Enhanced Integrated Framework and Diagnostic Trade Integration Studies

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Housed in the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) is a multi-donor programme dedicated exclusively to assisting the least developed countries (LDCs), mostly of which are in Africa, in leveraging trade as an engine for growth, sustainable development, and poverty reduction. EIF is therefore a global Aid for Trade (AfT) partnership in action for the LDCs aimed to help such countries to build trade capacity and reinforce their productive capacities, so that they can play a more active role in the global trading system.

The EIF programme is currently supported by 24 country donors (a list of donors is here) through contributions converging into a multi-donor Trust Fund (EIF Trust Fund) managed by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).

The EIF Executive Secretariat, in order to better align the EIF programme with the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted a Strategic Plan, whose last edition covers the period 2019-2022, that describes precisely the objectives and mechanisms through which the EIF works.

Trade-related technical assistance through the EIF mainly takes the form of the elaboration of Diagnostic Trade Integration Studies (DTIS), and of their periodic update. Other trade-related technical assistance covered by the EIF include the support to national governments in drafting of trade policies for mainstreaming trade into national developments plans and the preparation of other medium-term plans such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Plans, for instance.

DTIS, in particular, are a country-specific trade analysis tool prepared according a standardised methodology. Their aim is to evaluate in each LCD the public policies and private sector efforts abilities to advance the country’s integration into international trade, identifying priority actions to be undertaken in order to increase trade and further diversify their economy. To this end, they include an Action Matrix with a description of the objectives and the concrete actions to be undertaken at national level, with the bodies responsible for their implementation. Such priorities will subsequently inform LCD’s trade agendas and their long-term national development plans.

DTIS are a largely unknown tool, but is also an extremely useful source for understanding constraints to trade in the concerned country and the strategic sectors that can better sustain the economic growth. In addition, they offer a snapshot of the macroeconomic environment and the challenges to the country’s integration in the international economy, analysing the performance of trade and of the trade facilitation initiatives and reforms introduced by the country, the investment climate, and opportunities for trade in key sectors with export potentials.

DTIS conducted so far are available on the EIF website in the “Where we work” menu.