A results-based aid-for-trade management framework

This chapter starts with a simple question: What are donors and recipient countries trying to achieve? Then it distinguishes three different levels of possible objectives, which are qualified as direct, intermediate and final. Trade is treated as an intermediate objective, serving as a transmission mechanism, with an increase in the value for trade (measured in terms of jobs, income, socio-economic upgrading, etc.) as the final objective of aid projects. Performance indicators are then listed to help the evaluation of the objectives’ achievements. The suggested framework should be seen as an evolving tool: practitioners could add new activities, targets and performance indicators to the existing menu. The framework is flexible enough to allow prioritisation of projects and objectives according to the aid and development strategies of each donor or recipient country. It is also meant to be an interactive tool and could easily be transformed into a user-friendly online database. The task of identifying a menu of aid for trade targets and indicators has become even more complex in recent years. The desired outcomes for aid for trade have changed since the launch of the Initiative in 2005 and the creation of the Task Force in 2006 however, these changes do not yet seem to have been fully reflected in aid for trade monitoring and evaluation practice, and objectives assigned to aid for trade should be reviewed accordingly. In particular the growth of global value chains has increased the interconnectedness of economies and led to a growing specialisation in specific activities and stages in value chains rather than in entire industries.