Unece Trade Facilitation Implementation Guide (Tfig)

Trade Facilitation Implementation Guide Phase 2 – Training Workshops Ver1.3

UNECE TRADE FACILITATION IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE (TFIG)

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PROJECT PHASE 2 - TRAINING WORKSHOPS

29 August 2012

united nations economic commission for europe (unece)

trade and sustainable land management division

UNECE Trade Facilitation Implementation Guide – Training and Dissemination

1. Introduction and purpose

The Trade Facilitation Implementation Guide aims to help developing countries and countries in transition to implement key trade facilitation measures and instruments in a manner that is consistent with their own developmental needs, priorities, resources, and international obligations. Specifically, the Guide presents a structured step-by-step approach to assessing and understanding available trade facilitation tools, techniques and standards. The Guide is developed as an on-line interactive tool, in wikipedia style, allowing users to navigate through multiple entry points and cross links at various levels of information and detail.

In order to disseminate the Guide, a series of regional workshops will be organised, under Phase 2 of the project, to train the target groups on the use of the Guide. Each workshop will be tailored to the specific needs and requirements of the countries/region. Initial reaction to the Guide from a presentation to WTO African members, organised by the Swedish mission to Geneva in June 2012, indicate a strong interest in the Guide and the workshops.

The workshops will be prepared and conducted by the UNECE secretariat, with a team of consultants hired under the project. In addition, the UN/CEFACT Advisory Team and a number of international organizations conducting technical assistance and capacity building activities for trade facilitation implementation in the project target countries, such as the other UN regional Commissions, the World Bank, UNCTAD and UNDP, will be consulted and involved as appropriate.

2.Scope

2.1 The Trade Facilitation Implementation Guide

The Guide, developed under phase 1 of the project, is a collection of self-contained “virtual documents” organized in a structured set of trade-facilitation domains, itineraries, instruments and organizations. These are the entry points to the contents of the Guide, which users can access according to their needs and objectives.

• Domains offer a supply-chain perspective on trade facilitation. These areas take inspiration from the UN/CEFACT Buy-Ship-Pay model. The steps and processes of the model correspond to the business domains of purchasing and payment, shipping and transport, and Customs and cross-border management. For each domain, the Guide presents key challenges as well as possible reform measures and appropriate solutions and instruments. It introduces business process analysis, trade-government consultation and cooperation, and e-business solutions as approaches and methodologies that underpin trade-facilitation efforts.
• Itineraries help users explore questions such as:
• How to reduce delays at border crossings?
• Why and how is the World Trade Organization discussing trade facilitation?
• How to reduce the number of documents and amount of information requested at border crossings?
• What steps need to be taken for establishing a Single Window?
• How to create a trusted partnership with trade?
• What are the ICT applications for trade facilitation?

In these itineraries, pages from various domains are conveniently grouped together and the users are guided through them.

• Instruments provide information on a particular convention, guideline or another instrument such as a UNECE Recommendation. Here users will find a list of key trade-facilitation measures and obtain more details on a specific instrument, as well as links to other pages that refer to it.
• Organizations introduce key governmental organizations that work in the field of trade facilitation — by setting rules and standards, providing technical assistance, or by doing research. It gives an overview of who the organizations are and what they do.

The Guide will be published on the UNECE website: (as of September 2012)

2.2The Train the Trainers Package

A “Train the Trainers” package complements the Guide. It was developed for conducting training on trade facilitation and serves as a guiding template for a three-day workshop on the Guide. It helps trainers to prepare their workshops, shows them how to structure the training, and gives pedagogical and didactical guidelines in order to achieve the learning objectives of the participants. The manual equips future trainers/facilitators with a set of competencies that allows them:

• to analyse the learning needs of the target audience,
• to develop a three-day workshop on the use of the trade facilitation implementation guide,
• to share knowledge and methodologies to facilitate and conduct this workshop, and
• to evaluate the learning results achieved by the target audience and to track the impact of the workshop.

The series of workshops that will be organised and conducted as part of this project, will be based on this “Train the Trainers” package. The workshops will be designed according to the outcome of the learning needs for the target audience.

2.3Training Workshops

Under phase 2 of this project, a series of six regional workshops will be organised to disseminate the Guide and train target countries (developing, least developed and countries in transition) on its use and application. Two workshops will be held in Africa (one in West Africa and one in Eastern Africa), and one workshop will be held in each of the other four regions, as listed below:

• Asia Pacific,
• Eastern and Southern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia
• Latin America and the Caribbean,
• Western Asia.

The full list of developing, LDC and transition countries in the above regions is presented in Annex A. However, it is clear that the project could not include all of these countries, as this would be far beyond the project resources. Rather, it is anticipated that there will be up to 20 participants from up to 8 countries per workshop, drawn from government and the business sector. The final list of countries/participants for each workshop will be selected in consultation with regional partners, including the other UN Regional Commissions, UNDP, UNCTAD and the World Bank.

It should be noted that the Guide will be also used in other capacity building activities of UNECE and other international organization willing to partner. It is, therefore, emphasized here that UNECE will take a flexible approach to organizing the workshops, in order to “piggy back” on activities of our partner organizations, such as UNCTAD, the World Bank, WTO, WCO, the other UN Regional Commissions, etc. For example, in cases where partner organizations are organizing training workshops on trade facilitation in a particular region, it may make more sense to add the TFIG training as an additional element to this training rather than organizing a separate event. This would be more cost effective and may allow more than six workshops to be organized. Irrespective of the above, the total budget will be respected and all activities under the project will be completed by end December 2013.

The project will cover the travel and DSA requirements of project participants from LDCs. The project will also attempt to partially cover expenses from other developing countries, on a needs basis. In cases where workshops are co organised with activities of UNECE partner organizations (see above) these costs may be shared.

Each workshop, which shall be up to three days duration, will be tailored to the specific needs and requirements of the countries/region. The workshops will cover the main areas of the Guide, namely:

• Trade Facilitation Theory and Practice
• Trade Facilitation Domains
• Trade Facilitation Itineraries
• Trade Facilitation Instruments and Organisations

At the same time, since the workshops will be “Train the Trainers” workshops, participants will also be trained on methodologies and techniques to prepare, facilitate and conduct training sessions within their own countries. This will produce a multiplier effect and will help ensuring dissemination and use of the Guide among a wider audience and in the longer term.

The workshops will use the TFIG “Train the Trainers” package developed under the Phase 1 of the project, which will be customised according to specific regional/national contexts, and based on the specific learning needs of participants.

Details of the proposed structure and content of the Workshops are provided in Annex B.

3.Target Audience

The Training Workshops will focus specifically on the needs and priorities of developing and transition economies and will demonstrate how available trade facilitation approaches, instruments and paths can be identified and selected, according to the specific needs, policy objectives, resources and institutional settings of a particular country or region. It will be directed particularly towards policy makers and implementing managers in both the public and private sector from areas such as national Trade and Transport Facilitation Bodies, Government Trade and Transport Departments, Customs, Freight forwarders, Logistics operators, etc.

To the extent possible, in order to ensure a wider and deeper project impact, participants will be selected from countries that have already started to plan/implement trade facilitation programs, including capacity building activities. Furthermore, since the workshops will be designed as “Train the Trainers” workshops, participants will be selected among those national experts with experience in training that can be later involved in training and dissemination activities within their countries.

4.Project Management and Guidance

UNECE will continue to be implementing agency for phase 2 of the TFIG project and will be responsible for overall project management and control. This responsibility will be exercised under United Nations rules, regulations and protocol. Specifically, the UNECE secretariat will be responsible of selecting workshops participants, hiring of consultants, organisation of the workshops, purchase of required support services (Website maintenance, printing, etc) and management of the project Trust Fund. Project management and implementation will be driven by the approved project document.

UNECE will ensure that all activities under Phase 2 will be completed by 31 December 2013 and all reporting formalities completed by 31 May 2014.

5. Preparation and conducting of Workshops

The UNECE Secretariat will utilise trainers such as staff members of UN organizations, UN/CEFACT experts and international/regional consultants, with extensive expertise in trade facilitation implementation in developing countries and transition economies. The trainers will be requested to have wide knowledge of trade facilitation instruments and approaches, as well experience in preparing and running training programs.

The UNECE secretariat will:

• identify the group of target countries
• select the group of workshop participants
• conduct the learning needs assessment
• design the workshop and tailor the training materials as necessary
• run the workshop
• prepare the workshop report, including the evaluation of the workshop outcome.

5.1Project Reference Groups

In order to ensure that the Workshops meet the needs and demands of developing and transition economies, the UNECE secretariat will consult widely with the target countries (developing and transition economies) and other International Organisations working in the trade facilitation area. In particular, the other UN Regional Commissions and the members of the Global Partnership for Trade Facilitation (GFP)[1], namely, the World Bank, World Customs Organisation (WCO), UNCTAD, UNIDO and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), will be consulted for the identification of project target countries as well as comments and suggestions regarding the design, development and implementation of the workshops.

Project information, particularly regarding the workshops, will be posted on the UNECE website and on the GFP website.

6.Selection of trainers

The UNECE Secretariat will select a group of trainers for preparing and conducting the workshops. The trainers should have:

• extensive expertise in trade facilitation implementation, international trade transactions, customs, transport, transit issues, trade documents, and particularly a good knowledge of existing UNECE, UN/CEFACT, UNCTAD, World Bank, WCO and other trade facilitation tools.
• extensive experience in working in developing countries and developing and running training programmes.

The group of trainers will include a combination of UN staff members, UN/CEFACT experts and external consultants with language proficiency at least in English and/or French. It will also include experts in training methodologies.

7.Project Deliverables

At the completion of the project, the following deliverables will have been achieved:

Training Workshops: A series of six regional workshops to disseminate the Guide and train a group of approximately 100 policy makers and implementing managers in its use for trade facilitation implementation in project target countries in the five regions of the world.

8.Time Frame for Completion

The selection and appointment of the group of trainers would take approximately 2 months. The selection of the project target countries, the choice of the regional workshops venues and of the selection of the workshops participants would commence during this first phase of the project and would take approximately 2 months. At the same time, the group of trainers should commence conducting the learning needs assessment, design the workshops and customise the training materials accordingly. This phase of the project will last approximately 3 months. Thereafter the 6 regional workshops will be conducted in the 5 regions during a period of 9 months. The last month will be dedicated to compilation of the workshops’ assessment and the preparation of the project final report.

As indicated in Section 4 above, all activities under Phase 2 will be completed by 31 December 2013 and all reporting formalities completed by 31 May 2014.

Total time for the project would be up to 15 months. See table “Project Time Frame” below.

PROJECT TIME FRAME

(in months)

Project Document – v1.3

Trade Facilitation Implementation Guide Phase 2 – Training Workshops Ver1.3

9. Project Log Frame

Note: Items added for Phase 2 are in bold italic

9.1 Risks

The main risks to the project are as follows:

10.Estimated Cost