Overview
The UNCTAD Trade and Development Board, at its sixty-second annual session, requested the UNCTAD secretariat to conduct an independent evaluation of subprogramme 4 on technology and logistics (SP4). This independent and in-depth evaluation assesses the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of SP4, as implemented by the Division on Technology and Logistics (DTL) in 2012–2016. The evaluation concludes that the diversified portfolio of SP4 is mostly of high quality and relevant to the needs of its beneficiaries and stakeholders. Overall, capacity-building interventions result in improved knowledge, in turn utilized for further training, policy advice and research. SP4 value added lies in cross-fertilization between the technical cooperation, research and intergovernmental consensus-building pillars, including through the leveraging of a wide range of partnerships. There remains scope to strengthen synergistic efforts, including through interdivisional and external collaboration, especially in the areas of science, technology and innovation (STI), the digital economy (particularly electronic commerce (e-commerce)) and the sustainability aspects of transport, which are of increasing relevance in the light of the Nairobi Maafikiano, adopted at the fourteenth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIV).