This technical assistance was in response to the request of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for capacity building of government personnel, civil society, business groups and the academe in international trade law and policy. The program employed the blended learning model, a combination of instructor-led web-based training, and face-to-face workshops. There were eleven online courses and six workshops delivered over a sixteen month period. The introductory courses served to acquaint the learners with this innovative medium of learning and with the significance of international trade in the Philippines. The three core courses were developed to provide an overview of the multilateral trading system, the basic principles of international trade, and the methods of enforcing international trade rules. The five elective courses allowed the learners to focus on five fields: trade facilitation, services, agriculture, telecommunications/financial services, agriculture and trade remedies. The integrating course focused on the Doha Development Agenda. The elective courses were enhanced by workshops with foreign and Filipino experts. The program was capped by an integrating workshop and a webcast address by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy and Professor Yash Tandon, Executive Director of the South Centre. Mr. Tyler Holt of the USAID, Ms. Dita Angara-Mathay, Assistant Secretary of Trade and Mr. Gao Pronove of Earth Council - Geneva addressed the participants in the closing ceremonies. A total of 330 participants finished various combinations of the online courses with 345 participants in the six workshops. This program shows the viability of using the blended learning program for rapid deployment of trade-capacity building programs. The post-program evaluation shows that the participants are highly receptive to this medium and were able to utilize the knowledge gained even while the program was on-going.

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