Pierre Sauvé

Senior Trade Specialist, World Bank Group

With limited resources, the WTO Academic Chairs program’s greatest achievement has been to reduce the distance that all too often separates the worlds of academia and policy-making. Where governments are open to broadening their policy making perimeters, partnering with Chair holders and their teams promotes better informed views on trade policy formulation and its evaluation, enhancing its quality and legitimacy. By promoting direct access to decision-making circles, the Chairs Program has in turn heightened the policy relevance of academic research and helped attract promising talent to a field of enquiry that is central to sustained progress in governance and development.