National SpS Coordination Mechanisms - Standards and Trade ...

espondents indicated that their committees benefited from governmental budget allocations,three respondents pointed to external donor funding, and one to contributions from the privatesector. Four respondents referred to "other" sources of funding, without providing specificdetails (see Figure 5).32. Several respondents indicated that the establishment and operation of their committeeis constrained by inadequate funding. Admittedly, minor costs may be involved in maintaininga secretariat, a website or other web-based tools. Some costs may also be related toparticipation of officials from outside capital. However, these costs are not substantial andshould be integrated in and covered by national government budgets, where appropriate.Meetings can be rotated among certain ministries or other committee members to share thecosts related to the venue, coffee and/or lunch. The practice whereby committee membersreceive extra compensation for their participation (i.e. the "per diem syndrome") should bestrongly discouraged, as they are likely to distort incentives and lead to discontinuation whenfunding dries up.Figure 5: Funding of SPS coordination mechanisms in Africa33. In several situations, however, external donor funding can help in terms of "gettingthings started", provided that long-term sustainability issues are carefully considered. Forinstance, assistance could be provided for the creation of broader web-based networks andtools that help public and private SPS stakeholders to assimilate and respond to flows of SPSinformation. Assistance could also be provided to national SPS committees that wish to developa national SPS strategy or action plan, or apply SPS-related capacity evaluation and prioritizationtools developed by international organizations, to inform future interventions.9