Beschreibung der Beschaffung
This tender involves the supply and management of short-term expert services to the GIZ African Continental Free Trade (AfCFTA) programme. The contractor"s services will be part of the overall programme and will therefore follow the same strategy and objectives. This strategy is a results-oriented approach that requires a high level of flexibility.
The services will be delivered mainly by short-term experts in form of technical and administrative services related to the key intervention areas of the programme in institution building, trade in services, trade in goods, investment, competition policy and e-commerce/ digital trade. Furthermore, cross-cutting areas such as sustainability, stakeholder engagement, process management and monitoring & evaluation will be included. As the AfCFTA programme is working at the continental level with the AUC Department for Economic Development, Trade, Industry, Mining (ETIM) in Addis and the AfCFTA Secretariat in Ghana as well as with regional bodies (ECOWAS, EAC) and focus countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda, Tunisia) the details of requested services will depend on the specific demand from these partners and will imply different locations of service delivery. Advisory services will be needed and organized along the lines of four programme outputs:
— The objective of output 1 is to strengthen the capacity of the AfCFTA Secretariat, relevant departments of the AUC and selected member states to strategically steer and coordinate AfCFTA implementation. Services will be needed in the area of strategic policy advice on trade policy issues and institution building (shaping the negotiation process and balancing interests),
— Output 2 aims to prepare the negotiations on the liberalization of trade in services. Required Capacity Development (CD) measures will be based on the AU Strategy for Service Sector Development, with a focus on the priority sectors of transportation and tourism. In this context negotiation and analytical capacities of representatives from the AU, REC and member states have to be developed further,
— The goal of output 3 is to improve capacities for implementing selected commitments on trade in goods. Support is required to improve the efficiency of the technical working groups on customs cooperation and trade facilitation and the cooperation between the AUC ETIM and the AfCFTA Secretariat, this includes development of strategic competences for experts and executives of AUC, RECs and/or ministries in the member states,
— Output 4 aims to improve the conditions for the content of the further negotiation phases of the member states, especially investment, competition policy and digital trade. Required support services comprise on the one hand CD measures for trade related experts and managers (AUC, REC, national level) in order to strengthen their competencies for development and negotiation of pending protocols and on the other hand activities to improve the analytical foundations, which will improve evidence-based policy formulation.
A short-term expert, referred to as pool manager and employed by the contractor, will be responsible for the management of two pools of experts ("Short-term Expert Pool", STEP) - (1) a pool of technical senior experts and (2) a pool of technical junior experts - and will assess the need for consultancy services in close collaboration with the advisors, coordinators and managers of the AfCFTA programme.
Supporting the wider reporting requirement of the Module, the contractor will need to submit progress reports four times a year. The format of the reporting will be agreed at the beginning of the contract