TERI-ITEC Courses 2014-15 Course III - Trade and Sustainable Development: Issues for Developing countries
TERI was empanelled by the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC)/ Special Commonwealth African Assistance Programme (SCAAP), government of India, for the training programme on 'Trade and Sustainable Development: Issues for Developing countries' held from 17 November - 5 December 2014 at RETREAT, Gual Pahari, Gurgaon.
"Very useful course…explained about trade and the existence of environmental aspects in depth…provided great great knowledge on WTO…a great platform for exchange of experiences…also helped think about sustainably." - This is how an enthusiastic participant summarized her experience with the course on "Trade and Sustainable Development: Issues for Developing Countries", conducted by TERI. In its seventh year, the course was attended by participants from different parts of the world, from Lithuania to Ethiopia, and from Mongolia to St. Lucia. Apart from the classroom training, the participants were taken to Mukteswar in Uttarakhand, where they learnt about TERI's activities on organic farming and empowerment of the local farmers. They also visited a few export-oriented agro-processing units in the nearby town Rudrapur. In addition, they also paid a visit to the famous Taj Mahal and a couple of export-oriented leather goods manufacturing units in Agra. The participants were quite impressed with these activities and felt that there was enough scope for promoting similar activities in their countries.
Towards the end, the participants made impressive presentations based on challenges associated with sustainable development in the context of trade policy making. One of the participants, working with the Ministry of Trade in her country, quipped, "...earlier I used to depend on the media and other experts on issues I have to deal with in my job, now I can analyse them on my own, and can take better decisions." This gives us a great sense of achievement and we take immense pride in the fact that these courses have been successful.