Food and Agricultural Trade in Africa

Optional Project
Participants are also invited to prepare during the course and submit by Week 3 a concise action plan of priority reforms in their country or essay about your changed views and lessons learned from the course. Rather than making such a note a requirement, we offer it to those of you willing to produce such a document the incentive that such notes will be reviewed by both a agricultural trade expert and a Bank country economist and will only be posted with the permission of the note's author.

Target Audience
In order to keep the discussions interactive and manageable, the number of participants in this version of the course will be limited to 50. Target audience includes:
Government officials (from trade, agriculture, foreign, finance/economics ministries) directly involved in the conduct of agriculture policy and agricultural trade negotiations, whether at the WTO or at the bilateral and regional levels.
Officials in development or planning ministries, whose tasks increasingly include keeping track of ongoing agricultural trade negotiations and fitting such efforts into the broader and longer-term process of development.

Researchers in academia, think tanks and regional research networks concerned with food and agricultural trade.
Representatives from professional associations and from consumer groups typically interested in the impact of agricultural trade policy/negotiations.
World Bank and other international organization staff involved in analytical, advisory and technical assistance work related to trade in food and agriculture.

Fee
Participants from developing countries will not be assessed a fee. The cost for participants from developed countries will be $500.

Technical Requirements
The course will be conducted in English over the internet, so the ability to participate in the online discussion is a key pre-requisite and mandatory requirement for participants. All participants must have access to the Internet and to a CD-ROM player, and they must provide a reliable postal address where the CD-ROM containing all presentations and materials will be delivered.

Application
Closing date for accepting nominations is March 30th, 2007. Please follow the link below to access the Course Application: http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/trade/food_ag_course.

Instructions
1) Click the Apply button under the proper part/session and activity title
2) Complete the application form
3) Click Submit
4) A confirmation will be sent to those selected.
Admission will be confirmed only to selected candidates by April 9th, 2007.

Contacts
For questions related to applications, please contact Dianne Leslie Billups, fax: 1-202- 676-9810
For questions related to the course content, please contact Gustavo Garcia-Benavides, or Soamiely Andriamananjara, fax: 1-202-676-9810