such an appr oach will remain in the realm of the academic as 
long as it is not accompanied by a corresponding long -range approach to financing (see the next 
paragraph).   
24. On the issue of funding, the report recommends th at Members consider ways to ensure more 
predictable and longer-term funding for the WTO's TRTA  to assist ITTC in its planning of activities, 
but more specific indications as to how that might  be achieved would have been welcome.  This 
question is of critical importance to the Secretariat,  and it would have been helpful if the question had 
been explored and analysed further, especially in light of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration 
(para 54), which calls for secure and adequate levels  of funding.  The report refers to funding of WTO 
TRTA by providing a brief description of the fina ncial situation.  The issues that would require 
exploration are the predictability of the budget to be  allocated to TRTA over a multi-year period, and 
how to ensure cash flow, i.e. that commitments ar e translated into cash in the bank in a timely way, 
allowing the seamless execution of the programme.  On e approach to sustainability would be to look 
into an increase in the proportion of TRTA covered from the regular budget, but it is questionable 
whether this would in itself suffice to solve the fu nding issue.  Some reference in the Report to the 
issue of earmarking, which by definition undermines  flexibility, and reduces the effectiveness of the 
TA programmes and their implementation,  would also have been helpful.  
25. The suggestion to take into account pre- a nd post-training activities could be developed 
further, including through the e-learning mode.  The responsibility for developing and managing an 
overall plan to allow trainees to go through a struct ured programme of learning, should, however, be 
with the beneficiary.  The TA Plans contains a ch oice of products at different levels of learning; 
beneficiaries can prioritize the activities that are relevant for their staff. 
IV. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE SCENARIOS 
26. The Report ends with some broader conclusi ons, including two scenarios: one, which is 
referred to as 'incremental change ', and a second one, referred to as a 'fundamental rethink'.  This 
chapter is based on the premise that two of the seven objectives of the new strategy for technical cooperation have not been addressed, or at least not been met, namely: 
• assist beneficiary countries to understand their rights, implement their obligations and 
improve their capacity to draw on the benefits  of an open, rules-based, multilateral trading 
system.  To this end, technical assistance will focus on establishing partnerships with 
beneficiary countries to better understand the rules; 
• support national efforts and owne rship in building durable institutional capacity for trade 
policy formulation, advocacy and negotiation. WT/COMTD/W/153 
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  27. The Secretariat begs to differ.  Both objectives,  and more specifically the first one, are at the 
heart of the TA Plans and are fundamental to everyt hing that has been carried out by the WTO in the 
realm of TRTA in the last five years.  Nobody denies that what the WTO does is not enough on its 
own and there always is room for improvement.  Th at precisely is one of the main objectives of the 
review exercise, i.e. to identify areas for improveme nt.  This is also why, in accordance with the 
Secretariat's coherence mandate, concerted efforts ar e systematically made to reach out and cooperate 
with all relevant partners and st akeholders, with a view to ensuring an effective level of country 
ownership. It is through a multifaceted approach that the beneficiaries stand to gain the most;  this is 
why hardly any TRTA activity is undertaken by th e Secretariat on its own. Programmes like the IF 
and JITAP are all specifically geared towards s upporting national efforts and ownership in building 
durable institutional capacities.  The various trai nee programmes, including the Netherlands Trainee 
Programme, as well as the mission internship progra mme, are equally supportive of these efforts.  
That is also where other providers of TRTA, multilatera l, regional and bilateral, come into the picture. 
More can be done, but in a sense the WTO does make an important contribution to this by training the 
individuals who are or will be the decision makers in their countries' institutions.  
28.  As for the second scenario, the "fundamental re think", it reiterates some of the interesting 
suggestions made elsewhere in the Report.  The S ecretariat will be examining how they might be 
pursued and implemented.  However, it is not cl ear how this constitutes a fundamental change, nor 
why the issue of the autonomy of ITTC should be c onsidered central to this scenario.  In any case, 
many of the  improvements can only occur incrementa lly, so melding into the approach of scenario 
one.  Not surprisingly, therefore the way forward is likely to be a combination of both approaches. 
 
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