Strategy workshop & report for ITC, the joint UN and WTO agency

Workshop: Strategy and Restructuring to 2026, Division of Country Programmes (DCP) of International Trade Centre (ITC), 3 hours, 70 participants, in English

Method: future mapping, opportunity scenarios, results consolidation, roadmap, synthesis report and recommendations

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The agency in brief

The International Trade Centre (ITC) is the joint agency of the United Nations (UN) and  World Trade Organisation (WTO). The ITC aims to bring prosperity, inclusiveness and sustainability to developing countries through trade-related development assistance to micro and small businesses in 175 countries.

The largest of five divisions, the Division of Country Programmes (DCP) is responsible for country intelligence, country needs assessments, in-country resource mobilization, partnerships, coordination, and project management of large multi-disciplinary projects.

Objectives and deliverables

As part of its annual gathering, the Division of Country Programmes (DCP) was looking for a workshop to evaluate its performance and identify necessary changes, focusing on both vision and organizational dimensions. We enhanced the workshop with a future-oriented approach, focusing on opportunities through 2026 to better evaluate the current direction and inspire bold proposals for improvement.

By leveraging the collective wisdom of the DCP's 70 Geneva-based executives and operatives, we were able to take stock of their current performance and assess the strategic and organizational changes needed to drive success.

The workshop was supplemented by a 9-page long report on the main results, including recommendations for further work.

Building on ITC background

Our workshop was built upon the ITC's assessment of its global landscape to 2025, as outlined in their 2022-2025 strategy plan (see illustration, click to enlarge).

The workshop also incorporated insights from earlier evaluation reports and interviews with key team members. We also focused on the DCP's three pillars of work: strategy, needs assessment & program design, and program implementation in the partner countries.

Workshop process

Using interactive exercises like our proprietary future mapping exercise, we encouraged participants to reflect on their own opinions about the future and consider opportunities and challenges beyond the obvious. This approach revealed diverse perspectives and fostered openness to nuanced opinions about future possibilities.

Through collaborative work in 9 small groups, participants identified the main opportunities for each pillar of work through 2026 and mapped core tasks over the DCP's internal and external environments. The aim was to avoid abstract, unuseful talks and think both the pillar's future and its effects on the future DCP organisation in context.

Groups then pinpointed gaps between the present and the future. The aim here was to make visible the gaps between the present and future possibilities in order to encourage bold improvement proposals.

Workshop results

This process culminated in the development of 35 concrete suggestions for improvement and the corresponding road map (which we are not able to detail here for reasons of commercial confidentiality).

Sharing the results according to clusters identified during group work allowed the entire DCP team to gain an immediate understanding of the areas that required the most improvement. The groups' results showed similarities beyond the three pillars, confirming the direction of the work.

The workshop concluded with a summary of key insights and closing remarks from the DCP Director. He commended the groups' efforts and took the first concrete step towards follow-up by identifying thematic areas for further work.

Participants left the workshop with a clear understanding of the areas most in need of improvement and motivated to participate in follow-up thematic work sessions.

Reporting

The main findings of the workshop were then distilled and analysed in a concise 10-page report. The report also drew on the findings of a previous external evaluation, emphasising recurring themes. Finally, it made two key recommendations for future work.