The second pillar of the WASOP programme implemented by Expertise France aims to support the implementation of a sustainable and inclusive Blue Economy in 13 countries in West Africa.

Under Result 2, it is planned that a Blue Facility will, at the request of project beneficiaries (EU delegations/UEDs, states, ministries, regional organizations), provide thematic expertise and technical support services on blue economy. This may include:

-        training courses;

-        capacity building,

-        strategic studies;

-        development of public policy documents and decision support tools related to BE,

-       the design of national programmes, etc.

This technical assistance will take the form of short-term experts, consultancies, etc.

Expertise France will monitor these services and report to the European Union, the donor of the WASOP programme. The Technical Assistance Superviser will help to define and implement the process developed by EF to stablish and maintain a dialogue with the beneficiary countries and support them in formulating their needs. He/she will coordinate the deployment of the Blue Facility and will contribute to the WASOP SBE project by endorsing the technical positions resulting from the Blue Facility.

Under the supervision of the Deputy Director and supported by a Technical Assistance Officer, he/she will:

1.     Set up the Blue Facility and process Technical Assistance requests within the framework of the Blue Facility;

2.     Steering operations of the Blue Facility (Result 2);

3.     Contribute technical support on blue economy and climate change topics within the project.

The Technical Assistance Coordinator will also be supported by a team of key senior experts on technical and strategic issues related to the Blue Economy.

Technical Assistance Facility

1-     Blue Facility Setup

Expertise France has developed a methodology for deploying technical assistance missions, in response to requests from institutional beneficiaries. Under the supervision of the Deputy Director, this methodology will be capitalized to fine-tune the Blue Facility, taking into account the results of the diagnostic study. The WASOP SBE project will roll out this study starting in April 2025; one of the major deliverables will be a note proposing intervention modalities for the Blue Facility: priority needs, intervention packages, etc. The Blue Facility Coordinator will contribute to the technical supervision of the diagnostic mission on the Blue Facility component. For this purpose, he/she may take part in certain missions.

The setting up of the facility will include:

-        Specify priorities for interventions and the modus operandi of the Facility, from the emergence of needs to the completion of missions;

-        Define and present the package of interventions by type of country / needs / sectors / actors based on identified needs;

-        Build up a network of experts and consultants, engineering firms.

-        From the note produced by the diagnostic study, draft the operational manual for the Blue Facility.

2-    Receiving and analysing TA requests:

Requests for Technical Assistance will be submitted via an online platform. Upon receiving these requests, under the direction of the Deputy Project Director and with the assistance of key senior experts, the TA Coordinator will:

-        Analyse the relevance of requests in relation with regional, national and European priorities. The aim will be to ensure that requests are consistent with the thematic objectives of the Sustainable and Inclusive Blue Economy, including climate change mitigation and adaptation. In addition, the requests must be consistent with the Blue Facility’s service offering;

-        Provide technical insight on national priorities for the sustainable and inclusive blue economy and identify opportunities for intervention by the Blue Facility;

-        Where necessary, mobilize studies or complementary expertise to perform diagnostics and supplement the analysis.

-        If necessary, propose rework of the requests to the applicants;

-        Maintain a regular level of information to the EUDs and, as far as possible, ensure their involvement.

3-    Thematic dialogue and technical support on the details of the request:

Under the leadership of the Deputy Director, the TA Coordinator will support the thematic dialogue with the counterparts (sectoral ministries and/or institutions), in order to describe and detail potential actions to be implemented. He/she will advise and guide the choices of counterparts, providing specific technical support on topics related to climate change and sustainable and inclusive blue economy:

-        Thematic facilitation of exchanges with counterparts;

-        Preparation of work plans specifying requests and detailing needs (expertise, technical assistance or training);

-        Integration of gender aspects in programming, in conjunction with Gender Advisor;

-        Integration of climate change aspects (adaptation and/or mitigation) into programming.

4-     Programming:

From the work plan, the TA Coordinator will detail the programming of the TA mission:

-        Prioritization of activities and missions;

-        Preparation of the Terms of Reference for technical assistance services, detailing the format and modalities for each mission.

-        Design of training plans: format, plans, contents, evaluation, etc. Preparation of the Terms of Reference for trainers.

5-     Implementation:

In conjunction with the Procurement Officer and the Logistics Officer, the TA Coordinator will identify the relevant expertise to perform the Technical Assistance missions and supervise their deployment and implementation of their activities:

-        Identification of the relevant expert for each mission;

-        Preparation of service contracts;

-        Monitoring service contracts: issue and manage purchase orders;

-        Monitoring the implementation of contracts: verification of services and deliverables;

-        Prepare and coordinate the organization of expert missions: safety of personnel, logistics, communication with stakeholders, etc.

-        Coordination of the various expert missions;

-        Follow-up of invoicing and payments to experts.

6-    Evaluation and capitalization:

The TA Coordinator will carry out qualitative monitoring and reporting of the implementation of Technical Assistance, with the support of the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer:

-        Preparation of the ex-post evaluation materials for TA missions (satisfaction questionnaires, exchanges, workshops, etc.);

-        Collection, processing and analysis of feedback on TA missions with the aim of improving the process;

-        Identification of possible challenges and opportunities related to the deployment of TA;

-        Identification of the success factors of the scheme and lessons learned, in conjunction with the Knowledge Management Officer;

-        If relevant, development of capitalization activities: peer exchange trips, workshops, etc.

-        Development and regular reporting of a table of indicators relating to TA.

Steering the “Blue Facility” (Result 2)

Under the supervision of the Deputy Director, the TA Manager will perform the overall operational and budgetary management of Result 2, namely:

-        The development and regular updating of a tool for monitoring technical assistance;

-        Regular communication on the Technical Assistance Facility, in particular after the European Union Delegation in Praia;

-        Regular planning of the budget dedicated to technical assistance, in particular for quarterly budgetary monitoring exercises internal to Expertise France, but also throughout the year;

-        Coordination of technical assistance missions, from start to finish;

-        The creation and animation of a pool of thematic experts, in connection with the sustainable and inclusive blue economy;

-        Making any changes or modifications necessary to improve the Technical Assistance Facility, subject to validation by the project’s governance bodies;

-        Contribution to the mandatory project reporting and monitoring of project indicators;

-        The archive of all operational, accounting and financial documentation relating to technical assistance contracts, following the procedures of Expertise France.

Contribution to technical support on EB-related topics within the WASOP SBE project

Under the responsibility of the WASOP SBE Project Director, the AT leader will contribute to technical coordination activities to endorse the positions / technical expertise resulting from the Blue Facility interventions within the WASOP program.

The TA leader will be asked to contribute to the development of content for the preparation

-       Technical and steering meetings

-       WASOP participation in regional/international events related to the blue economy

-       Practitioners’ network and strategic communications programming

NB. He/she will not be responsible for the implementation of these activities, but called to contribute to overall project coherence.

(Ideally) Climate change expertise

The Technical Assistance Coordinator will provide expertise to the entire project on climate change issues related to the blue economy. Project decisions will be supported by ensuring that adaptation and mitigation issues are considered in the activities:

-        Thematic monitoring of the convergence between adaptation/mitigation issues and the sustainable and inclusive blue economy;

-        Capitalization on initiatives with a climate co-benefit;

-        Support for the cross-cutting integration of climate issues into project activities: proposal of tools, capacity building, etc., in order to seek convergence between the objectives of the sustainable and inclusive blue economy and the climate goals;

-        Support for the carbon-saving nature of project activities;

-        Liaison with international climate community (UN, UN Oceans dialogue, experts, partners);

-        Awareness of the project team and potential partners on climate issues and the climate/ocean/biodiversity nexus;

-        Participation in regional events on the subject;

-        Steering the annual carbon balance estimation exercise of the project;

-        Liaison with the Climate Coordinator based at the headquarters of Expertise France in Paris.