RITD/RIEDS- International Consultant –Quantitative Analyst & TiVA specialist

Job Description

Result of Service

The assignment will result in an enhanced capacity of national institutions and stakeholders to have an improved understanding of trade in services and measure trade on a value-added basis, with a special focus on the service sector.

Work Location

• Work Remotely

Expected duration

3.0

Duties and Responsibilities

Background This consultancy is part of a technical assistance project on services trade, implemented by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (henceforth ECA) in collaboration with the Governments of beneficiary African countries. The project contributes towards unlocking the potential of services trade in Africa, especially towards an effective implementation of the AfCFTA. A major challenge in this regard is assessing the services sectors’ contribution to the economy and understanding the complexity of global and regional value chains that are essential for services to thrive.

The project endeavors to strengthen national capacities to measure the value added that is generated by regional services value chains, assess the degree to which developing targeted services sectors may improve the tradability of goods and services and improve integration into other regional value chains (RVCs) and global value chains (GVCs), and support developing the necessary policy frameworks to enable the sectors’ growth. This technical assistance project follows a previous United Nations Development Account (UNDA) project on services trade in Africa, which was implemented jointly by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the ECA.

The UNDA project covered 6 African countries (The Gambia, Mali, Ethiopia, Kenya, Togo, and Nigeria) and focused on selected services sectors as follows: transport services in Kenya and Ethiopia; tourism in The Gambia and Mali; financial services in Togo and Nigeria. Subsequently, following the successful implementation of the pilot phase, ECA responded positively to requests for this technical assistance from two countries (Burundi and Burkina Faso), with a particular focus on the financial services sector, in line with the implementation of the AfCFTA national strategies.

The current undertaking focuses on assessing the financial services sector’s integration into regional value chains for Tanzania, Ghana and Mauritania, in the framework of the implementation of the agreement establishing the AfCFTA. It responds to specific requests made by those countries to the ECA following the success of the previous phases of this project. It will involve capacity building activities on trade in services, trade in value added (TiVA) analysis and relevant data collection and analysis, as well as the conduct of studies and development of national action plans towards enhancing the integration of financial services sectors into regional and global value chains.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance and coordination of the ECA project leader and the direct supervision of assigned focal officers, the consultant will perform the following tasks:

(i) Serve as the International Consultant – Quantitative and TiVA Specialist for the project, responsible for TiVA analysis using MRIO data and providing substantive guidance on methodological issues and approaches of such;

(ii) Collaborate with the Lead International Consultant and the ECA project team in organizing and designing a training-on-trainers (ToT) workshop on trade in services and TIVA;

(iii) Collaborate with the Lead International Consultant to prepare and update relevant training materials for the ToT workshop (e.g., methodologies, presentations, datasets, etc.);

(iv) Serve as an onsite instructor and facilitator for the ToT workshop, in support to and in collaboration with the Lead International Consultant;

(v) Serve as the principal instructor and facilitator for the ToT workshop;

(vi) Provide support and technical backstopping to the national consultant tasked with undertaking empirical work and policy development in the context of this project;

(vii) Contribute to the review of the technical reports produced by the national consultants in the project countries; and

(viii) Participate in a multistakeholder workshop for experience sharing and peer learning.

Qualifications/special skills

• Advanced university degree (Master) in economics, finance, statistics, or related areas.
• At least 5 years of work experience in trade policy (goods and services), regional integration and trade in value added, or a related area.
• Experience in quantitative analysis, policy formulation and in capacity building in Africa is highly desirable.

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this post, fluency in one of the two languages is required. Working knowledge of the other one is an asset.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.