Dr Hakim Ben Hammouda

The interview with Dr Hakim Ben Hammouda, Director of ITTC since February 2008, addressed a number of issues such as the role of the Institute, its activities, its mode of operation and its prospects in the context of the Doha Round.

Dr Hakim Ben Hammouda is the author of some twenty economic titles and has contributed to several international publications and technical reports.   In addition, he has represented the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa ( ECA) at many international conferences and organised a large number of international meetings, especially in Africa.

In June 2007, Dr Hammouda became the first recipient of the Alan Powell Award, in recognition of the major role he has played in the development and dissemination of research on trade policy in Africa.  

ITTC

Dr Ben Hakim Hammouda recalled that ITTC had been created in answer to the development challenges brought to light by the Doha Round.   Indeed, it was recognised that the strengthening of capacities through training and technical cooperation is one way of reducing the marginalisation of developing countries in the multilateral trading system.   Technical assistance and training therefore have a prominent place alongside the main functions of the WTO, which are multilateral trade negotiations, the management of Agreements, Trade Policy Reviews, and dispute settlement.   It is worth noting that ITTC also runs the secretariat of the Technical Assistance Management Committee which is the mechanism for coordinating and monitoring all trade-related technical assistance provided by the WTO.

Activities and Mode of Operation

ITTC’s activities are organised around two pillars which are cooperation and training, based on a Technical Assistance Plan.   According to Dr Hammouda, the challenge is how to achieve maximum synergy between these two components, in order to improve quality and respond to needs in the most efficient way. With regard to training, ITTC’s five main categories of “products” are the general or more specialised WTO-related sessions, support at university level in the area of training and capacity building, internship programmes and online learning.   Some activities are organised at national and regional levels but also in Geneva.   On this point, Dr Hamouda expressed his desire to confer a more specific and practical slant to the activities which take place in Geneva.

Although ITTC is aimed at all developing WTO members, more specific attention is given to the least-developed countries (LDCs) and to the non-resident members and observers of the WTO. This enables LDCs, for example, to benefit from three capacity-building activities per year at a national level, against two for developing countries.   In a different way, besides the Geneva Weeks held for non-resident members and observers, ITTC is able to offer selective support to members establishing a Permanent Mission in Geneva.   This support consists in providing the services of an expert to assist the often limited staff in the new Permanent Missions.   This was the case for Niger, which established a permanent representation in March of this year.

The current Technical Assistance Plan is biannual and covers the period 2008-2009 [note 2]. Its frequency was modified to render its implementation more flexible and take account of any changes in the needs of beneficiaries over the course of negotiations.   Nevertheless, Dr Ben Hammouda recognised that the aim was also to enable the pace of activities to coincide with that of payments.   It should be recalled that the ITTC budget is mostly funded through voluntary contributions of an extra-budgetary nature.  Dr Ben Hammouda insisted that the difficulty did not so much lie in the level of financing, which remains constant, but in delays in the availability of funds allocated by countries contributing to the WTO Doha Development Agenda Global Trust Fund (DDAGTF).   This is why, whilst welcoming the ongoing commitment of donor countries, Dr Ben Hammouda feels that future contributions could be made on a biannual basis rather than an annual one as is currently the case.

Outlook

According to Dr Ben Hammouda, ITTC’s priorities for 2008-2009 will, on the one hand, be to work towards enhancing the quality and the impact of its activities.   On the other hand he also wishes to increase the visibility of the technical assistance activities, whilst at the same time keeping a close eye on improving coordination with the various trade-related technical assistance providers – including AITIC – thus following the principles of the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, but also the conclusions of the Technical Cooperation Audit and the Strategic Review initiated by the WTO.   ITTC organises over 500 activities a year for beneficiary countries.   Over and above quantity, it is essential to focus every attention on quality.    On this aspect, Dr. Hammouda indicated that all ITTC activities and teaching tools will be subject to systematic evaluation in advance of and subsequent to their implementation.   Realistic and measurable objectives, together with appropriate performance indicators are applied to every action undertaken.   In the same way, ITTC will continue to support the efforts of beneficiary countries in defining their needs in order, for example, to avoid duplicating activities.   The better defined the requests for assistance, the better ITTC will be able to respond with the required specificity.

Whilst recalling the major importance of Aid for Trade, Dr Ben Hammouda also underlined how involved the WTO was in its evaluation and monitoring.   According to him, the activities of ITTC in certain respects reflect the WTO’s contribution to this initiative.   The exemplary participation of the WTO’s African Group in work on the Doha Round is a good illustration of this.   In his opinion, this is a consequence not only of the resolute commitment shown by these countries within the multilateral trading system, but also, to some degree, of the technical assistance provided to them collectively here in Geneva, or individually in their respective capitals.

Conclusion

On a more personal note, Dr Ben Hammouda stated how impressed he has been since his arrival at the head of ITTC by the devotion of his co-workers as well as by their constant commitment to the accomplishment of the Institute’s mandate.   He took this opportunity to thank them and congratulate them on behalf of all the beneficiaries of ITTC’s activities.