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Russia’s war against Ukraine is causing a humanitarian, social and economic crisis for the Ukrainian people. The consequences of this full-scale military invasion are disrupting the global supply of commodities, sharply increasing food and energy prices, and threating the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries with established commercial and financial ties with the economies of Russia and Ukraine appear to be particularly vulnerable.

Assessing the Impact of Russia’s War against Ukraine on Eastern Partner Countries investigates the exposure of Eastern Partner countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine) to the economic shocks caused by the war, and in particular through the impact that the conflict is having on inflation, migration, remittances, investment and trade.

This report is published as part of the multi-country project “EU4Business: From Policies to Action – phase 2”, implemented in the Eastern Partnership with the financial support of the European Union within the EU4Business initiative.

Africa’s Development Dynamics uses lessons from Central, East, North, Southern and West Africa to develop policy recommendations and share good practices. Drawing on the most recent statistics, the analysis of development dynamics aims to assist African leaders in reaching the targets of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 at all levels: continental, regional, national and local.

The 2022 edition explores how developing regional value chains can help African countries rebound from the socio-economic shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerate productive transformation. It targets policy areas where private and public actors can support regional value chains when operationalising the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). African firms can harness digital innovations to reduce production costs, and governments can design policies for skills development, public procurement and foreign investment to strengthen industrial linkages. Two continental chapters examine related African initiatives and global trends. Five chapters tailor policy recommendations to specific value chains in each region.

Africa’s Development Dynamics feeds into a policy debate between governments, citizens, entrepreneurs and researchers. It proposes a new collaboration between countries and regions, focusing on mutual learning and the preservation of common goods. This report results from a partnership between the African Union Commission and the OECD Development Centre.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in Georgia’s economy. SMEs provide more than 67% of employment and about 62% of gross value added. Although the environmental footprint of individual SMEs may be low, their aggregate impact in many respects exceeds that of large businesses.

Commercial banks have an important role to play in providing access to green finance, particularly for SMEs. This report reviews the experience with green lending in the SME sector in Georgia. The analysis identifies the main challenges with lending to SMEs for green projects and discusses possible solutions. The report, in particular, looks at the role of the government and the policy instruments it can use to stimulate higher demand for green lending in the SME sector.

Africa’s Development DynamicsWhat are the major economic and social trends in Africa? What is Africa’s role in globalisation? This annual report presents an Africa open to the world and towards the future. uses the lessons learned in the five African regions – Central, East, North, Southern and West Africa – to develop recommendations and share good practices. The report identifies innovative policies and offers practical policy recommendations, adapted to the specificities of African economies. Drawing on the most recent available statistics, this analysis of development dynamics aims to help African leaders reach the targets of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 at all levels: continental, regional, national, and local. Every year this report will focus on one strategic theme.

This 2019 edition explores policies for productive transformation. It proposes three main policy focus for transforming firms: providing business services to clusters of firms; developing regional production networks; and improving exporting firms’ ability to thrive in fast-changing markets.

This volume feeds into a policy debate between African Union’s nations, citizens, entrepreneurs and researchers. It aims to be part of a new co-operation between countries and regions focused on mutual learning and the preservation of common goods. This report is the result of a partnership between the African Union Commission and the OECD Development Centre.

This edition analyses how trade can contribute to economic diversification and empowerment, with a focus on eliminating extreme poverty, particularly through the effective participation of women and youth. It shows how aid for trade can contribute to that objective by addressing supply-side capacity and trade-related infrastructure constraints, including for micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises notably in rural areas.

The analysis is based on the views of 133 respondents – 88 developing countries, 35 donors, 5 providers of South-South trade-related support and 5 regional organisations – who participated in the 2019 aid-for-trade monitoring and evaluation exercise. They share the view that economic diversification is a gateway for economic empowerment, but also that empowerment is essential for economic diversification particularly when it enables youth, women and micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises to engage in international trade.

This report assesses the performance of agricultural and food policy in India and calculates a set of policy indicators providing a comprehensive picture of agricultural support. These indicators, developed by the OECD, are already used regularly in the analysis of the agriculture and food sector in 51 OECD countries and emerging economies and are now available for India for the first time.

Government intervention in India is found to provide both negative and positive support to agriculture, with market and trade interventions often depressing prices, while subsidies to fertilisers, water, power and other inputs incentivise their use. This reveals the inherent difficulty in attempting to secure remunerative prices and higher incomes for farmers, while at the same time keeping food prices low for consumers. The report also points to policy-induced pressures on natural resources such as water and soil. Detailed recommendations are offered which, if implemented, have the potential to improve farmers' welfare, reduce environmental damage, alleviate some of the pressure on scarce resources, better prepare the sector for climate change, improve food and nutrition security for the poor, improve domestic market functioning and position India to participate more fully in agro-food global value chains.

This edition of Aid for Trade at a Glance focuses on trade connectivity, which is critical for economic growth, inclusiveness and sustainable development. Physical connectivity enables the movement of goods and services to local, regional and global markets. It is closely intertwined with digital connectivity which is vital in today’s trade environment. Yet, the Internet remains inaccessible for 3.9 billion people globally, many of whom live in the least developed countries.

This report builds on the analysis of trade costs and extends it into the digital domain, reflecting the changing nature of trade. It seeks to identify ways to support developing countries – and notably the least developed – in realising the gains from trade. It reviews action being taken by a broad range of stakeholders to promote connectivity for sustainable development, including by governments, their development partners and by the private sector. One message that emerges strongly is that participation in e-commerce requires much more than a simple internet connection.

Chapters were prepared by the World Bank, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the International Trade Centre (ITC), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and Business for eTrade Development.

This report produced in co-operation with the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Transport Forum (ITF) and the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) identifies the misalignments between climate change objectives and policy and regulatory frameworks across a range of policy domains (investment, taxation, innovation and skills, trade, and adaptation) and activities at the heart of climate policy (electricity, urban mobility and rural land use).

Outside of countries’ core climate policies, many of the regulatory features of today’s economies have been built around the availability of fossil fuels and without any regard for the greenhouse gas emissions stemming from human activities. This report makes a diagnosis of these contradictions and points to means of solving them to support a more effective transition of all countries to a low-carbon economy.

This joint OECD-WTO publication puts a spotlight on aid for trade to assess what is happening, what is not, and where improvements are needed. The analysis is focused on trends in aid-for-trade policies, programmes and practices. It shows that the Aid-for-Trade Initiative is delivering tangible results in improving trade performance and bettering people’s lives, notably those of women, in developing countries.

The report highlights that aid for trade plays an important role in enabling firms in developing countries to connect with or move up value chains. In fact, the emergence of value chains strengthens the rationale for aid for trade.

Stakeholders remain actively engaged in the Aid-for-Trade Initiative. The 2013 monitoring exercise was based on selfassessments from 80 developing countries, 28 bilateral donors, 15 multilateral donors, and 9 providers of South-South co-operation. Views were also received from 524 supplier firms in developing countries and 173 lead firms, mostly in OECD countries.

This joint OECD-WTO publication provides a comprehensive analysis of trends and developments in aid that aims to help developing countries integrate into the global economy and benefit from trade opportunities. Over 260 case stories and 140 self-assessments by partner countries, bilateral and multilateral donor agencies, providers of South-South co-operation, and regional economic communities provide the basis for this analysis, coupled with OECD aid data and findings from evaluations and econometric studies.

The picture is positive: aid for trade is bettering the lives of many men and women in developing countries. The case stories paint an encouraging picture of the wide variety of trade-related activities in a large number of developing countries that are being supported by a range of donors. Increasingly, aid for trade is being integrated in broader development strategies, with objectives focusing on competitiveness, economic growth and poverty reduction. Donors are harmonising their procedures and aligning their support around these strategies. Aid-for-trade flows continue to grow and reached USD 40 billion in 2009 – an increase of 60% since 2005.
 
Developing countries and donors must continue their efforts to improve the effectiveness and the results of aid for trade. Although progress has been made in joint monitoring and evaluation, strengthening mutual accountability and managing aid to achieve trade results remain challenging. A joint, streamlined approach to measuring progress towards developing countries’ trade related targets will reinforce country ownership – a critical factor in ensuring that aid for trade enhances trade capacity and promotes economic growth and development.

Numerous barriers prevent developing countries - in particular the least developed - from taking advantage of trade opportunities that could help them reduce poverty. The Aid-for-Trade Initiative has successfully built awareness of the support these countries need to surmount these barriers. As a result, more and more developing countries are raising the profile of trade issues in their development strategies and donors are responding by increasing the resources they provide to build trade capacity in areas such as policy, institutions and infrastructure.

This aid-for-trade monitoring report - the second of its kind - documents the success of the initiative to date. It examines trends and developments and presents a comprehensive analysis of donor and partner country engagement. In addition, it addresses the regional dimension of aid for trade and showcases three cross-border infrastructure projects. Finally, the report provides fact sheets that help in assessing the outcomes and impacts of aid for trade.

The main conclusions are positive. Nonetheless, the outlook is affected by the current global economic crisis. Aid for trade is now, and more than ever, essential to help suppliers from developing countries build capacity and penetrate global markets. The key message of the report is clear: aid for trade must remain an essential component of development assistance. It offers a number of steps, in this respect, that can advance the aid-for-trade dialogue.

The governments of most developed, and many developing, countries impose border measures—tariffs, tariff rate quotas and export subsidies—to boost the domestic market prices of agricultural commodities. In some OECD countries, governments also provide financial support to their agricultural sector through other means, such as direct budgetary payments, production quotas and marketing-loan programs. These interventions typically distort the allocation of resources, leading to sub-optimal production and consumption decisions.

Widespread agricultural policy reform would undoubtedly improve the global allocation of resources. But, due to differential protection levels and policy instruments across commodities and among countries, reform can also produce a complex pattern of adjustments, some of which may appear to be counter-intuitive. Using a partial-equilibrium agricultural commodity model with rich policy detail, this study examines the market impacts of agricultural policy reform annually over a 10-year horizon. The study finds that the biggest impacts of agricultural policy reform would be on world dairy markets. Including the effect of  non-agricultural liberalisation from a general-equilibrium model does not meaningfully alter results, suggesting that sectoral analysis in many cases is sufficient.

Also in this series:

Agricultural Policy and Trade Reform: Potential Effects at Global, National and Household Levels