Launch of Trade, Environment and Development Training Workshops with Local Partners

Hanoi, Viet Nam & Havana, Cuba, 17 December 2001

UNCTAD and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are responding to the key role played by environmental issues at the recent WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha by launching a series of trade, environment and development workshops in December 2001 in Havana and Hanoi. They are the first training workshops to be delivered in the framework of the UNCTAD-UNEP Capacity-building Task Force for Trade, Environment and Development (CBTF). The Doha Ministerial Declaration calls for negotiations and capacity-building on specific trade and environment issues. The workshops aim to:

• identify trade and environment issues of particular national or regional concern;
• encourage national policy dialogue, increased coordination and other action to address these issues; and
• enhance the effective participation of developing countries in relevant international negotiations.

The Havana workshop (10-14 December) was hosted jointly by the Ministries of Environment and Trade of Cuba. The 40 participants represented different sectors of the government, the private sector, NGOs and academic institutions. Resource persons included trade and environment experts from the UNCTAD, WTO and OECD secretariats as well as from the Cuban government. The workshop launched the Spanish-language version of the training package.

The Hanoi workshop (17-19 December) was hosted by VIETRADE, the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency of the Ministry of Trade of Viet Nam. There were around 40 participants consisting of representatives of VIETRADE, the Directorate for Standards and Quality (STAMEQ), the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment (MOSTE) and the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development (MARD), embassies of donor countries, the private sector and civil society. Resource persons include experts from UNCTAD and the Government of Viet Nam. Representatives of Cambodia's Environment Ministry and Laos' Commerce and Environment Ministries also participate. The course was delivered in English and Vietnamese.

Each workshop covered six of the eight training modules developed to date by UNCTAD in the context of its TRAINFORTRADE programme:

• Trade, environment and sustainable development - the international context
• Trade and environment in the multilateral trading system
• Environmental requirements and market access
• Environmentally friendly products
• Multilateral environmental agreements
• International standards for environmental management systems, including ISO 14001
• Harnessing traditional knowledge for trade and development
• Building on developing countries' experiences with integrated assessments of environmental and developmental effects of international trade

Training is a key element of the CBTF, which was established by UNEP and UNCTAD in 2000 to respond to the trade and environment capacity-building needs of developing countries. The CBTF aims to assist developing countries to enhance their understanding of trade and environment linkages, address trade-related environmental problems and participate effectively in international negotiations. Other elements include policy dialogues, thematic research, country projects and networking.

The CBTF is currently funded by the governments of Germany, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as by the European Commission. A special CBTF programme for the least developed countries (LDCs) was developed to help implement the Programme of Action adopted at the Third UN Conference on the LDCs last May.

	Title	Author	File
	Agenda	Secretariat
	Background Note	Secretariat
	Evaluation participants	Secretariat
	List of participants	Secretariat
	Overall evaluation	Secretariat

Coordinators