The UK Deparment for International Development (DFID) highlights COPLA's work on trade

The UK Department for International Development (DFID) has recently redeveloped its website to emphasise the ways that it fulfills its mandate to fight poverty across the globe. They suggest 14 strategic areas of focus within the organisation, with trade chief among them.

Explaining the importance of trade in fighting poverty, the DFID webpages suggest: 'trade drives growth. Rapid, sustained growth is the most direct route to reducing poverty'. And while the COPLA programme works from this premise, we also recognise the complex nature of trade's role in reducing poverty.

In particular, research from the COPLA programme suggests that trade in the Latin American region is experienced differently by the diverse countries that comprise the region, and that traditionally vulnerable groups – like women, youth, indigenous communities and the rural poor – simply do not have the same access to the benefits of trade. This is why policy recommendations from COPLA continue to emphasise the need for both a better understanding of the complex ways in which trade affects these marginalised groups but also the implementation of complementary social policies to ensure they can better participate in new and existing trade flows.

The DFID trade pages elaborate on four strands of work on trade and trade policy:

• Trade agreements and negotiations
• Sharing the benefits of trade
• Fair and ethical trade
• Trade and climate change

While ‘sharing the benefits of trade’ is a key focus of the COPLA programme, we also have important work on DFID’s other areas of focus. See below for more information on how we have contributed to these important areas:

• Trade agreements and negotiations
• Who is working to influence policies on trade and poverty in Latin America?
• What happens after trade agreements?
• The FTA between Peru and the USA: What about Andean peasants
• Trade policy and poverty in Peru: How do free trade agreements (FTAs) impact rural poverty
• Sharing the benefits of trade
• Untangling the links between trade, poverty and gender
• Should trade be considered a human right?
• International trade and youth in Bolivia
• Fair and ethical trade
• ‘Goods’ for development
• Trade and climate change
• Hot potato? Climate change hits home for Andean potato farmers