Course Summary and Objectives

Agricultural trade is undoubtedly the single most important link between trade and poverty in Sub Saharan Africa, where farming accounts for more than two thirds of total employment and constitutes the main income source for the vast majority of the poor. In that context, the E-Learning Course: Food and Agricultural Trade in Africa fleshes out the key issues that are of special interest to African decision-makers and discusses the strategic agricultural trade issues associated with poverty reduction which are increasingly gaining interest in the region.

The main purpose of this 5-week E-learning Course is to strengthen the capacity of African policy makers, senior officials, advisors, and analysts to:

• understand the implications of recent trends and developments in agricultural trade flows, recent global market developments and how they can contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction;
• understand and effectively participate in international (bilateral, regional, or multilateral) agricultural trade negotiations; and;
• design and formulate efficient unilateral domestic trade policies in the face of the challenges and opportunities presented by the developments in the international food and agricultural markets.

Course Outline

The E-learning Course on Food and Agricultural Trade in Africa will take place over a five-week period (April 30 to June 01, 2007) and include 5 modules covering several important topics.

The modules for this course are:

Course Structure and Organization

Each module consists of one or two mandatory readings, accompanied by a number of PowerPoint presentations and recommended readings that will provide more in-depth treatment of each topic.

The course will take place during 5 weeks. Participants will be expected to read the course materials at the beginning of the week. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of each week there will be an online discussion (not in real time) among participants guided by that week’s resource persons.

To successfully complete the course and receive a certificate of course completion from the WBI, each participant is required to (i) review the mandatory materials, (ii) connect several times each week to participate actively in the online discussion (1-2 messages in "most" weeks/modules).

Optional Project

Participants are also invited to prepare during the course and submit by Week 3 a concise action plan of priority reforms in their country or essay about your changed views and lessons learned from the course. Rather than making such a note a requirement, we offer it to those of you willing to produce such a document the incentive that such notes will be reviewed by both a agricultural trade expert and a Bank country economist and will only be posted with the permission of the note's author.

Target Audience

In order to keep the discussions interactive and manageable, the number of participants in this version of the course will be limited to 50. Target audience includes:

• Government officials (from trade, agriculture, foreign, finance/economics ministries) directly involved in the conduct of agriculture policy and agricultural trade negotiations, whether at the WTO or at the bilateral and regional levels.
• Officials in development or planning ministries, whose tasks increasingly include keeping track of ongoing agricultural trade negotiations and fitting such efforts into the broader and longer-term process of development.
• Researchers in academia, think tanks and regional research networks concerned with food and agricultural trade.
• Representatives from professional associations and from consumer groups typically interested in the impact of agricultural trade policy/negotiations.
• World Bank and other international organization staff involved in analytical, advisory and technical assistance work related to trade in food and agriculture.

Fee

Participants from developing countries will not be assessed a fee. The cost for participants from developed countries will be $500.

Technical Requirements

The course will be conducted in English over the internet, so the ability to participate in the online discussion is a key pre-requisite and mandatory requirement for participants. All participants must have access to the Internet and to a CD-ROM player, and they must provide a reliable postal address where the CD-ROM containing all presentations and materials will be delivered.

Application

Closing date for accepting nominations is March 30th, 2007. Please follow the link below to access the Course Application: http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/trade/food_ag_course.

Instructions

1) Click the Apply button under the proper part/session and activity title
2) Complete the application form
3) Click Submit
4) A confirmation will be sent to those selected.
Admission will be confirmed only to selected candidates by April 9th, 2007.

Contacts

For questions related to applications, please contact Dianne Leslie Billups, fax: 1-202- 676-9810

For questions related to the course content, please contact Gustavo Garcia-Benavides, or Soamiely Andriamananjara, fax: 1-202-676-9810