Summary
Date Posted: Friday, July 23, 2021 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
Posting Title: SRO-SA IT Consultant for the development of an integrated data management system on External Trade Statistics
Department/Office: Economic Commission for Africa
Deadline: 30 July 2021
Job Opening Number: 21-Economic Commission for Africa-159712-Consultant
United Nations Core Values: Integrity, Professionalism, Respect for Diversity

Expected Results
• Strengthen capacities of the MIC in collecting, preparing, analysing and managing trade data and trade-related information in order to allow the Government of Mozambique to better leverage on regional trade agreements in Africa and other trade agreements to reap socio-economic benefits;
• Strengthen the use of data for evidence-based trade policy making in Mozambique (both trade in goods and trade in services);
• Contribute to improving availability of data on intra-regional trade in Africa (including on services);
Work Location
Remote or located in Mozambique
Expected duration
Duration
The assignment will be completed in five (5.0) work months. The breakdown of specific deliverables within the 5.0 months will be as below.
Item Main Activities Date/Period
• Recruitment of the consultant Mid-July2021
• Presentations of the template of the integrated data management system (at least three presentations) and integration of feedback and comments by MIC and ECA August/September/October 2021
• A draft version of the User Guide on the integrated data management system for comments by the international consultant, MIC and ECA September 2021
• Final delivery of the integrated data management system November 2021
A final version of the User Guide on the integrated data management system November 2021
Please note that ECA can extend the contracts at no additional fees to facilitate the completion of the deliverable.
Duties and Responsibilities
Project:
“Technical assistance to the Government of Mozambique to develop an integrated data management system on External Trade Statistics in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)”.

Background
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Sub-regional office for Southern Africa (SROSA) is currently supporting the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIC) of the Government of Mozambique on its National African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) process. In the context of this partnership, the MIC addressed a request for technical assistance to the ECA SRO SA to set up and operationalize a Database for facilitating the compilation, management and utilization of external trade statistics in Mozambique. Such technical assistance can be embedded as part of ECA’s overall ongoing support to Mozambique to validate its National African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Strategy and Action plan and to eventually implement the Strategy, as Mozambique prepares itself to ratify the Agreement establishing the AfCFTA this year. The beneficiary of this technical assistance will be the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIC), in particular the National Directorate of External Trade through the Department of Statistical Analysis and Commercial Information Research which is the institutional vehicle that coordinates trade data collection, and that internally involves National Directorates, Business Agencies, Provincial Directorates and the Private Sector.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade has the primary responsibility for generating credible and integrated trade statistics as a strategic support for the elaboration of policy measures and mechanisms to promote competitiveness, export diversification and investment improvement in the country. Currently, the compilation and generation of trade statistics is being carried out in an insufficiently integrated and irregular manner.
The availability of reliable, credible, and relevant trade statistics in a regular, timely manner will be critical in ensuring that the implementation of the AfCFTA and the reaping of its expected benefits are properly monitored. The availability of reliable trade statistics is also critical to ensure that trade policies are based on evidence and that the effectiveness of such policies is also evaluated on the basis of impartial factual evidence -this contributes to overall improved economic governance. The ready availability of trade statistics and trade-related indicators will also allow the country to identify areas of weaknesses that should be improved for enhanced trade competitiveness in order to better take advantage of the AfCFTA.
The Action Plan for Boosting Intra-African trade (BIAT) identifies trade information among its seven pillars. Under “trade information”, the BIAT recommends that “trade institutions and trade related associations should be empowered so that they can effectively collect, analyze and disseminate trade information to their wider membership; there should be synergies in the collection and dissemination of trade information especially among the public sector agencies; there is need for collective investment into trade Information, such as on data bases and communication infrastructure, to ensure that there is availability of quality information; and there is need to strengthen data collection and aggregation at the national and regional levels”.
Currently ECA SRO SA is providing technical assistance (TA) to the MIC to strengthen trade information in Mozambique in the context of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA), the AfCFTA and the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) in a project titled “Technical assistance to the Government of Mozambique to develop an integrated data management system on External Trade Statistics in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)” . This TA directly contributes to building statistical capacities for better reporting on SDG 17 indicators. It is also a timely activity as the African Trade Observatory is being set up as one of the five operational instruments of the AfCFTA, given its proper functioning will rest on the supply of reliable and timely trade statistics from member states, such as Mozambique.
In the context of this TA, ECA SRO SA is looking to recruit an IT consultant whose primary task will be develop an integrated data management system on External Trade Statistics in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) at the MIC.
Duties and Responsibilities
The consultant is expected to work under the direct supervision of the international (substantive) consultant in charge of leading the execution of the integrated data management system and of the indirect supervision of the Economic affairs officer of the Sub-Regional Initiatives (SRI) unit of ECA SRO SA, reporting to the Chief of SRI and the responsible officer of MIC. The consultant will be expected to work closely with MIC and other national consultants who will be recruited to collect data.

Specifically, the IT consultant will:
• Work closely with the international consultant and IT assistants of MIC to design, set up and operationalize the integrated trade data system;
• Be in charge to execute all the IT technical aspects of the work to make the integrated data management system fully functional;
• Prepare a User Guide that will guide MIC in the operational aspects of the system and the methods to be employed to address any technical glitches in the system and the type of IT support that will be necessary to ensure sustainability in use;
• Execute ad-hoc requests that may arise in the course of the assignment and whose delivery are deemed to be necessary to ensure the successful set up and operationalization of the integrated trade data system.
It is expected that the integrated trade data system will allow trade officials at the MIC, Central Bank of Mozambique and the National Institute of Statistics to undertake research and policy analysis on trade-related issues, monitor the evolution of international trade prices and trends in trade at a national, regional, and global level, and produce a monthly trade bulletin containing information on prices, external trade positions of Mozambique among others
Deliverables
The deliverables from this assignment will include:
• A 5-page (min.) inception report outlining the understanding of the task, issues to be addressed, methodology and sources of information;
• A progress report detailing progress made, challenges being encountered and risks expected and actions to be taken to address them as well as provide information on the design and contents of the integrated data management system;
• A final report detailing the integrated data management system, its components and contents;
• A data integrated management system that is validated by stakeholders including MIC and ECA.
• A User’s Guide for the data integrated management system

Qualifications/special skills
Academic Qualifications: Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or above) in computer science, IT/software engineering, or related fields is required.
Experience: The candidate should have a minimum of five (5) years of proven experience in designing and setting up data management systems with preferably a focus on economic and social statistics and demonstrated experience at writing User’s guide on operations systems or any other closely related area. Excellent (written and oral) communications skills will be an advantage.
Language:  English and French are the working languages of the United Nations. For this post, fluency in English (both oral and written) are required. Fluency in Portuguese is an advantage.

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 60

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

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