THE THIRD VI MEMBERS MEETING 2008: INTRODUCTION

Since the second Virtual Institute (Vi) members meeting in October 2006, the membership has grown from 15 core members to 23 and welcomed a new category of member,'affiliate member universities', which are national partners of core members and currently number 12[1]. This year's meeting was attended by 22 representatives from the Vi's core membership, as well as 2 representatives from the Vi's affiliate member universities[2], making this the biggest meeting yet of the Vi network.

As a member driven programme, the Virtual Institute is the expression of its members' interests and needs: along with the Geneva-based Vi team, it is the members who define the future work of the Vi. This approach to the ownership of Vi activities ensures that the work of the Virtual Institute responds to local demand (in the teaching and research of trade-related issues) and is relevant to local contexts and capacities. The regular Vi members meetings are therefore instrumental in shaping the future direction and content of the Vi work and gathering feedback on the experimental nature of a project driven by a diverse network with different needs and country experiences.

This year's week-long meeting was structured around three types of sessions addressing the needs and future work of the network, topics of professional interest and importance to the members, and opportunities for networking with each other and Geneva-based experts. The members also got acquainted with, and received training on the newly launched Vi website. The meeting was opened by the Director of UNCTAD's Division for Services Infrastructure for Development and Trade Efficiency, Anh-Nga Tran-Nguyen, and followed by presentations and accounts from Vi members and the Vi team reviewing the past year's activities and reflecting on the successes and lessons learned by the network.

As part of the meeting, two afternoon-long sessions were held on substantive issues of importance to the network: the first session was a keynote speech given by the Director of UNCTAD's Globalization and Development Strategies Division, Heiner Flassbeck, which addressed the growing imbalances in the international financial system and how this affects developing countries. The speech was prefaced by a presentation fromDetlef Kotte, Head of the Macroeconomic and Development Policies Branch in the Division, on the challenges of globalization for developing countries, in the context of UNCTAD XII. The second session was a roundtable on Regional Trade Agreement (RTAs) and regionalism - an issue requested by members at the last meeting in 2006. The roundtable was chaired by Patrick Low, Chief Economist at the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the panel included speakers from the World Bank, the European Commission in Geneva, The Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery in Brussels, the University of Geneva, the World Trade Institute and UNCTAD.

During the week, two workshops were held on areas of further cooperation between network members, the aim being to take advantage of the face-to-face contact to negotiate the future work plan of the Vi. Lastly, the week also included opportunities for individual networking between members in formal and informal settings, and optional networking opportunities with the Vi's partner organizations in Geneva, such as the WTO, who attended several of the meeting's sessions. On the final day of the meeting, both members and the Vi team presented the week's outcomes and future direction of the Vi to an audience of diplomats and Vi partners, attended by 18 delegates of Geneva-based missions and 3 colleagues from Vi partner organizations, the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the South Centre. For a more detailed summary of all of the week's sessions, please see the programme of the meeting (in Annex I), the individual write-ups for each session and the evaluation of the meeting by members (below).

LOCALISATION OF GENERIC TEACHING MATERIALS

The localisation of teaching materials was a project introduced at the 2006 Vi members meeting with the aim of making generic teaching material more relevant to the local teaching needs of university members. In addition to this, other benefits of the project include a broader participation of university staff, who may wish to localise material, in Vi activities and the eventual sharing of localised teaching materials among multiple members of the network. Since 2006, 11 adaptations of existing generic teaching materials on investment, commodities, negotiations and competitiveness have been completed or are in progress.

One objective of this session was to raise awareness among members of what is contained in the new generic teaching materials on Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs), Trade Data Analysis (TDA) and Trade and Poverty (TAP), and how they could be used in members' teaching. Additionally, the session was intended to promote discussion and ideas about how the material could be adapted to make it more relevant to members' local needs, in the context of the Vi's project on the localisation of teaching materials. Older members who had already completed a localisation of existing teaching materials were also able to share the benefit of their experience with newer members.

Participants split into four groups to discuss the material and address three questions: (1) Who would you give the material toin your university? (2) What courses could the material be used for? (3) What else would you need to do to the material to make it relevant to your national and regional context? What data, exercises, readings, or research/essay questions would you need to add to the material to make it more locally relevant?

Participants discuss how to localise the material

Two groups chose to look at the RTA material, while one group each looked at the TAP and TDA material respectively: the following is a summary of their ideas.

Regional Trade Agreements (Group 1)

The material:

  • Could be given to graduate students, lecturers and the library. Some of it can be adapted to undergraduate level; some can be adapted to policy makers workshops.
  • Can be used in general courses on Regional Integration; International Trade; Trade Policy; specific courses for policy makers; other related courses, e.g. MBA courses that are related.
  • Could be adapted by providing specific cases of RTAs with the member country concerned, including regional statistics; translation, focus on some sectors important for the country.

Regional Trade Agreements (Group 2)

The material:

  • Could be used for graduate courses on Masters in International Business or International Relations; undergraduate courses in Economics.Adapted versionscould be used for Graduate/MPhil students in Economics. For Masters students in Economics, the material would need to be supplemented by additional items from the reading lists.
  • Could also be used for continuing education courses, e.g. certificate/diploma/workshops/training courses/reading courses.
  • Could be adapted by providing case studies, including illustrations and examples. Members could include analytical models from the existing reading list; add readings from their country/region; translate concepts into locally/relevant exercises; provide simulations on RTA negotiations; and analyse country/regional level trade diversion & trade creation effects.

Advice from older members:

  • Interventionfrom Azad: Mauritius encountered data problems not foreseen when writing the proposal, e.g. the coverage of Islamic banking had to be dropped as it was not feasible.
  • Intervention from Chantal: CTPL has developed some simulation exercises that could be shared.

Trade Data Analysis:

  • Module 1 of the material could be used with undergraduates and governmental officials; modules 2 and 3 are more appropriate for graduates and post-graduates, and government officials (only if they have the necessary background knowledge).
  • The material could be used in courses on International Trade, International Economics, International Competitiveness, International Trade Policy, International Finance, Public Finance, specific TDA courses, and interdisciplinary courses.
  • Examples of local adaptations could include the harmonisation of software common to all members; training on softwaredatabases; local examples and case studies using the methods presented in the material; translation into local languages; contracting experts to help teach with the material.

It would also be useful to have:

  • Workshops on TDA involving experts, organised by the Virtual Institute - such as the one that took place in Geneva, in September 2006.
  • Networking opportunities
  • Computer facilities (to follow the exercises, simulations and cases)

Trade and Poverty:

  • The material could be used with third year undergraduate studentsin courses on Development Economics and Development Studies, and on courses with trade/government representatives andin executive training. Additionally, the material could be used on trade workshops for MA students and as background material for teaching notes.
  • The material could be made more locally relevant by providing case studies, both sectoral and national, such as mining, cut flowers, fisheries, tea, coffee etc. Although the material addresses the gender impacts of trade reforms, this could be much expanded by a short paper or additional notes to the material.

JOINT MEMBERS' PROJECTS

Launched at the second Vi Members Meeting in 2006, Joint Members' Projects were intended to encourage and support cooperation between the membership in areas of mutual interest. Five joint projects have been undertaken since the last meeting and are now either completed or near to completion.

This year's meeting focused on the presentation of joint projects already undertaken by members, rather than structuring activities for the discussion of future projects. This was deliberate, partly in recognition of the diversity of members' skills and interests, and partly to give newer members a concrete idea of what joint projects involve. Discussion of future projects was instead left to members to do individually in sessions reserved for networking and consultation and during informal networking events.

Members present the results of the joint projects

During the session, four projects were presented by members:

  • The implications of textiles/garment trade and investment from China to Senegal - a research paper written by Aly Mbaye of Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal, and Weiyong Yang of the University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China. Members hope to publish the research in the coming year.
  • A comparative analysis of the effects of regional trade agreements on trade (Jordan, Mauritius and India) - a research paper undertaken by Talib Awad and Amir Bakir of the University of Jordan, Meeta Mehra, Manoj Pant, Saptarshi Basu, Roy Choudhury and Amit Sadhukhan of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, and Sawkut Rojid, Vinesh Sannassee, Boopen Seetanah and Suraj Fowdar of the University of Mauritius. Members hope to either publish the research in the coming year and/or extend the scope of the project to include other countries.
  • Two training projects on International Trade Law between the Centre for Trade Policy and Law at CarltonUniversity in Canada and the University of Mauritius and EAFITUniversity in Medellín, Colombia. Members plan to establish courses in International Trade Law at their respective universities with the support of CTPL.
  • A training material on trade and environment, developed by Sangeeta Bansal and Meeta Mehra of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, and Anne-Marie Zwerg of EAFIT University in Medellín, Colombia. Members plan to use the material with students on undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

At the end of each presentation, there were opportunities for questions and discussion, both about the substance of the projects as well as methodological and practical issues, often relating to the coordination between remote members.

LAUNCH OF THE NEW VI WEBSITE 2008

The expansion and changing needs of the network require a website that can both meet those needs now, as well as can be easily adapted to meet evolving needs in the future. For this reason, the Vi brought the design and construction of the website 'in house' and during 2007 built a new website using free and open source software (FOSS). This enabled the Vi to increase the interactivity and add several 'Web 2.0' functions to the site (such as member uploads and contributions to the news section), as well as have the capacity to introduce any changes to the site in the future.

The new site was launched to members in a specialised training session during this year's members meeting. In order to ensure the proper and increased use of the site, it was important to train members in a face-to-face setting on the functions of the site, especially given the diverse levels of experience with ICTs among the membership.

Participants during the website training session

"The new website is much more user-friendly!"

Pham Thi Mai Khanh, Foreign TradeUniversity, Hanoi, Vietnam

"Susana, Yasemin and Bertrand did a really good job - first created this new site and then taught us to use in a simple and understandable way!"

Anna Olefir, Vadym Hetman Kiev National Economic University, Kiev, Ukraine

"Now I am feeling able to teach my colleagues how to register, and to access and upload material."

Adérito Notiço, Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique

The site has two main purposes:

  1. To provide access to specialised knowledge about trade and development, in the form of annotated resources, collected in a browse-able and searchable (full text search) online library. Additional resources include links to websites relevant to the field, materials used in Vi workshops and an archive of Vi newsletters, which contain information about the network and trade and development resources. The site also contains 7 bespoke training materials produced by the Vi, as well as localised versions written by members.
  1. To provide a networking tool for members: news items provide information about developments at member universities to the network and individual members can upload items themselves. Members are also able to upload their research for distribution and feedback, as well as their own presentations and resources for sharing with other members. Members can also use several features of the site to communicate with each other.

The training included how to upload documents and members' own research, as well as create personal profiles that include professional information and research interests, to help with networking. Having been shown how to use the Vi website, member coordinators can now help other staff members in their universities use the site too.

IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF THE DEVELOPMENT ACCOUNT PROJECT 2006 - 2009

The Virtual Institute is mainly funded by the United Nations Development Account, a condition of which is that an evaluation of the impact of the project is conducted at the end of the project, in 2009. To assist this process and to facilitate the collection of data that would be required for such an impact assessment, the Vi asked participants at this year's meeting to brainstorm how to assess the five different areas funded by the Development Account: namely, (i) the Vi meetings; (ii) the generic teaching materials; (iii) the localisation of generic teaching materials; (iv) joint member projects; and (v) the website.

The objectives of the exercise were to gather ideas from the expertise and experience of the membership as to how to conduct the assessment, and to understand what would be feasible for the members in terms of their time and the availability of data. As well as the impending requirements of the Development Account, an impact assessment also has the broader perspective of illuminating what Vi membership brought to member universities, what the Vi team did well and what could be improved, and what direction the Vi should take based on the experience of the first five years of its existence (2004-2009) - issues that will be addressed at the fourth meeting of the network in 2009.

In groups, participants were asked to consider:(a) what would need to be measured for such an assessment (indicators, both quantitative and qualitative), and (b) sources of information for these indicators (how the data will be collected). Participants were asked to keep in mind what is a good measure of the impact (convincing enough),yet how feasible is the information to collect.

This is a summary of participants' responses:

Network meetings (to be assessed by member coordinators only)

Qualitative and quantitative indicators:

  • Provide reference to members' prior expectations
  • Assess access to information and knowledge, such as up-to-date trends and ideas on trade and development from experts at the meeting
  • Evaluate the materials provided at the meeting by the Vi, and their use
  • Assess the degree of networking opportunities provided by the meetings: numbers of contacts with other members and the results, numbers of contacts with experts and the results and numbers of contacts with missions

Generic teaching materials (assessed by member coordinators, other teaching staff and students)

Quantitative indicators:

  • The number of training materials used by members: which ones and on what courses
  • The number of lecturers using the materials
  • The number of students on courses using Vi training materials

Qualitative indicators (of the usefulness of the material):

  • Their methodology and structure
  • Their geographical coverage
  • Their thematic coverage
  • The clarity of their information
  • The quality, availability and relevance of their further readings

Localisation of teaching materials (assessed by member coordinator)

Quantitative indicators:

  • The number of materials that have been localised
  • The number of case studies added
  • The number of staff members who use the materials

Qualitative indicators (of the usefulness of the material):

  • Assess the relevance and quality of the localised materials for teaching/research: for example, is it up-to-date, does it provide relevant tools?
  • Assess the impact on members' research from localising material: for example, the collection of data for a case study
  • Assess how the material was localised and what form it took, for example, translation
  • Assess the relevance of the material for policy makers and the private sector

Joint members' projects (assessed by member coordinator and participating staff)