UNDP Jobs - 70367- Provision of individual services of an expert to d

Provision of individual services of an expert to develop a Background Paper on Supply Chains and Regional Value-Chains in the Arab Region.

Location :

Beirut, LEBANON

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

03-Feb-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

working days from contract signature date but no later than 15 April 2017.

Languages Required :

Arabic English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

working days from contract signature date but no later than 15 April 2017.

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

In partnership with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Trade and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) project aims to provide a contextualized understanding of the potential contribution of trade to sustainable and inclusive growth in the Arab region by establishing a conceptual and analytical framework and developing a monitoring mechanism that includes pertinent indicators to measure progress and identify challenges with policy implications. In this regard, trade is viewed as an effective instrument of promoting citizens’ well-being while tightening economic linkages among economies to enhance business and employment opportunities.
However, trade is becoming ever more challenging in a region that is witnessing increased militarization and where many of the Arab countries have been suffering from political crises and conflicts, or affected by on-going conflicts in neighboring countries since 2011. This difficult situation is further compounded by increasing protectionism in the global market and a deteriorating economic outlook in Europe, one of the main trading partners of the Arab countries.
Amid these difficulties, it is important to initiate an informed discussion taking into consideration continuous efforts and rising challenges in strengthening economic cooperation in the region. Despite this, in 2015 and 2016, Arab countries made important progress in deepening regional economic integration, such as conclusion of the Beirut Round of negotiations in trade in services, adoption of several measures by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in the design of Arab Customs Union as well as upgrading performance of the current PAFTA.
With this in mind, the project aims to achieve the following objectives:
1. Objective 1: Enhance analytical understanding and monitoring capacity on the linkages between trade and SDGs in the Arab region context.
2. Objective 2: Facilitate working-level exchange on trade and SDGs that would feed into an evidence-based policy dialogue and debate at the regional level.
It is also expected that the project helps to identify major baselines and potential indicators to support monitoring process of realization of SDGs in the region, with trade and trade-related measures. In one side, activities will look into how to mainstream trade for development and modalities of monitoring the progress of implementation of related measures at national and regional level. In another side, activities serve to collect strategic thoughts and suggestions from high-level policy makers, researchers, academicians and practitioners on the next steps to deepen Arab economic integration. Particularly, works by the project helps formulation of directions of mainstreaming trade for Arab countries in achieving the SDGs.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Trade and SDGs Regional Project is aiming to produce analytical papers on the expected impacts of trade on the achievement of the SDGs. In particular, the project is looking to recruit a Trade Expert to produce a paper on “Supply Chains and Regional Value-Chains in the Arab Region”. The overall objective of the work is to research on and examine keys challenges and opportunities for value chain development
in the Arab region especially in light of the slower pace in the expansion of the Global Value Chains (GVCs) and given the diversity and the complementarity of the regional production system. It will support design of public policies and programmes, which support better growth, decent jobs and more integrated Arab market that in turn, helps to alleviate poverty in the region through bringing about opportunities of businesses and income generation (SDG 1). Specifically, the SDGs point to a significant number of interconnected activities in promoting sustainable and inclusive growth in all countries. In effect, they call for development of quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, include cross border infrastructure as major enabler.
Supply chains and development of value chains are essential for Arab economic integration and plays a significant role in making trade an engine of growth. Extensive literature estimated that trade costs in MENA might have accounted for 20 to 40 percent of the final price of exports to the world. Efficiency of supply chains in Arab countries lags behind other regions like Latin America while some of they have reached equivalent level of performance with their peers as per Logistics Performance Index. Effective supply chains favor optimization of factors of production and promotes complementarity among production networks of the countries in the region. At the same time, they contribute to raise the productivity of commercial transactions and exchange, and attract more investment from domestic private sector and overseas investors.
With this in mind, the project targets analysis of the potential that supply value chains offer to improve economic linkages across various sectors and production networks in Arab countries towards achievement of SDGs. This preliminary analysis (in the form of a background paper) would be consulted with experts, policy makers who are members of the being-established Working Group (WG) and possibly governmental authorities as required.
To develop the paper, services of a consultant is required for the review of pertinent economic, trade, trade-related policies and any public policy having impact to the performance of supply chains at the first instance and the value chains in the region. She/he would assist with quantitative and qualitative analysis of its achievements and shortcomings; particular, it is expected forward looking proposals of substantial transformation in support of new policies to continually enhance operations and optimize trade costs. Specifically, the following, inter alia, could be expected from the research:

Overview of trade and trade-related policies and measures of encouragement of establishment and operations of value chains and supply chains;
Supply chains and value chains for promotion of trade/transport corridors and economic clusters in Arab countries;
Linkage and interaction between supply and value chains and e-commerce;
Design public policies for more effective and efficient supply chains and value chains;
Supply chains and value chains and services and its contribution to specific SDGs to deepen Arab economic integration.

The expert should initially carry out a series of discussions with UNDP staff and sector experts (Working Group), and map the key documents and focus areas related to the subject of study.
After presenting a detailed outline that describes the proposed approach and incorporating input by relevant UNDP staff, the trade expert is expected to submit a 12/15-page draft paper based on (1) the latest available statistics of the period 2011-2015, (2) the latest updates on national policies and main regional and global trade negotiations in agriculture, (3) potential contribution of supply chain and value chains to implement SDGs, (4) relevant regional and effects and interactions of supply chain and value chains for Arab economic integration; and (5) other topics aforementioned and (6) relevant regional and global factors.
Furthermore, the expert is responsible of producing a final version of the paper by incorporating feedback received by the Trade and SDGs Working Group. The final analytical product is expected to provide a clear understanding of the nature of the relationship between trade and agriculture within the SDGs framework in the Arab region, which could feed into evidence-based policies and suggestions on the next steps to take full advantage of the benefits of trade in agriculture and to deepen Arab economic integration. A summary blog (800 words) should be submitted subsequently.
The paper should be properly referenced using the Harvard system or other academic conventions.

Competencies

Functional competencies:

In-depth knowledge of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and familiarity with global trade agenda, particularly WTO;
Published at least 5 articles in academic journals and/or research papers with international or regional organizations.

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Kindly refer to the Individual Consultant Procurement Notice and all related Annexes by visiting the below link:

http://www.lb.undp.org/content/lebanon/en/home/operations/procurement/

Please make sure to submit all the requested documents/information; otherwise, your application will be considered incomplete

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

Advanced university degree or equivalent in International trade, Economics, Development Studies or other relevant fields.

Years of experience:

At least 10 years of relevant working experience and at least 5 years of professional research experience covering trade in the Arab Region;
Extensive experience in and knowledge of issues related to economic integration, trade and inclusive growth;
Previous experience working for the UN is a plus.

Language requirements:

Language proficiency in both written and oral English. Arabic is an asset.

Kindly refer to the Individual Consultant Procurement Notice and all related Annexes by visiting the below link:

http://www.lb.undp.org/content/lebanon/en/home/operations/procurement/

Please make sure to submit all the requested documents/information; otherwise, your application will be considered incomplete