The Relationship of ICAC to the Common Fund for Commodities
 Common Fund For Commodities (external link)
Project Descriptions
The Fourth Meeting of the United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Nairobi in May 1976
adopted a resolution (Resolution
93 (IV)) on an Integrated Programme for Commodities. In this resolution
UNCTAD was instructed to convene a negotiating conference to establish a Common
Fund for Commodities. An Agreement Establishing the Common Fund for Commodities
(2.8MB PDF) was
adopted by the negotiating conference in June 1980. The
Agreement was ratified by a sufficient
number of countries by 1987, and the participating countries agreed that the
Agreement would go into effect on June 19, 1989 (168K
PDF). The First Meeting of the Governing Council of the Common Fund took
place in Geneva in July 1989, at which a full time Managing Director was appointed
who took office in the fall of 1989. The Common Fund for Commodities is an international
intergovernmental organization based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
The 48th
and 49th
Plenary Meetings (October 1989 and September 1990) of the ICAC discussed the
question of ICAC association with the Common Fund and adopted resolutions governing
the relationship between ICAC and the Fund. On October 19, 1990 (137K
PDF), the Executive Board of the Common Fund designated the ICAC as an International
Commodity Body (ICB) on cotton under the terms of the Agreement Establishing
the Common Fund for Commodities.
As an ICB, the ICAC sponsors projects
for financing by the Common Fund. The Standing Committee of ICAC adopted criteria
and procedures for the appraisal of projects to be submitted to the Common Fund
in May 1991 (70K PDF),
and these were revised in December 1992 (139K
PDF). The Standing Committee established a procedure in December 1992 to
rank priority areas for projects. Priority rankings were established in March
1993 (134K PDF)
and again in February 1994 (65K
PDF).
Under the procedures, project proposals
should be submitted to the ICAC Secretariat using a standard format which is
presented in the Common Fund's manual for the preparation of projects to be
financed through the Second Account. The Common Fund’s manual for preparation
of projects and ICAC’s priorities for projects are available from the ICAC Secretariat.
Projects are reviewed by the ICAC
Secretariat to ensure proper format for submission to the Common Fund. The Standing
Committee of the ICAC approves projects before they are submitted to the Common
Fund. The Common Fund secretariat also reviews projects before taking them to
their Consultative Committee. The Consultative Committee of the Common Fund
considers in detail all technical aspects of project proposals and makes recommendations
for final approval by the Executive Board.
Once a project has been approved,
a project appraisal report, a project agreement and a grant agreement are completed
before project activities start, usually within a couple of months. The ICAC
Secretariat serves as the supervisory body, and the project is executed by a
project executing agency (PEA) located in one of the collaborating countries.
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