Lead 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 from home

Expected duration 3

Duties and Responsibilities This consultancy is part of a technical assistance project on services trade, implemented by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (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 services 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 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. More information on the UNDA project can be found on the following knowledge platform of the project: https://knowledge.uneca.org/stp/.

The current undertaking focuses on financial services value chains in Burkina Faso and Burundi. It responds to specific requests made by those countries to the ECA following the success of the pilot UNDA project. It will involve capacity building activities on trade in services, trade in value added (TiVA) 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 value chains at national, regional, and global levels.

Under the overall guidance and coordination of the ECA project leader (the Chief of the Market Institutions Section of the ECA’s Regional Integration and Trade Division) 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 Junior International Consultant (expert in TiVA and MRIO analyses) and the ECA in organizing and designing a training-on-trainers (ToT) workshop on trade in services and TIVA; (iii) Lead on the collaboration with the Junior International Consultant to prepare and update relevant training materials for the ToT workshop (e.g., methodologies, presentations, datasets, etc.); (iv) Serve as the lead onsite instructor and facilitator for the ToT workshop, in collaboration with the Junior International Consultant; (v) Provide support and technical backstopping to the National Consultant(s) tasked with undertaking empirical work and policy development in the context of this project; (vi) Contribute to the review of the technical reports produced by the National Consultant(s) in the project countries; and (vii) Participate in a multistakeholder workshop for experience sharing and peer learning.

Qualifications/special skills Advanced university degree (PhD preferred) in economics, statistics, or related areas. At least 7 years of work experience in economic research and analysis, including 4 years of work experience in trade in services. Experience in teaching is highly desirable.

Languages English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this post, fluency in French is required. A working knowledge of English is desirable.

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.