Aid for Trade and Human Development: A Guide to Conducting Aid for Trade Needs Assessment Excercises

While the development debate on how to best solve the world’s poverty challenges usually fluctuates between calls for more aid or more trade, a new guide released today from the United Nations promotes both aid and trade, with a better and more efficient use of assistance provided. The guide is designed to help policy makers, trade officials and researchers conduct needs assessments for developing trade capacity, especially that which promotes inclusive economic growth with the ultimate goal of reducing poverty and achieving higher levels of human development. The guide was developed under the Aid for Trade (AfT) initiative conceived at the 2005 World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong.