Result of Service

The ultimate result of the service is to provide a technical paper on assessing costs and risks of debt sustainability associated with sovereign debt and banking system in the Arab region.

Outputs/work assignment:
The following outputs are the deliverables of the consultant:
• The technical paper with about 30 pages.
• Excel files having any data, graphs/charts used in the paper need to be in editable format.

Work Location

Remotely

Expected duration

3 months

Duties and Responsibilities

ESCWA is producing The Debt and Fiscal Outlook Report, which presents analysis and tools that can support member states to inform policy particularly in the areas of increasing expenditure efficiency, developing effective borrowing strategy for debt optimization to minimize risks and costs of borrowing, and improving their preparedness for accessing innovative financing instruments to finance climate action and the SDGs. The report supports the overall ESCWA project “Sustainable Debt Financing Strategies to Enhance Fiscal Space, Provide Financing for the SDGs and Address the Repercussions of COVID-19 in the Arab Region”.
This consultancy aims to produce a technical paper assessing substantively and methodologically the exposure, costs and risks of debt sustainability associated with sovereign debt and banking system in the Arab region. The paper will inform the Debt and Fiscal Outlook Report and will provide substantive insights and policy recommendations regarding optimal strategies for sovereigns to reduce costs and risks associated with debt portfolios and support the development of the financial system. The consultant will work in close cooperation with the Project Coordinator and project team at ESCWA. The main duties and responsibilities of the consultant are the following:
• Discuss the linkages between banking system credit with sovereign risks of Arab governments, including detailed description of the interdependence between the Arab banks and government debt portfolios; analyze the role of sovereign debt in the development of financial markets in the Arab countries.
• Review the debt portfolios of banks and their exposure to sovereign risks in the Arab States, present the trends and important highlights including data from the banking system.
• Assess the costs and risks of sovereign debt instruments from banks perspective and compare sovereign debt instruments with other debt instruments of the banks; describe the drivers of these costs and risks.
• Analyze the drivers of sovereign debt portfolios from the banking system, how these drivers correlate with financial sector development, macro prudential regulations, and credit supply and discuss the implications for the macroeconomic stability.
• Provide policy recommendations for the sovereigns toward developing strategies to reduce costs and risks for financial sector associated with sovereign debt portfolios and facilitating the development of the financial sector.

Qualifications/special skills

A Master’s degree in finance, economics, international finance or any other related area is required.

All candidates must submit a copy of the required educational degree. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.
A minimum of ten years of work experience in research on bank debt portfolios and development of the financial system is required.
A minimum of ten years of experience in research on financial sector is required.

Languages

Languages English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat; and Arabic is a working language of ESCWA.

For this position, fluency in English language is required, and knowledge of Arabic language is desirable.

Note: “Fluency” equals a rating of ‘fluent’ in all four areas (speak, read, write, and understand) and “Knowledge of” equals a rating of ‘confident’ in two of the four areas.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.