Partnerships

• Trade Liberalization, Rural Poverty, and the Environment: Project Summary, 2004
  
  The overarching objective of this project is to identify policy and institutional measures for national governments and international trade bodies that will ensure the contribution of trade liberalization to alleviating poverty and promoting environmental sustainability in rural areas.
  
  
• Agriculture and the New Trade Agenda in the WTO Negotiations
  
  This partnership was launched in October 1999 and was completed in June 2003. An integrated program of research, policy analyses and capacity building to enhance the participation of developing countries in the WTO agriculture negotiations was conducted under this project. Activities included preparatory research and analyses, post-ministerial analyses, global conferences, regional workshops, and country-specific support during the WTO negotiations.
  
  
• Integrated Framework for Trade Related Technical Assistance
  
  The Integrated Framework was initiated by the WTO Ministerial meeting in December 1996 and represents one of the Bank's more important partnerships with other multilateral agencies -- WTO, IMF, UNDP, UNCTAD and the ITC (International Trade Centre). The Integrated Framework aims to integrate Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in the world trade system as well as the WTO, which is a rule-based organization.
  
  
• Standards and Trade Development Facility
  
  In order to make more and better coordinated technical assistance and capacity building available, the Bank took the initiative to create, together with the World Trade Organization, the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF). Since the Bank's announcement of the Facility, the Food and Agricultural Organization, World Health Organization, Office International des Epizooties (OIE), Codex Alimentarius, and the Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) have joined the Partnership.