Charting Progress - Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation

Quantitative & Qualitative

Systematic and Comprehensive

Standardised measurement is essential for assessing the impact of projects in improving people’s lives, both quantitative and qualitative. To capture the benefits of trade facilitation, the Alliance applies a variety of standard and bespoke tools.

Impacts on the time and cost of trade are analysed from the perspective of three supply chain flows: the material flow of goods, the financial flow of payments, and the information flow of trade-related documentation.

Alliance projects also generate significant impacts beyond time and cost. For example, they may improve the efficiency of resource-stretched border agencies, enabling them to better protect consumers. Documenting such improvements helps to better demonstrate the true value of trade facilitation.

Metrics and Benchmarking

The Metrics and Benchmarking (M&B) workstream stands as one of the Alliance’s core functions that translates reform into measurable, credible impact. By pioneering a practical framework grounded in business practices and logistics for measuring trade facilitation impacts, M&B has helped quantify results from Aliance interventions in over 30 countries.

At the heart of its work, M&B brings the private sector perspective into focus. Using tools such as the Alliance’s Total Transport and Logistics Cost (TTLC) framework, Business Process Analysis, and targeted private sector surveys, the workstream demonstrates how reforms translate into real-world time and cost savings for business.

More than measurement, M&B defines the Alliance’s evidence culture — informing reform design, building donor and government trust and amplifying private sector engagement. It ensures every project
contributes not only to faster, simpler, and more predictable trade, but to a growing global body of knowledge on how trade facilitation fosters a more competitive trade environment and drives growth.

Monitoring & Evaluation

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) functions as the Alliance’s guidance system, the steady signal that keeps projects aligned, informed and moving toward meaningful results.

M&E blends quantitative tracking with on-the-ground qualitative perspectives and works with teams to define what success should look like in each context, while ensuring that projects remain responsive, inclusive, and grounded in reality. M&E is involved in the entire project implementation process, providing precise data, timely insights and practical recommendations.

M&E is also a thought partner. This workstream informs design choices, guides adaptations, and connects lessons learned across countries, making the Alliance smarter with every project. Thanks to targeted tools, surveys and a learning culture, M&E turns experience into evidence, and evidence into better decision-making.