UNCTAD´s technical cooperation activities are a significant element in achieving the objectives and policies outlined in the Accra Accord, adopted by the Conference at its twelth session held in Accra (Ghana) in April 2008.
Technical Cooperation represents the practical manifestation of the organization´s commitment to national, regional and global development exploiting the interrelationships between policy analysis, intergovernmental deliberations and operational activities.
The thrust of UNCTAD´s technical cooperation is capacity development in the four main areas of its work i.e. globalization and development; international trade in goods and services and commodities; investment and enterprise development; trade logistics and technology; services infrastructure for development and trade efficiency.
UNCTAD´s technical cooperation aims at enhancing capacity development in beneficiary countries. In pursuing that goal, UNCTAD´s technical cooperation activities seek to enhance the human and institutional capacities of developing countries to strengthen their national development policies and to create an environment conducive to sustainable development.
UNCTAD´s technical cooperation is provided in partnership with other agencies providers of trade related technical assistance, in consonance with respective mandates, expertise and areas of comparative advantage.
Strategies for agricultural development
The “All ACP Agricultural Commodities Programme” (www.euacpcommodities.eu) was launched in September 2007 as an initiative of the European Commission and the ACP Secretariat. Its roots can be traced to the EU Action Plan on Agricultural Commodities, Dependence and Poverty (COM (2004) 89), the EU-Africa Partnership on Cotton (COM (2004) 87) and a number of ACP initiatives linked to agricultural commodities identified during the Cotonou and Doha negotiations. As a result, this programme fully acknowledges the link between production, value addition and trade in agricultural commodities and poverty reduction.
It has a budget of 45 million euros of which a third is earmarked for the cotton sector.
The main objective of the programme, which ends in December 2011, is to reduce poverty while improving and stabilising the revenues and living conditions of agricultural commodity producers in ACP countries.