Background: Although many of the world"s fastest-growing economies are in Africa, trade among African countries remains limited. The continent mostly exports raw materials and agricultural products, while it imports machinery, equipment, and food mainly from outside Africa. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which is one of the African Union"s (AU) flagship projects for the implementation of its Agenda 2063, aims to change this. It is expected that, with the introduction of the free trade zone, intra- African trade will be 15% to 25% higher by 2040 (UNECA). The AfCFTA agreement has been signed by 54 of the 55 African Union Member States (MS) and became effective under international law in May 2019. The full implementation of the AfCFTA will lead to a continental single market of more than 1.4 billion people with an aggregate GDP exceeding USD 2 trillion. Our Approach: The GIZ implemented project "Support to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) II" cofinanced by the BMZ and the EU, seeks to improve framework conditions for the realisation of the AfCFTA and supports the outstanding negotiations and the implementation of the AfCFTA. For this, the programme supports the African Union, specifically the Department for Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry, Minerals (ETTIM) and the AfCFTA Secretariat at the continental level in the coordination of AfCFTA implementation. On the regional level the programme cooperates with Regional Economic Communities (RECs), specifically EAC (East African Community), ECOWAS (Economic Community for West African States) and SADC (South African Development Community, plus additional RECs based on request). The programme also supports Member States (Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tunisia, Zambia, plus additional Member States based on request) by working with national institutions, like trade ministries and customs, to implement the agreement. Lastly, the programme works closely with private sector and civil society actors to increase trade under the AfCFTA. Together with the named partners, the programme covers interventions across all technical areas of the AfCFTA. The EU co-financed part of the programme, the EU Technical Assistance Facility, operates as a multi-partner contribution agreement between the European Commission, GIZ (lead implementing agency), Expertise France, and FIAP. A Project Management Unit, which is housed in the AfCFTA Secretariat, oversees the implementation of the programme and the execution of activities.

10022598-Short-Term Expert Pools to support negotiations and implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)

The project seeks the services of a consulting firm to provide technical experts under different short-term expert (STE) pools, which can be deployed flexibly according to the specific demands of the project. The Contractor will contribute to the implementation of all BMZ and EU outputs of the project. The overall goal of this assignment is to support the implementation of the AfCFTA at the continental, regional, and national level by providing advisory services and capacity building for governmental as well as private sector and civil society stakeholders. When the need for support to the project"s partners within a particular thematic area is identified, experts shall be mobilised to provide demand-driven technical advisory services and/or capacity building to national, regional, and continental government partners and/or the project itself. The contract is for the provision of pools of qualified STE to cover a broad range of issues relating to AfCFTA negotiations and implementation in general and the programme objectives in particular. The services to be provided under the contract include measures for human capacity development and organisational and technical advice in the following thematic areas: - Removing barriers to Trade in Goods, Trade in Services and Digital Trade - Support for further AfCFTA negotiations (among others on Rules of Origin, Trade in Services) - Support for the ratification of the Phase II Protocols (Competition Policy, Intellectual Property Rights, Investment, Digital Trade, Women & Youth in Trade) - Implementation of AfCFTA regulations at the national and regional levels - Monitor and review the implementation of AfCFTA Protocols in African Union Member States (AU MS) - Improve access to trade information to relevant line ministries and to the private sector - Support the African private sector to trade under AfCFTA rules on the national and regional level - Support relevant authorities to setup inclusive policies for women & youth traders to participate in trade under AfCFTA The contractor will identify and manage pools of STE that will assist the initiatives in the programme"s areas of intervention. While the project operates Africa-wide, it focuses interventions at national level in 8 countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tunisia, and Zambia. At REC level it focuses at EAC, ECOWAS, and SADC. Interventions to additional AU MS and RECs will be implemented based on partner demand. Across the work packages named below, the contractor is responsible for the following tasks: - Supporting the GIZ in defining the required expertise to reach the project objectives under the described outputs - Identifying and proposing suitable experts from the STE pool - Selecting experts together with the GIZ team - Managing the deployment of experts Expected services that may be included in the work packages are: - Technical, operational, and strategic policy advisory services in the thematic areas listed above - Support in developing, drafting and reviewing reports, studies, analyses, position papers, guidelines, action plans, strategies, implementation plans, legislation, regulations in the thematic areas listed above. - Research and analysis, including diagnostic missions to assess implementation efforts of the AfCFTA protocols, identify obstacles and propose measures to advance implementation. - Facilitation of private sector participation in policy-making processes, facilitation of dialogue and coordination between public and private sector actors relevant to AfCFTA negotiations and implementation - Facilitation of national, regional, and continental workshops and conferences, including interpretation and translation services and providing expert inputs - Provision of support services to the project, including on optimising M&E systems, the design of communication materials, workshop moderation, translation and interpretation services. Deliverables will mainly be in English or French, but may also be in the other official AU languages (Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili) depending on the context of the activity The required services are focused, but not limited, on five work packages which are oriented to different stakeholders: Work package 1: Strengthen the AfCFTA Secretariat"s capacity to guide and monitor AfCFTA implementation. Work package 2: Strengthen AUC ETTIM"s capacity to support and monitor the enabling environment for production of goods and services for African markets. Work package 3: Support the coordination of the AfCFTA implementation approach among selected RECs (EAC, ECOWAS, and SADC). Work package 4: Support the domestication and ratification of the AfCFTA Protocols and their Annexes in selected AU MS. Work package 5: Enable private sector actors to trade under AfCFTA rules on the country and regional level. Additionally, the contractor is required to support the provision of support services to the project as well as to partner institutions at the continental, regional and national level under all the work packages above. This includes communication services, moderation services, Monitoring & Evaluation support, translation services, and interpretation services.