How the Canadian Association of International Development Professionals supports Global Value Chains in the international development services sector.

1. Trading for
Development in the
Age of Global Value
Chains
FINAL PROJECT: WHAT I LEARNED DURING THIS COURSE ABOUT GLOBAL VALUE
CHAINS (GVCS) IN THE CONTEXT OF MY WORK AND COMMUNITY

2. What I learned about GVCs
was almost all about trade
in goods
MY WORK AND COMMUNITY ARE ALMOST ENTIRELY ABOUT TRADE IN
SERVICES
However, the report also covers trade in services

3. Trade in Services is also important
Multiple studies (OECD, WTO, and World Bank Group 2014) have found that the share of
services in value added in trade is both large (significantly larger than the share of services in
gross trade) and increasing. Source: Chapter 6 “Services trade and global value chains” by
Cecilia Heuser and Aaditya Mattoo

4. Differences between trade in goods
and trade in services
 Access to services inputs comes through foreign direct investment and the movement of
people more often than it does for goods –GVCs involving services encompass a broader
range of transactions; not only transactions crossing borders, but also transactions within
countries between national and foreign entities
 The existence of GVCs is due to improvements in services such as transport, communication,
and computing, or information and communication technology (ICT) that have made global
coordination possible
 Evidence shows that when GVCs include high quality, low price and diverse professional and
other business services, firms perform better and these benefits arise not just from foreign
investment but also from cross-border trade in services
 Border measures such as tariffs are much less relevant for services trade than for goods
trade, and behind-the-border regulatory measures are much more relevant
 Source: World Development Report (WDR) 2020: Trading for Development in the Age of
Global Value Chains

5. My community delivers
services in International
Development
My community is an international
community of people working
professionally in the international
development field. It is a community
made up of people from all over the
world, from many professions, from for-
profit, non-profit and academic
organizations.
We are united by a common
commitment to international
development; to making the world a
better place; in short to the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs).
Virtual home for my community: the website of
the Canadian Association of International
Development Professionals (CAIDP)

6. A description of my community
What is CAIDP
CAIDP is a non-profit corporation
that was federally registered in
February 1993 to give a voice to
the concerns and interests of
Canadian International
Development Professionals.
CAIDP is a completely voluntary
organization run for and by
international development
professionals.
As members are based across
Canada and around the world the
association largely operates
virtually.
What does it do
The Association's objectives
are to:
•Foster excellence in
international development
•Promote the
collective interests of
international development
professionals
•Provide a forum for members
to exchange professional
information and engage in
professional development.
How does it work
CAIDP connects its
community through:
•the CAIDP Hub listserv and
social media for sharing
professional information
•Its website, including member
generated content and
exchanges
•Annual programs of webinars
and events to support
professional development
•Working with donors to foster
excellence in international
development

7. The evolution of CAIDP
 Canada’s international development community is made up of small,
closely held firms and Canadian non-profits, the local offices of multi-
national non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and many highly
educated, skilled professionals who work independently on contracts –
skilled professionals move easily between government, NGOs, small firms
and multilateral institutions
 When CAIDP was formed in the early 1990s most of the community did
most of its work for the Canadian Government
 As Canada signed trade agreements and liberalized trade more and more
government procurement was based on international competitive bidding
(ICB) – the Canadians found they needed to up their game to compete

8. Member response to increase in
international competitive bidding
 Consolidation – larger firms merged or bought smaller firms in order to
compete for larger international contracts
 Specialisation – smaller firms started to specialize in particular service
areas, for example monitoring and evaluation or results based
management, or in particular sectors, for example financing for
development
 Expanded markets – firms and individuals started marketing their services
to non-Canadian entities including the international finance institutions, the
UN Agencies, other untied bilateral donors, recipient governments and
multi-government institutions
 By 2012 only a third of Canadian development professionals identified the
Canadian International Development programme as their most important
client.

9. CAIDP’s response to increase in
competitive bidding Used ICT for
CommunicationsExpanded
NetworkingEnhanced Benefits Expanded its interactive listserv from
179 subscribers in 2005 to over
1,300 subscribers currently – more
than 765 messages of interest to the
community are shared annually
Improved its website to be more
interactive, allowing members to post
jobs, events, blogs and forums for
special interest groups – the website
now receives some 2,250 visits per
month
CAIDP social media, introduced in
2011 now has over 1,775 followers
In 2019 a survey rated CAIDP as the
No. 1 source of development jobs in
Canada
Increased membership to include
development professionals from non-
profit and academic institutions and
non-Canadians
Reached out to other associations for
example the Canadian Council for
International Cooperation
Opened website for member
generated content like member
profiles to allow more cooperation
and easier building of teams
Expanded conferences and
programming
Group discounts for members with
Devex (American source of
development jobs), DevAID
(European source of development
jobs), insurance providers for
professional liability and
comprehensive travel insurance and
the OECD iLibrary
Professional code of conduct to
enhance quality
Advocacy with the Government of
Canada, the World Bank and others
giving members a voice on policies
that affect international development

10. This is in line with international best
practice
 According to the World Development Report 2020 “Where the
local supplier base is fragmented and characterized by very
small, often informal, enterprises, coordination of suppliers
through cooperative structures or associations can be
important for helping producers achieve greater scale,
allowing for investments in common goods, and pooling
knowledge and expertise. It can also enable suppliers to
engage more effectively with lead firms.”

11. This has supported several important
developments for service supply chains
 CAIDP members find that contracts are usually too small to make
enforcement viable and they often work in environments in which contract
enforcement is relatively weak, making trust and relationships very
important
 CAIDP plays a role in providing the information needed to bring supplier
SMEs together for joint bidding
 CAIDP promotes standards and the transfer of knowledge between firms
and individual professionals in Canada and in developing countries
 CAIDP members share knowledge and its networking events help to
develop relationships between members which lowers risk

12. Relationships between developed and
developing country partners are vital for
delivering services
 Our members undertake on average 6 missions of over one week per year
to developing countries (although not in 2020 due to COVID-19)
 The relationships established through this work help to overcome the risks
associated with poor contract enforcement regimes and concerns about
low quality
 During the current pandemic many CAIDP members have been able to
use this trust and leverage these relationships to quickly pivot to localize
delivery of international development programmes

13. Both sides benefit
 The networks allow members to respond nimbly to opportunities
 There are seasoned international development professionals in every
country
 Canadians can bring strong knowledge of international bidding processes,
and of donor standards for managing and reporting on development results
 Our partners in developing countries bring strong local knowledge and
language skills
 This allows us to deliver better international development services

14. Size of the market for international
development services
 OECD International Development Statistical Report 2019 states that the
net disbursement of Official Development Assistance from all sources in
2017 was USD 162.802 billion
 Not all of that was procurement
 Not all of it was services
 But a lot of it was, for example:
 In 2018 the UN procured USD 18.8 bil.
 Of that USD 9.73 bil. was services
 Source: Annual Statistical Report 2018
 So this is a large international market

15. Trade in services is not just important
for developed countries
 World Development Report (WDR)
2020: Trading for Development in the
Age of Global Value Chains states that
“For many developing countries, the
best opportunities for GVC integration
will not come through natural
resources or manufacturing, but
instead through integration in services
GVCs”
 The UN reports that international
development services are increasingly
procured from developing countries

16. In a very small way our network is a
GVC for trade in services
 We operate across borders, involving professionals from two or more
countries depending on the assignment
 We learn from each other, exchanging best practices and ideas that allow
us to adapt to the local context
 Each of us contributes in their specialised area allowing all of us to
compete for and win larger contracts
 As this is an international market for services, we are seeing fee rates in
some areas converging between Canada and other countries on a
Purchasing Price Parity basis
Thank you!