International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development

Description What is done in the programme or project and why, what results are pursued, who benefits from the activities and who are involved in the implementation.

ICTSD supports sustainable development in multilateral trade issues by dialogue, networking, research and capacity building. One specific objective is to support non-state actors participation in processes related with international trade negotiations. ICTSD in Geneva has an established position an indepdendent non-partisan non-governmental organization, which has broad connections to different actors in trade negotiations including civil society. ICTSD complements well Finnish trade and development policy priorities. ICTSD applied support for International NGOs in Spring 2014. ICTSD has increased the knowledge and capacity of various developing country actors in trade-related issues. For example, last year research and analysis was produced and different events organized in the following topics: food security, impact of Aid for Trade at country level, resolving trade disputes and contentious issues at the EU-ACP Economic Partnership Agreements. In addition thousands policy makers or policy advocates used Bridges-newsletter as an information source on topical trade and development issues. It is proposed that ICTSD will be supported with 1000.000 euros in 2014-2015. Half of the support will be granted as core support and half focused on supporting trade capacity of African and LDC-countries.