International Consultant: Formulating the East African Community’s Blue Economy Strategy and Action Plan

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

Result of Service

4. RESULTS OF SERVICE
5. A reviewed and validated EAC Blue Economy Strategy and its Implementation Plan, including the plan to mainstream blue economy into regional laws, policies, regulations and practices.

Work Location

Home Based

Expected duration

5 months

Duties and Responsibilities

1. BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION

The Sub-Regional Office of Eastern Africa of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (SRO-EA) serves 14 Eastern African countries, namely: Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, and two Regional Economic Communities (RECs): East African Community (EAC) and Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). One of the thematic areas of specialization of the agency is blue economy.

In 2016, UNECA defined the Africa’s Blue Economy: A Policy Handbook which provides a “step-by-step guide on how to mainstream the Blue Economy into continental, subregional, and national policies, plans, laws, regulations, and practices for the development of African sustainable Blue Economy strategies. Following which, it developed the UNECA Blue Economy Valuation Toolkit (BEVTK) which can be used for socio-economic and ecological assessments aimed to provide an accurate snapshot of the potential of the Blue Economy.

The East African Community (EAC) is an inter-governmental organization of seven Partner States namely, the Republic of Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republics of Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. The EAC integration is guided by the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community which was signed on November 30th, 1999 and came into force on July 7th, 2000. The main objective of the Community is to develop policies and programmes aimed at widening and deepening co-operation among the Partner States in mainly political and economic, social, and cultural fields, research, and technology, defence, security, legal and judicial affairs, for the partners’ mutual benefit.

EAC Partners States faces similar challenges on environment management. The challenges incudes land degradation, pollution, climate change, deforestation, biodiversity loss, deterioration of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and inadequate institutional capacity and coordination on environment and natural resources management. In this view, under Chapter nineteen of the Treaty (Article 111 to 114) Partner States agrees to among others things, promote enhancement of the quality of the environment through adoption of common policies, measures and programs. EAC vision 2050 and 6th Development Strategy have identified environment and natural resources to be among the priority sectors to support the envisaged transformation and economic growth trajectory in a bid to attains middle income status with Per Capita GDP of USD 3,000 and USD 10,000 in the year 2030 and 2050 respectively. However, the challenges facing the sector undermine its potential contribution to the regional socio-economic development.

Under the Treaty, Partner States recognize that development activities may have negative impacts on the environment leading to the degradation of the environment and depletion of natural resources and that, a clean and healthy environment is a prerequisite for sustainable development. In this view, the Partner States agrees to amongst other things, to take concerted measures to foster cooperation in the joint and efficient management and sustainable utilization of natural resources within the Community. Also, Partner States agrees to cooperate and coordinate their policies and actions for the protection of conservation of the environment against all forms of degradation and pollution arising from developmental activities.

The 41st meeting of the Council of Ministers held on 29th November,2021, considered progresses in the development of the EAC’s Protocol on Environment and Natural Resources Management. The 41st Council meeting recalled that the 40th meeting of the Council referred the Draft Protocol on Environment and Natural Resources Management to the Sectoral Council of Legal and Judicial Affairs for legal inputs (EAC/CM40/40/Decision 14). The 41st Council meeting was further informed that during the consideration of the Draft Protocol on Environment and Natural Resources Management, the Sectoral Council on Legal and judicial Affairs observed that, Chapter nineteen of the Treaty provides for cooperation in environment and natural resources management and the draft Protocol largely replicated the provisions of the Treaty, i.e. Chapter 19. Repeating the provisions of the Treaty is discouraged by the template for the preparation of the EAC Protocols which was developed to guide, standardize and provide consistence on the development of the Protocols. For instance, under Article 151 of the Treaty, Protocol should be developed to spell out the scope of cooperation in areas where the Treaty is not explicit.

The 40th Council meeting of the Legal and Judicial Affairs also observed that Articles 111, 112, 113 and 114 have substantive provisions dealing with the management of environment and natural resources management. The Articles specify actions, documents and instruments that the community agreed to take or develop in order to achieve the intended cooperation in the management of the environment and natural resources. In some cases, the Treaty requires adoption of common policies, common regulations or guidelines or the development of the Strategies and standards. In areas where the Treaty has required common policies, regulations, guidelines or standards, developing a Protocol will not meet the requirements of the provisions of the Treaty. Thus, where a Treaty provides for specific documents or procedure, therefore, departing from that procedure by developing the Protocol entails amendment to the Treaty.

The 41st Council Meeting took note of the observation made by the 40th meeting of the Council on Legal and Judicial Affairs and directed the Secretariat to develop instruments to operationalize Chapter Nineteen of the Treaty provided for or required by the Chapter to facilitate the cooperation of Partner States on environment and natural resources management (EAC/CM41/Directive 06).

In this view, the Secretariat is developing the EAC Blue Economy Strategy and Action Plan in order to strengthen regional cooperation and coordination mechanisms for equitable, inclusive and sustainable management of the aquatic resources in the region.

2. OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE OF CONSULTANCY The overall objective of the consultancy is to develop EAC Blue Economy Strategy and Action Plan to strengthen regional cooperation and coordination mechanisms for equitable, inclusive and sustainable management of the aquatic resources in the region. Specifically, the consultancy will: • Support the establishment of the strategic direction of the East African Community (EAC) on the blue economy. • Support and recommend the mainstreaming of the blue economy into the regional laws, policies, regulations, and practices, and • Design the Action Plan for the implementation of the EAC Blue Economy Strategy

The scope of the consultancy expands over the East African region.

3. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES In close consultation with and under the guidance of the project manager at the Sub-Regional Office for Eastern Africa (SRO-EA) and the designated focal point at the East African Community Secretariat, the selected consultant will have the main duty and responsibility to formulate a Regional Blue Economy Strategy and its Action Plan for the implementation of the East African Community Blue Economy Strategy, including the plan to mainstream blue economy into regional laws, policies, regulations and practices.

In carrying out the assignment, the Consultant shall carry out the following tasks and activities. This list is however not exhaustive.

• Introduction: Basic concepts and definition and the need or justification or rationale for a strategy as informed by the Treaty, EAC Treaty, EAC Vision 2050, EAC’s 6th Development Strategy and other instruments on blue economy at sub-national, national, regional, continental, and global levels. • Blue Economy Governance systems: trends, progress, and challenges in the in the implementation of the existing instruments on blue economy including human, technical and financial resources capacities in the region. • Enabling environment: Legislations, Policies and Guidelines supporting development and management of blue economy resources. • Institutional framework: Relevant regulatory bodies, committees and institutions and existing legislations, policies and guidelines governing blue economy; • SWOT Analysis: An in-depth SWOT and SWOC analysis of the sub-national, national, regional, continental, and global blue economy governance frameworks, challenges and existing opportunities. • Monitoring, Evaluation, Coordination and Research: Good practices in monitoring, evaluation, coordination, assessment, researches and knowledge development on blue economy; • Strategy Implementation: Priority actions, programs and plans, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of the strategic implementation • References: All references and citations must be annexed

The preferred methodology for this assignment is described below. In undertaking the consultancy, the Consultant shall amongst other things: • Review diverse and variety of documentation including existing relevant national, regional, continental and global instruments on blue economy; • Travel to Partner States to undertake extensive consultations and in-depth interviews with relevant stakeholders in blue economy governance; • Facilitate national stakeholders’ consultative workshops with the view of collecting Partner States inputs and views to inform the development of the EAC Blue Economy Strategy and Action Plan; • Facilitate national reviews and consultative processes aimed at collecting inputs from the sub-national and national to inform the development of the EAC Blue Economy Strategy and Action Plan; • Facilitate regional reviews, consultations and validation processes necessary for consolidating and harmonizing the outcomes from the national reviews and consultative processes; and • Consult sub-national, national, regional, continental and global instruments on blue economy. Take cognizant of the Treaty, EAC vision 2050, Africa Union’s Agenda 2063, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 and other Global instruments on environment and natural resources management.

Qualifications/special skills

Academic qualifications: An advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in marine studies, sustainable development, policy studies, or a related field (PhD preferred). Experience: A minimum of 10 years of work experience in policy development and strategic planning for the Blue Economy or related sectors.

It is mandatory for the consultant to have: ─ Good understanding of the Blue Economy landscape in Africa (Eastern Africa knowledge preferred). ─ Record of publications and research on Blue Economy related policies and strategies, or related areas. ─ Demonstrated experience working under tight deadlines and delivering high-quality outputs. ─ Strong oral and written communication skills. ─ Ability to work independently, proactively and with little supervision.

Languages

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this post, fluency in English is required (oral and written). Knowledge of French is an advantage.

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.