A striking feature of COMPAL is that it involves five national projects for beneficiary countries. Each Government has appointed national project coordinators (NPCs), who will play a pivotal role in implementing activities at the national level. In this endeavour, they will be supported by UNCTAD through a general Programme Management Committee, composed of the five national Project Management Committees. Each national committee will consist of UNCTAD and NPCs.

NPCs are government officials responsible for competition and consumer protection policy matters. They are usually directors of competition agencies or divisions within the ministries of industry and trade. Their main function in the framework of COMPAL and particularly within the PMC is to execute programme activities at the national level, thereby ensuring the successful, timely, and cost-effective implementation of all project activities under their responsibility. In addition, they will act as intermediaries between local authorities and the PMC.

NPCs, acting as experts on competition and consumer protection issues, participate in the preparation of terms of reference for studies, reports, seminars and workshops throughout the COMPAL Programme and coordinate activities with other PMC members.

NPCs will assume the responsibility of making COMPAL activities part of their institutional plans, thereby ensuring the sustainability of the Project at the national level after its completion. Furthermore, the COMPAL Programme will promote the participation of civil society at large.