On 29 October 2019, UNCTAD held its annual Centers of Excellence strategic meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. CSEA has been selected as a UNCTAD Regional Center of Excellence (CoE). The CoE’s with different strengths and expertise in various sectors including sustainable development, poverty alleviation and policy cooperation across developing countries. The CoE would leverage South-South cooperation as a means of providing technical assistance, and more importantly share successful experiences and best practices in trade and development policies.

The Annual Strategic meeting brought together all Coordinators of the Centers of Excellence

to engage formally with UNCTAD staff, brief member States directly on the activities undertaken at the respective Centers, and further enhance synergies among themselves to ensure coherence and continuity in the work planning.

The primary objectives of the meeting Include:

·         To exchange views on how to best manage, coordinate and run Centers of Excellence on a sustainable basis as possible, including through financial resources mobilization;

·         To sensitize member States to the work carried out in the CoE and enable the cross-fertilization and sharing of good practices among key national institutions and stakeholders from other countries, and international experts;

·         To provide a unique venue and convening mechanism for information sharing and engagement, including through the scheduled training courses for the dissemination of innovative policies and initiatives; and

·         To present opportunities for the development of partnerships and joint activities with stakeholders in other value-added activities engaged with strategic, export-oriented sectors, including fisheries and aquaculture, as well as the pharmaceutical and other healthcare industries.