Informal Meetings of Key Stakeholders under the FEATS Project

CUTS Geneva Resource Centre is organizing informal meetings with key stakeholders in the FEATS project countries in collaboration with its local partners in these countries. The meetings in Eastern African countries – Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda - will be held in the first half of March 2010, and in the Southern African countries – Malawi and Zambia, in the last week of March 2010.

FEATS project has successfully completed the first phase of implementation. The focus of research during this phase was on inclusiveness of trade policy making process and role of stakeholders. This research also developed a new tool to measure the inclusiveness of trade policy making titled “Inclusive Trade Policy Making (ITPM) Index” which was then used to assess the situation in the project countries. The ITPM Index scores by various groups of stakeholders in the project countries can provide helpful insights to the relevant policy makers for improving the inclusiveness of trade policy making.

Second phase research under the project is on-going. The focus of this research is on agriculture-related issues. While this research is to be finalized later in the year, the emerging findings of the research need to be shared with key stakeholders in the project countries to solicit their comments and feedback.

This is the context for the informal meetings with key stakeholders. Accordingly, main objectives of the meetings include:

• Strengthening interaction with and among key stakeholders (i.e. relevant government ministries, key CSOs, select private sector umbrella organizations)

• Dissemination of the main findings of FEATS first phase research, particularly the Inclusive Trade Policy Making (ITPM) index score and recommendations, and

• Discussion and feedback on the emerging findings of FEATS second phase research on agriculture-related issues so that the final research outputs are relevant, particularly for policy makers.

Following is the schedule of the meetings:

• Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania, 3 March 2010, See agenda

• Nairobi, Kenya, 8 March 2010, See agenda

• Kampala, Uganda, 9 March 2010, See agenda

• Lusaka, Zambia, 29 March 2010, See agenda

• Lilongwe, Malawi, 31 March 2010, See agenda

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