Development Account Projects
Strengthening national capacities for home-grown economic policies through a network of the UNCTAD Virtual Institute
Background:
The project is aimed at addressing the issue of limited national capacities in developing countries, in particular in least developed countries, to access, understand, analyse and apply information about international economic developments and to formulate, negotiate and implement policies that would maximize the benefits of globalization for economic and social development. Particular attention would be given to enhancing the capacity of participating universities to offer courses on international economic and development issues, especially (a) globalization challenges and development strategies, (b) international trade and trade policies, (c) transfer of technology and related investment and intellectual property issues and (d) trade and transport facilitation and the use of ICT for development.
UNCTAD intends to contribute to the building of such national capacities through a systematic programme of technical cooperation with selected universities. This approach stems from the understanding that universities play two key roles, namely (a) their role in building the necessary economic knowledge and expertise through their graduate and post-graduate courses that prepare future and current decision makers and (b) their advisory role vis-à-vis Governments on national and international economic policies. In support of these objectives, UNCTAD launched, at its eleventh session, in São Paulo, Brazil (June 2004), the UNCTAD Virtual Institute on Trade and Development, one of the major forms of multi-stakeholder partnerships endorsed by the Conference (see TD/400).
The Virtual Institute aims to assist universities in enhancing their teaching and research on international economic and development issues by (a) providing access to UNCTAD analytical work, teaching materials and pedagogical tools so that they can adapt relevant UNCTAD resources to their national contexts and integrate them into their regular, hence durable and self-sustaining, training activities and courses and (b) hosting a network that enables universities to share training resources, curriculum development tools and experience with other universities that are members of the Virtual Institute network and to collaborate with them on the development of courses, drawing on the potential for South-South cooperation. In order to facilitate the management, dissemination and sharing of development knowledge and information and the building of virtual communities of practice with and among the universities, the Virtual Institute will use ICT in the form of a website with interactive tools, such as online forums.
The proposed project will be complementary to and build on prior or ongoing activities of other UNCTAD capacity-building programmes and initiatives.
The direct beneficiaries of the project will be 10 to 15 selected members of the Virtual Institute network. Membership is generally for universities that have expertise in course development based on their own research and are committed to exchanging teaching and research materials and experience with other members of the network. Particular attention in the selection of participating universities will also be given to maintaining regional and linguistic balance so as to facilitate sharing and cooperation and to the inclusion of universities from the least developed countries in Africa.
The project will be implemented by UNCTAD in consultation with WTO (Partnerships for Training and Research), the South-South Centre (South-South Portal for Information, Knowledge and Empowerment) and the DiploFoundation. Other relevant organizations and initiatives will be associated as appropriate.
Objectives:
To strengthen the capacity of developing country universities to improve their courses on trade, investment and development issues through the Virtual Institute network.
Expected accomplishments:
- Improved national capacities (banking and non-banking) and financial intermediation to establish new mechanisms for domestic resource mobilization and investment
- Mechanisms developed for increasing capital flows from traditional and alternative (non-debt-creating) sources to close the domestic financing gap
- A definitive policy and strategy devised to accelerate growth through external and domestic resource mobilization, including the incorporation of resource mobilization initiatives into the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers to support efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals
Implementation status:
The implementation of project activities started in 2006 and is well on track. The 15 Vi members jointly identified 3 topics for generic Vi teaching materials and contributed to the formulation of their outlines - the materials are currently being developed. Three proposals have already been received for the localization of generic Vi materials, including indications of university courses in which they will be used. The current Vi website was used to host two online discussion forums among members and for a peer review of a research paper drafted by one of the members. Members' feedback on the desired features of an online facility for sharing and communication has been collected and is being consolidated into a comprehensive proposal.
A first professional development/networking workshop attended by 13 out of 15 current member universities took place in October 2006. It focused on the presentation and discussion of agreed generic teaching materials, discussion about the ways of adapting them to reflect local contexts, hands-on practice on the current Vi website and brainstorming about possible joint projects. It also resulted in a better understanding of other members' interests and formulation of initial ideas for joint projects. Members' feedback on the activities of this project, as well as other forms of support and cooperation from the Vi, leads us to believe that the objectives of this projects, namely the development of up-to-date specialized generic teaching materials on issues of priority interest to participating universities, an increased capacity of universities to develop their own localized teaching materials and research relevant for their countries, and an increased cooperation and networking among Vi member universities, will be achieved.
