Nathan is pleased to announce they have been awarded a contract to conduct an external evaluation of the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF), which assists developing countries in implementing international sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards, guidelines and recommendations to gain and maintain market access.

STDF is a global partnership and trust fund, established by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the World Bank, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2004.

The STDF Secretariat is housed and administered by the WTO in Geneva. As a global coordination and knowledge hub, STDF aims to be a catalyst for advancing policy and practice on SPS capacity building globally. The STDF also supports and funds development and implementation of collaborative, cross-cutting, innovative and regional SPS capacity building projects.

The evaluation, which is global in scope, will assess the impact and results achieved by the Facility, with a particular focus on the period 2014-2018, identify lessons learned and provide recommendations for STDF members’ consideration when developing a new strategy for the Facility for 2020 and onwards.

The Nathan evaluation team, led by Nathan’s Head of Trade Eamon Cassidy and Team Leader Mark Hellyer, met in Geneva on Monday 3 September with the STDF Secretariat and senior WTO staff to launch the evaluation, which will conclude in March 2019.

Speaking after the first full day of meetings in Geneva, Cassidy said, “Nathan is delighted to bring to this evaluation its decades of experience across the world of fostering development through increased trade. We are looking forward to working with the STDF Secretariat and stakeholders from across a broad range of organizations and partners over the next 6 months.”

To learn more information about Nathan’s work in Trade & Logistics click here.