Duty Station: Addis Ababa
Closing Date: Jun 19, 2022
Result of Service
Ultimate Result of Service
The AfCFTA Secretariat has the required statistics/data and tools to track and assess progress by AU member States towards successful implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement.
Work Location
Accra, Ghana
Expected duration
The duration of the contract shall be for a period of 6 months (renewable, subject to successful performance).
Duties and Responsibilities
The African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC), through the Regional Integration and Trade Division (RITD), is a specialized unit within the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Its mission is to act as the leading Africa-based Centre of excellence and a continental hub for providing and coordinating technical support for the development of trade policies in Africa. ATPC works with stakeholders at all levels to enhance the implementation of sound national, regional and international trade strategies, policies and programs. The Centre also conducts research to generate and disseminate knowledge on trade an provides policy advice, training and capacity building based on the needs identified by its partners.
One of the key focus areas of ATPC’s work is to assist the African Union (AU) and its member States with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) negotiation and implementation processes. Officially starting operation in August 2020 in Accra, Ghana, the AfCFTA Secretariat has been mandated to coordinate implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement, while also ensuring close collaboration with all key stakeholders namely the State Parties, the Secretariats of RECs, the business community and strategic partners. Trading under the AfCFTA Agreement commenced on 1 January 2021 and the AfCFTA Secretariat needs technical assistance to be able to effectively support implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement.
In this context, ECA intends to hire a consultant, experts in statistics/data, to be posted at the AfCFTA Secretariat to build the Secretariat’s capacity to better monitor and assess progress by AU member States towards implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement.
Objectives
The overarching objective of this assignment is to assist the AfCFTA Secretariat in collecting, compiling, and analyzing a range of statistics/data to be able to track and assess progress by AU member States towards the successful implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement.
Duties and Responsibilities:
The consultant will work under the overall guidance and direct supervision of the ATPC Coordinator in consultation with the AfCFTA Secretariat designated official. To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, the expert is expected to perform the following tasks:
• Carefully review the various Protocols and provisions under the AfCFTA Agreement to identify all the information/data required to be able to monitor and assess progress towards their implementation.
• Gather and compile in the same format all the national commitments approved by the AfCFTA Secretariat and to be implemented such as schedules of tariff concessions, schedules of commitments in services sectors and rules of origin requirements.
• Build a well-organized repository of information/data relative to the various Protocols and provisions under the AfCFTA Agreement as well as any commitments made by member States in relation to AfCFTA implementation.
• Develop a dashboard to be fed with data from the repository, along with relevant historical, current and future data (e.g. formal and as much as possible informal cross-border trade flows, customs duties, NTMs on goods and services, investment flows, etc.) to be able to track and assess progress towards implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement.
• Develop scorecards made of performance indicators, themselves based on dashboard data, to evaluate performance of member States and key stakeholders, especially from the private sector (e.g. exporting/importing firms), and better identify areas for improvement.
Qualifications/special skills
Academic Qualifications: Masters in statistics, economics, international trade or related field is required.
Experience: A minimum of (7) years of professional experience related to statistics, data analysis, economics or a related area is required. Experience working on the African continent is also required.
Language: English and French are the working languages of the United Nations. For the position advertised, fluency in English is required. Knowledge of French is an advantage.
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.