RITD/RIEDS- International Consultant – Trade in Services Specialist

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 Lead International Consultant and Trade in Services Specialist for the project, responsible for the conceptual, empirical, methodological and policy issues related to trade in services and service value chains, especially in the African context, and providing substantive guidance on such; (ii) Lead on the collaboration with the International Quantitative Consultant (expert in TiVA and MRIO analyses) and the ECA in organizing and designing a 5-day training-of-trainers (ToT) workshop on trade in services and TIVA; (iii) Lead in collaboration with the International Quantitative Consultant to prepare and update relevant training materials for the ToT workshop (e.g., background paper, methodologies, presentations, datasets, etc.); (iv) Collaborate with ECA in organizing and designing a 5-day training-on-trainers (ToT) seminar on trade in services and TiVA analytical framework; (v) Serve as the lead onsite instructor and facilitator for the ToT workshop, in collaboration with the International Quantitative Consultant; (vi) Provide support and technical backstopping to the national consultant(s) 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 or PhD) in economics, finance, statistics, or related areas. A minimum of ten years of professional experience in trade policy (goods and services), regional integration and trade in value added, or a related area; experience in policy formulation and capacity building in Africa is highly desirable; excellent organizational and communication skills.

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.

Additional Information

Not available.

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.