Regional Facility for Business Development and Investment Climate Eastern Africa, Southern Africa and Indian Ocean

The contract will provide technical assistance services covering 25 countries in Eastern, Southern Africa in order to support interventions falling into three different categories: the macro-level which aims at creating a fertile environment for the private sector to grow, the mid-level which targets interventions at market level, in order to address market failures, enhancing value chains and competitiveness, and the micro-level which works directly with businesses and individuals. Ideally the aim is to have a coherent approach that would include micro-, mid-, and macro-interventions supporting a configuration of the private sector needs in a way that enable it to contribute to economic growth, job creation and poverty reduction.

The purpose of the contract is to deliver high-level technical assistance to strengthen access to finance and implementation of dedicated financial instruments, and improve the investment climate for inclusive and sustainable growth, job creation and decent work.
A Regional Technical Assistance Facility (hereinafter the RTAF), will be established, pooling expertise from Academia, technical experts, practitioners and business managers from Europe and Africa.

For this upcoming regional project AFC cooperates with GOPA Consultants.

The Expert will be responsible to conduct impact assessments with a focus on the economic, environmental and social dimensions according to standards developed in EU policy making. She/he will analyse and identify constraints, barriers and obstacles to entrepreneurship, business development, trade and investments as well as corresponding measures to overcome these. Moreover (non-exhaustive list):

  • Collect and analyse baseline data;
  • Identify main stakeholders and analyse their capacity to implement reforms;
  • Conduct analysis on women economic empowerment and reducing the gender gap;
  • Analyse local financial intermediaries, such as commercial banks and credit institutions, and their organisation, services and products, in order to better understand the obstacles for a better access to finances for MSMEs;
  • Gather evidence on the use of digital technologies as an enabler for sustainable development and on the opportunities to foster innovation, the digital ecosystem, digital entrepreneurship and job creation;
  • Analyse labour market institution’s needs, skills and training needs, and labour standards implementation gaps;
  • Conduct market and value chains analysis in order to identify potential business and investment opportunities, and their potential for job creation;
  • Provide support to enable businesses to benefit from the local or regional natural competitive advantage;
  • Conduct analysis on regional economic and trade integration;
  • Analyse business continuity and decent work in the context of conflicts, fragility, natural disasters or pandemics.
Qualifications: 

Qualifications and skills:

  • A level of education corresponding to at least 5 years’ completed university studies in economics, business management and/or other related fields or a professional qualification of an equivalent level, followed by a minimum of 6 years' relevant professional experience;
  • Excellent writing and oral presentation skills in English. Working knowledge of French and/or Portuguese and/or Arabic would be an advantage;
  • Expertise in project management (including coordination, planning, note-taking and reporting, liaising with experts and stakeholder groups, drafting terms of reference for the provision of short-term expertise and organising the selection of experts, assisting the experts in the organisation of events, reporting to the EU);
  • Expertise in the financial & administrative requirements of EU contracts;
  • Fully computer literate, proficient user of Microsoft Office and good understanding of database software.

General professional experience

  • At least 10 years of professional experience, following the above mentioned education level, covering the identification, formulation and/or evaluation of policies and strategies in the area of business environment reform and value chain development;
  • At least 10 years of relevant professional experience in developing countries;
  • At least 5 years of experience in the private sector preferably in a SME;
  • Work experience with other development agencies will be an asset;

Specific professional experience

  • At least 5 years of experience with sector approaches for Business environment reforms, private sector development, trade and support to MSMEs;
  • Demonstrable specific expertise in dialogues and negotiations with national Governments;
  • Demonstrable knowledge of the latest developments of national and international, including EU, policies and programmes in the field of business environment reform;

 

Start / Duration: 

The intended start date is 16 November 2020 and the period of implementation of the contract will be 48 months from this date.

Please send your most recent CV to: job [at] afci.de