Economic Policy Advisor at GIZ Rwanda :Deadline: 09-10-2022

Vacancy Announcement

Economic Policy Advisor for Support to the AfCFTA programme

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a federally owned international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations. GIZ has worked in Rwanda for over 30 years. The primary objectives between the Government of Rwanda and the Federal Republic of Germany are poverty reduction and promotion of sustainable development. To achieve these objectives, GIZ Rwanda is active in the sectors of Decentralization and Good Governance, Economic Development and Employment Promotion, Energy and ICT (Information and Communications Technology).

At the 10th Extraordinary Summit of the African Union held in Kigali, Rwanda in March 2018, the agreement on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was signed. As part of the AU’s 2063 Agenda, the AfCFTA is one of the AU’s flagship projects. Currently, the agreement, which came into force in May 2019, has been signed by 54 of the 55 African states and as of April 2022 ratified by 42 states. Rwanda was the first country to ratify all the agreement’s instruments.

The Republic of Rwanda like many African member states still need sufficient capacities to successfully realise the AfCFTA. The specific roles to be played by the government, private sector, and civil society are currently not fully supported with requisite knowledge and skills for each to implement the AfCFTA commitments. Although responsibilities have been defined in the framework agreement, the specific working methods still need to be established in Rwanda through the National Strategy for Implementation of the AfCFTA. This requires building the capacity of all key stakeholders in specific matters of trade in goods and services among others as well as awareness raising and strengthening the necessary institutional and legal frameworks for realising the AfCFTA at a National level.

The Programme Support to the AfCFTA addresses institutional challenges to support the negotiation and implementation of the AfCFTA. It works at the continental, regional and national levels to respond to the complex nature of the AfCFTA’s negotiation and implementation as well as to the heterogeneity of the AfCFTA’s State Parties. Rwanda is one of eight countries supported at the national level.

The programme aims to strengthen the framework conditions at continental, regional and country level to realise the AfCFTA. For that, the GIZ AfCFTA programme is focusing its support on the following key areas:

• Strengthening institutions for strategic steering and coordination at continental, regional and national level
• Facilitating negotiations on Trade in Services (TiS) liberalisation
• Creating capacity to implement commitments under Trade in Goods (TiG) and facilitating negotiations
• Supporting preparation for phase two negotiation, specifically on Investment, Competition Policy and Digital Trade
• Promoting sustainability approaches for social, ecological and participatory trade negotiation and implementation of the AfCFTA

To effectively implement the programme activities in Rwanda, the AfCFTA Support Programme is searching for one candidate for the position of Economic Policy Advisor.

Location: Kigali

Fixed Term: 01.01.2023-31.07.2024

The Economic Policy Advisor performs the following responsibilities and tasks:

A.  Responsibilities

• Support the bilateral partners in Rwanda in fostering their role in implementing the AfCFTA through technical advisory services on the member state level
• Close collaboration with AU Commission, the GIZ AfCFTA Support Programme Team (which the advisor is part of) as well as with regional economic communities (RECs)
• Manage short-term experts to undertake subject-specific research into areas of concern to Member State representatives participating in technical meetings throughout the key project component topics of trade in services, goods as well as the investment protocol.
• Technical advice and project coordination on various aspects of trade integration, including trade in goods, trade in services, trade facilitation, and stakeholder involvement and possibly also industrialisation, value chains and other emerging topics
• Participate in the AfCFTA Team meetings and bilateral exchanges with AfCFTA advisors throughout the various project components and locations
• Work with other GIZ projects and be familiar with GIZ internal procurement processes

Tasks

• Support of the project and in particular the programme management in all areas of programme management; on all levels and all complexities
• Ensures the implementation of assigned workstreams
• Active support to the preparation of the operational plan for the Rwanda component; taking responsibility for assigned work packages
• Coordinate the preparation of contracts, prepare Terms of Reference and other project documents
  1. Work closely together with the technical advisors and head of component in following all steps and prepare all necessary documents for contracts
  2. Communication with potential consultants and contractors as well as partners
  3. Follow up all steps with GIZ HQ in Germany and Country Office of GIZ
• Coordinate communication, public relations, preparation of fact sheets, including social media and websites
  1. Collecting necessary information from technical staff to prepare fact sheets and project briefs.
  2. Coordinating inputs for communication documents
  3. Represent GIZ in technical discussion with partners and at conferences or events
• Support in setting up a monitoring system
• Support to comply with data protection regulations
  1. Be the liaison person with data protection unit in GIZ HQ
  2. Prepare and follow up all necessary steps to comply with data protection rules
• Support for the introduction of digital tools in the project
  1. Get familiar with all digital tools of GIZ and act as a mentor to all staff
• Documentation and follow-up of meetings with local and international companies
• Jointly responsible with the partner institution for preparing, implementing and documenting training events, workshops, forums, team meetings and other project activities
• Perform other duties and tasks at the request of management

Required Qualifications, Competences and Experience

Qualifications and professional experience

• Post-graduate degree or PhD in public policy, economics or similar, with a specialisation related to the programme’s content (e.g. trade policy, economic policy, trade facilitation, regional integration, or similar)
• 5 years of working experience in international trade, trade facilitation, regional economic integration
• At least 5-7 years of professional working experience in a similar position
• Experience in working with the Rwandan public sector and responsible institutions for topics of trade and commerce (e.g. MINICOM, RDB, etc.)
• Business fluent language skills in English

Interested  candidates  should  submit  their  application  (motivation  letter,  updated  CV,  certificates  and references) until 9th October 2022 at 4:00 PM by e-mail to recruitment-rw@giz.de. All attachments should be put together in one PDF file not larger than 2 MB. Please quote the job title in the subject.

GIZ is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified candidates. This includes the provision of reasonable accommodation, if needed, in order to participate in the job application and interview process and to perform essential job functions. Please let us know, if you have any particular requirements should you be invited for assessment/interview or that you wish us to consider, when considering your application. 

Women and persons with disabilities are particularly encouraged to apply.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for test and interview.

GIZ Office Rwanda

KN 41 St. / Nr.17, Kiyovu

P.O. Box 59, Kigali,

Rwanda

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