Expertise France is the public agency of French international technical
cooperation.The agency operates around four priorities:
* democratic, economic and financial governance;
* security and stability of countries in crisis/post-crisis situations;
* sustainable development;
* strengthening health systems, social protection and employment.
In these areas, Expertise France carries out engineering and implementation
missions for capacity building projects, mobilizes technical expertise and
acts as an aggregator of projects involving public expertise and private know-
how.
With an activity volume of 233 million euros, more than 400 projects in
portfolio in 80 countries, and 63,000 days of expertise, Expertise France
focuses its action towards Frances solidarity policy, influence and economic
diplomacy.
BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION OF THE ACTIVITY
The African Union Heads of State and Government decided through Decision
Assembly/AU/Dec.394 (XVIII) of January 2012 to fast-track the establishment of
the Continental Free Trade Area. Negotiations were launched in 2015 in
Johannesburg, South Africa and all 55 African countries have been
participating in the process. The Agreement Establishing the African
Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was concluded on 21 March 2018 in Kigali,
Rwanda and came into force on 30 May 2019.
Article 3 of the AfCFTA Agreement provides that the general objectives of the
Agreement are to create a single market for goods and services facilitated by
movement of persons to deepen economic integration of the African continent in
accordance with the vision of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa
enshrined in Agenda 2063. The AfCFTA will deliver an integrated continental
market of 1.3 billion consumers with aggregate GDP of USD 3.4 trillion. The
specific objectives of the AfCFTA are outlined in Article 4 of the Agreement.
Since July 2021, State parties and custom unions to the AfCFTA have started
sending tariff offers to the AfCFTA Secretariat. As of today, tariff offers
are still missing and some others still need further processing.
In view of the above background, the AfCFTA Secretariat through the African
Union commission invites qualified and competent applicants relevant skills,
competencies and experiences to submit their applications for the position of
statistician in Goods based at its headquarters in Accra, Ghana.
Objective and scope of Assignment
Objective
The general objective of the consultancy is to ensure that the Member States
and Customs Unions start trading on preferential terms as decided by the
policy makers. One of the instruments for start of trading is completion of
the Schedules of Tariff Concessions. The objective is to verify whether the
submitted tariff offers comply with the adopted modalities. The specific
objective also, is to make sure that Member States submit their MFN and trade
data that will show whether States Parties have complied with the adopted
modalities.
Scope
The general scope of the consultancy is to ensure that Member States and
Customs Unions that have submitted their tariff offers that their offers
comply with the adopted modalities. The consultant will carry a verification
exercise to this effect. This includes cleaning and verifying the data. The
consultant will collect, clean and verify MFN and trade data from Member
States and Customs Union. In addition, the consultant shall upload the tariff
offers, MFN and trade data to the online negotiations tool operationalized by
Heads of State and Government in July 2019 in Niamey Niger.
Main Duties and Responsibilities
The Consultant shall carry out the following activities:
* Verify whether tariff offers submitted comply with the adopted Modalities;
* Follow up with Member States and Customs Unions that have not done submitted their tariff offers and trade data:
* Collect MFN and trade data for all 55 AU Member States, in close collaboration with institutional partners from the MS;
* Perform quality checks and verify that the data provided is clean and verified; and
* Upload trade data and draft offers to the on-line negotiations tool.
Presentation of the French au Technical Assistance Facility
As the only recognised continental institution, the African Union is Africa's
key interlocutor vis-vis its external partners in its areas of expertise, such
as diplomatic, economic and security issues. As such, the AU plays an
essential role for the continent, carrying a common and shared continental
voice. It exerts unifying power by providing a political platform for
dialogue, coordination and joint decision-making. It thus acts as a
spokesperson for African states to have more consistent common positions with
international partners, particularly in international fora. The AU also
intends to act as a catalyst for Africa's development by promoting the
exchange of experiences at continental, regional and national levels, thereby
improving synergies, comparability and wider dissemination of best practices.
The AU and France have engaged in a strategic dialogue since the signing of a
declaration of intent on 8 June 2018. In order to give substance to this
dialogue and to enshrine it in the long term, EUR 1.5 Million in funding has
been granted by the French Development Agency to Expertise France in the form
of a 24-month technical assistance and capacity-building facility to support
the AU on issues within its area of expertise, which present important
challenges for the continent in line with the priorities set by the 2063
agenda for the transformation of Africa into a world power, and on which
France has significant expertise.
Through the France-AU Declaration of Intent, signed on 8 June 2018, the
following themes were identified: (i) peace, security and governance; (2)
economic integration and sustainable development; (3) education, culture, art,
sport and youth. This technical assistance Facility is fully in line with this
second theme. Furthermore, this Facility will aim at accompanying the AU on
issues on which it has directly taken action and which represent important
issues for the continent.
More precisely, it will focus on (i) Support the establishment of instruments
to achieve continental economic integration to make the African continent
stronger through the development of its intracontinental activity and (ii)
Enable African states to integrate sovereignty issues related to digital
development to enable the continent to fully and equitably enjoy the fruits of
this economy in full security. This proposed activity plays into these two key
priorities.
REQUIRED EXPERTISE
Interested candidates must provide information demonstrating that experts have
the required qualifications and proven experience and track records in
conducting similar assignment in the area of statistics, market access, trade
policy, and in developing of tariff schedules at national, regional and
multilateral levels. Experience of other developing countries will be a plus.
Qualification and Experience required for the position
* An advanced university degree or equivalent in a quantitative subject such as mathematics, statistics or economics;
* A minimum of ten (10) years of relevant work experience in the fields of economic research, econometrics, statistics or empirical data analysis;
* Knowledge of or previous work experience in the fields of international trade policy and tariff regimes, ideally on tariff offers, would constitute an asset;
* Familiarity with the HS 2017 system and previous versions thereof, as well as with WTO, TARIC, CEPII-BACI or other trade and tariff datasets;
* A strong quantitative background and familiarity with working with large amounts of data
* Excellent IT skills for statistical analysis and database/information management (R, Stata and database management tools strongly preferable);
* Ability to work independently and under tight deadlines; and
* A high level of attention to detail.
Language requirement
Working proficiency in one of the AU working languages is a requirement.
Proficiency in one or several of the AUs other working languages would be an
added advantage.
Expertise France is the public agency of French international technical cooperation. The agency operates around four priorities: * democratic, economic and financial governance; * security and stability of countries in crisis/post-crisis situations; * sustainable development; * strengthenin…