Developing countries face many demands to improve SPS capacity to boost agri-food exports and support other public policy objectives. Yet resources available from government budgets and donors are insufficient to meet all identified needs. This requires hard choices to be made between competing SPS investments.

The STDF has developed a framework to help inform and improve SPS planning and decision-making processes. The P-IMA framework offers an evidence-based approach to inform and improve SPS planning and decision-making processes. It helps to link SPS investments to public policy goals including export growth, agricultural productivity, and poverty reduction. In the process, P-IMA encourages public-private dialogue, boosts transparency and accountability, and improves the economic efficiency of investment decisions. The P-IMA user Guide uses a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach, as well as computer software (D-Sight) to help derive priorities.

Launch of a P-IMA Facilitators Handbook - December 2022: to facilitate and promote self-application of the P-IMA framework, a handbook has been developed. This handbook aims to provide detailed, step-by-step guidance on how to apply P-IMA to advise experts who facilitate the use of the framework, including in virtual environments. It will support facilitators in providing in-depth training on the P-IMA framework aimed at equipping public and private sector stakeholders in developing countries with the necessary skills to apply the framework to the prioritization of trade-related SPS capacity-building in their own country/region.