ODI has been requested by the International Trade Centre (a UN agency created by the WTO and UNCTAD) to undertake a strategic review of the tourism component of the Export-led Poverty Reduction Programme (EPR).

At heart, the EPRP seeks to reduce poverty by incorporating the poor into global trade on advantageous terms through linking into the tourism supply chain. This is an excellent conceptual basis for a pro-poor tourism programme.

The review involves taking stock of the project and tools that have been implemented by the programme over the past five years, with a particular emphasis on evaluating important projects in Hoi-An in Central Vietnam and Salvador in North-East Brazil. The emphasis of the review is not, however, a backward-looking evaluation, rather a forward-looking strategic intervention. As such ODI will be working closely with the management of the International Trade Centre to scale-up the impact of the tourism programme.

This will involve proposing new technical and financial partnerships to complement others working in the area of tourism and poverty reduction. It will also recommend how the EPRP can be organized institutionally and operationally to become a leading programme within the International Trade Centre.