IISD has produced an array of policy research focussing on developing country issues and capacity building. Not all of it fits under the umbrella of the major projects in this area. A selection of our most interesting work is described below.

• Implications of the Cotonou Agreement for Sustainable Development in the ACP Countries and Beyond.
  This paper assesses the Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA)—an agreement between the EU and a group of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, most of them former colonies. The CPA relies heavily on the benefits of trade liberalization, complemented by EU aid in various forms. How likely is it that this grand experiment will promote sustainable development, and what else needs to be done to ensure that it does?

• A Capabilities Approach to Trade and Sustainable Development: Using Sen's Conception of Development to Re-examine the Debates
  This paper takes the thinking of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and uses it to fashion a comprehensive new definition of sustainable development. It then asks how trade and trade liberalization might contribute to sustainable development so defined, surveying a complex web of potential impacts. It draws important lessons for civil society, developing countries and the WTO negotiations from the analysis.

• Lessons Learned on Trade and Sustainable Development
  This book distills the lessons from six years of research undertaken by and for the Trade Knowledge Network (1998 – 2004). It draws on in-country research, thematic research and workshop papers to identify the key issues, and explores in depth what the TKN research has to say about them. The result is an excellent primer on the issues faced by the South in the area of trade and sustainable development. The book includes a companion CD covering all of the surveyed TKN research (more than 40 papers in all, including several in Spanish).

• The Development Box (IISD Trade and Development Brief, Number 5 of 9, 2003)
  This paper is one in a series of nine briefing papers prepared by the International Institute for Sustainable Development for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). It sets out, in brief and uncomplicated style, what is at stake in the discussions on a “development box” in the WTO's current round of negotiations—the so-called Doha Development Agenda.

• Special and Differential Treatment: Doha Round Briefing Series
  The thirteenth of a series prepared by IISD and ICTSD. One of the most contentious issues to face the multilateral trading system is the debate over differentiated rights and obligations between developed and developing countries. While it is now generally agreed that countries at lower levels of development should be accorded more favourable treatment, the form and content of such treatment remains hotly contested.

• Implementing Environmental, Health and Safety (EH&S) Standards, and Technical Regulations: The Developing Country Experience
  This paper reviews developing country experience implementing environmental health and safety standards and technical regulations in international trade. As tariff levels have dropped, non-tariff or technical barriers to trade have become relatively more important for developing-country market access. Although the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) addresses these issues, experience suggests that, without certain basic institutional infrastructure, developing countries cannot benefit from the provisions in the TBT Agreement. The paper highlights the problems and potential solutions that exist, and suggests priorities for future work.