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

Under Outcome 2, a Blue Facility is expected to provide project beneficiaries (EU delegations / EUD, states, ministries, regional organizations) thematic expertise and technical support services on blue economy. This may include training, capacity building, short-term experts, etc.

Expertise France will monitor these services and report to the European Union, the donor of the WASOP program. The Technical Assistance Coordinator will implement the methodology developed by Expertise France to develop and maintain a dialogue with beneficiary countries and support them in formulating their needs. It will coordinate and monitor the mobilization of expertise in response to these requests.

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

·       Processing of requests for technical assistance within the framework of the Blue Facility;

·       Operational management of Outcome 2;

·       Technical support on climate change related topics, both at the project level and within Outcome 2.

Technical Assistance Facility

Expertise France has developed a methodology to deploy technical assistance missions, in response to requests from institutional beneficiaries. As part of the Blue Facility, the TA Coordinator will be in charge of applying this methodology, under the supervision of the Deputy Director:

1-    Receipt and analysis of TA requests:

Requests for Technical Assistance will be submitted via an online platform, which the TA Coordinator will have helped design. Upon receipt of such requests, under the direction of the Deputy Project Director, the TA Coordinator shall:

-        Analyze the relevance of requests in relation to regional, national and European priorities. This will ensure consistency with the thematic objectives of Sustainable and Inclusive Blue Economy, including mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Finally, the request must be consistent with the Blue Facility’s service offering;

-        Provide technical advice regarding national priorities for sustainable and inclusive blue economy and identify opportunities for Blue Facility intervention;

-        If necessary, mobilize additional studies or expertise to carry out diagnostics and supplement the analysis.

-        If necessary, offer to rework the requests;

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

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

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

-        Thematic animation of exchanges with counterparties;

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

-        Integration of gender aspects into programming, in coordination with the Gender Advisor.

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

3-     Programming:

Based on the work plan, the TA Manager will detail the programming of TA services:

-        Prioritization of activities and missions, following the objectives and criteria of the project;

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

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

4-     Implementation:

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

-        Identification of the relevant expert(s) for each mission;

-        Preparation of service contracts;

-        Follow-up on service contracts: issue and manage purchase orders;

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

-        Preparing and coordinating the organization of expert missions: safety, logistics, communication with stakeholders, etc.

-        Coordination of the various expertise missions;

-        Follow-up of invoicing and payments to experts.

5-    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 ex-post evaluation materials for TA missions (questionnaires, exchanges, workshops, etc.);

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

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

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

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

-        Preparation and regular information of a table of indicators related to the TA.

Management of Outcome 2

Under the supervision of the Deputy Director, the TA Manager will manage the overall operational and budgetary implementation of O.2, namely:

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

-        Regular communication on the Technical Assistance Facility, including with the EU Delegation in Praia;

-        Regular planning of the budget dedicated to technical assistance, particularly in view of quarterly budgetary monitoring exercises internal to Expertise France, but also over time;

-        Coordination of technical assistance missions from launch to completion;

-        Creation and animation of a network of thematic experts, in connection with the sustainable and inclusive blue economy;

-        If necessary, proposing modifications to improve the Technical Assistance Facility, subject to validation by the project’s governance bodies;

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

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

Expertise on climate change

The Technical Assistance Coordinator will be responsible for providing expertise to the entire project on climate change issues related to blue economy. This will support project decision-making by ensuring that adaptation and mitigation issues are considered in the activities:

-        Thematic watch on the convergence between adaptation/mitigation issues and sustainable and inclusive blue economy;

-        Capitalization on initiatives with climate co-profit;

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

-        Advice towards low-carbon project activities;

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

-        Awareness raising within the project team and potential partners regarding climate issues and the climate/ocean/biodiversity nexus;

-        Participation in regional events on the subject;

-        Steering of the annual project carbon footprint assessment exercise;

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