Digital Trade Specialist, IPSA 11 – UNCDF-BTCA-Accra, Ghana
JOB DETAIL
The Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) entered into force on 30 May 2019. Since then, the Secretariat has been established, and the leading institutions have been activated, notably the Council of Ministers Responsible for Trade, the Dispute Settlement Body, the Committee of Senior Trade Officials, and the Committees and Sub-committees. One such Committee is the Committee on Digital Trade, which is responsible for negotiating and monitoring the implementation of the Digital Trade Protocol and making recommendations to the Council of Ministers responsible for Trade through the Committee of Senior Trade Officials (STOs).
Additionally, several instruments, including the AfCFTA Adjustment Fund, the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), the Online NTBs reporting, monitoring, and elimination mechanism, and the AfCFTA e-Tariff Book, are operational.
The AfCFTA has demonstrated its potential through the Guided Trade Initiative, which should now mean that economic operators can trade across State Parties in all products covered by the respective Tariff Schedules of the State Parties.
In 2021, the AfCFTA Secretary-General agreed to be a leading Africa Digital Financial Inclusion champion. Since then, Better Than Cash Alliance has supported the SG’s advocacy efforts and the AfCFTA Protocol on Digital Trade development. At the request of the AfCFTA Secretary-General, the Alliance led the development of the AfCFTA Call to Action for Digital Financial Inclusion for the Success of the AfCFTA; served on the Ad-hoc Taskforce for the Protocol on Digital Trade; contributed to the development and negotiation of the Protocol on Digital Trade, and serves at Senior Digital Advisor. The Alliance advocacy efforts resulted in Inclusion and Digital Trade becoming the theme. They led efforts to incorporate digital financial inclusion into the AfCFTA Protocol on Digital Trade and, ultimately, the focus on inclusion and digital trade, now the theme of the AfCFTA Secretariat for 2024 – 2026. The Better Than Cash Alliance serves as Senior Digital Advisor and is the leading Inclusion implementing partner of the AfCFTA Protocol on Digital Trade Partner. Against this background, the Alliance is supporting the AfCFTA Secretary-General to recruit a Digital Trade Specialist to lead the heavy lifting of implementing the protocol on digital trade, as well as 2 program support officers to coordinate all.
1. Lead the coordination of the development and implementation of the Protocol on Digital Trade action plan among all State Parties:
a. Attending and reporting on negotiation meetings, managing relevant documents, and arranging necessary meetings of all stakeholders to ensure the alignment of national laws and regulations of State Parties with the Protocol on Digital Trade;
b. Lead the implementation of the Digital Trade Corridor project.
2. Lead the development and negotiations of the Annexes (supplementary documents to the AfCFTA Protocol on Digital Trade) to the Protocol on Digital Trade:
a. Manage private sector engagement to ensure understanding and successful implementation of the Protocol on Digital Trade;
b. Coordinate activities ensuring inclusion and digital trade are incorporated in all AfCFTA Secretariat initiatives;
c. Coordinate the organization of AfCFTA digital trade forums, capacity-building seminars, webinars, and conferences for State Parties, RECs, and Continental level in support of digital trade implementation.
3. Coordination of technical advisory on digital trade:
a. Coordinate the development of studies, policy briefs, situational analyses, and papers on digital trade;
b. Participate in Digital Trade missions as required.
The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.
Institutional Arrangement
This assignment will be supervised by the Better Than Cash Alliance Secretariat Lead, Africa Policy, Advocacy & Partnerships.
Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact.
Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems
Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences.
Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands.
Act with Determination: LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results.
Engage and Partner: LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration.
Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity.
Cross-Functional & Technical competencies
Thematic Area Name Definition
Business Direction & Strategy – System Thinking
- Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgment to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system and to consider how altering one element can impact other parts of the system.
Business Direction & Strategy – Negotiation and Influence
- Ability to reach an understanding, persuade others, resole points of difference, gain advantage in the outcome of dialogue, negotiates mutually acceptable solutions through compromise and creates win-win situations.
Business Management – Portfolio Management
- Ability to select, prioritise and control the organization’s programmes and projects, in line with its strategic objectives and capacity; ability to balance the implementation of change initiatives and the maintenance of business-as-usual, while optimising return on investment.
Digital Innovation – Data analysis
- Ability to extract, analyse and visualize data (including Real-Time Data) to form meaningful insights and aid effective decision making.
Partnership management – Private sector engagement
- Ability to identify, conduct outreach, and manage relationships with the private sector.
Partnership Management – Relation management
- Ability to engage with various stakeholders in the payments ecosystem to build, sustain, and strengthen working partnerships, trust, and mutual understanding.
- Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in International Trade, Economics, International Law, a Technology-related subject, or any other relevant area is required.
Or
- A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in the above area with two additional years of relevant work experience will be given due consideration instead of an advanced University degree.
- A minimum of 7 years (with a master’s degree) or 9 years (with a bachelor’s degree) of professional experience in progressively responsive positions in/working on trade matters is required.
Required skills
- Proven record working in a multicultural environment is required.
- Proven project management experience is required.
Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies section
- Experience working on the implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Agreement is desirable.
- Experience advising governments on trade and digital trade-related issues is desirable.
- Experience with continental, regional, and national policymaking on relevant trade digitalisation is desirable.
- Knowledge of continental trade and integration goals/aspirations and how digitalization can support accelerate them is a plus.
- Experience in trade negotiations is a crucial asset.
- Experience writing for a policy audience and engagement with public and private sector stakeholders in international trade and digitalisation or digital trade regulation in Africa is desired.
- A proven understanding of Africa’s regional integration agenda and key AfCFTA issues is highly desired.
Language(s)
- Fluency in spoken and written English is required.
- Working knowledge in one of the African Union working languages (Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish or Swahili) is desired.
The following documents shall be required from the applicants:
a) Personal CV or P11, indicating all past positions held and their main underlying functions, their durations (month/year), the qualifications, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate, and at least three (3) the most recent professional references of previous supervisors. References may also include peers.
b) A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page) indicating why the candidate considers him-/herself to be suitable for the position.
c) Managers may ask (ad hoc) for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, such as reports, presentations, publications, campaigns or other materials.
Travel:
a) UNCDF will cover the cost of the individual’s travel to the duty station and their return to their home upon completing their services. Travel costs are covered only if the function is physically undertaken in the duty station.
b) The candidate would be expected to travel within Africa and other countries when needed.
