Addressing the Global Value Chain

The International Centre for Trade (ITC) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) recently hosted an annual meeting of the United Nations Value Chain Development expert group, in Geneva.  Consistent with the theme of “Partnership for Value Chain Development”, several related organizations were invited to participate, among which was the IICA Delegation in Canada.  Other non-UN delegates were drawn from the private sector, academia and Non-Governmental Organizations.

The workshop was designed to explore best practices in Value Chain Development implementation as well as possible collaboration opportunities amongst UN agencies and development practitioners. The Plenary and Open Space discussions provided information on current programmes and projects, tools and innovations relating to market systems for SME to assure value chain competitiveness.  Of specific interest was the successful case study of the Leather value chain of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), which shared lessons from which other regions, including the Americas could benefit.   New insights were also gained on the Block Chain Technology and the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development Standard and Results Measurement  (www.enterprise-development.org).

The Representative of the IICA Delegation in Canada provided Closing Remarks for the 1-day meeting which afforded important and strategic networking opportunities.

Recognizing that the Sustainable Development Goals present a unique opportunity to put in evidence how trade and SME development are linked to the achievement of all 17 goals, the UNVCD expert group was established some 5 years ago.   The group is a UN inter-agency effort to support value chain development (VCD) that aims to develop a common understanding of what constitutes a value chain, how to design value chain development projects and to elucidate the benefits of VCD.

For more information:

Dr. Audia Barnett

Audia.barnett@iica.int