I-BEAM Quarterly Report 12, FY2016, Q2

This extension allows the project to continue its activities and achieve its objectives. In February, Sherry Stephenson attended the book launch for the finalized services volume on Services Exports for Growth and Development: Case Studies in Africa at the African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis. The book launch coincided with the first meeting of the CFTA Technical Negotiating Committee, but the committee meeting became deadlocked, preventing the official launch of the services volume. However, the AU issued a press release regarding the volume, and a link to the completed volume is available on USAID's ProjectStarter website. The AU has put on hold plans to translate the case studies into French, and the contract of the consultant/translator who had previously translated one chapter of the publication has been closed. During her visit to Addis, Dr. Stephenson also conducted discussions with officials in the AU Department of Trade and Industry on the content to be included in the Services Development Programme. The programme will constitute a five-year Work Plan for the AU around its work on services, encompassing a wide-ranging framework of suggested activities based around six priority areas. The six priority areas include focusing work on priority service sectors, elaborating national policy and regulatory frameworks, addressing capacity-building needs for the CFTA, enhancing private sector involvement, developing a communication strategy for services, and fostering coordination between the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the AU Department of Trade and Industry. Once in draft form, the Services Development Programme will be discussed with officials at the AU Department of Trade and Industry before finalization. In other activities, iBEAM has prepared an overview and best practices analysis of regional trade support programs USAID and other donors have designed and implemented to foster regional trade and/or investment integration. The paper will be submitted for pre-publication review early in the next quarter. iBEAM has also assisted the TRR office in developing an office strategy for 2016-2020, and has provided input to the Standards Alliance on the development of a public-private sector workshop. Ms. Thompson traveled to Kenya and Malawi to implement the action plans developed under the project to improve the effectiveness of the Enquiry Points and Notification Authorities required under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement). In Nairobi, Ms. Thompson met with staff of the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) to discuss the three tasks of the action plan, including improving the WTO TBT Enquiry Point and Notification Authority, communication with stakeholders, and promotion. On-site training was conducted during the visit, focusing on implementation of the TBT Agreement, resources, TBT notifications, enquiries, electronic notification systems, capacity building, responsibilities of the Enquiry Point, record-keeping, reporting, and management awareness. In Lilongwe, Ms. Thompson met with staff of the Malawi Bureau of Standards and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to discuss the action plan for Malawi. Participants discussed items related to transparency requirements of the TBT Agreement, Enquiry Point Responsibilities, operating procedures, the status of the National TBT Committee for Malawi, and promotion. On-site training was conducted during this visit, focusing on TBT notifications, online resources, database of enquiries, inventory, procedures, internal awareness, electronic notification systems, capacity building, and the WTO TBT Committee. The USAID ProjectStarter update includes the collection and tagging of new resources developed since the last update, including the Africa Union case studies, which can be accessed through the ProjectStarter resources tab. The team is currently working to integrate the newly released USAID PPL/LER Evaluation Toolkit and revisions to the PMP toolkit. TRR requested iBEAM's assistance in updating USAID's 2003 Trade Capacity Building (TCB) Strategy in July 2015. The drafters submitted numerous interim deliverables to TRR and other USAID reviewers and received written comments from two dozen colleagues. The document was returned to iBEAM for formatting, editing, and data updates, and is expected to be finalized in the coming quarter, with a series of roll-out meetings and events to be planned to coincide with its release. Upcoming activities include a trade facilitation training course to be held in Pretoria, South Africa, focusing on issues in Trade Facilitation similar to the July 2015 course held in Washington, DC, with an emphasis on Trade Africa and regional integration issues. Specific topics to be covered could include bilateral/regional approaches to Trade Facilitation implementation, the role of regional economic communities, and other topics in trade facilitation related to implementation of the new WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation.