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Ref.
2025/CSEEAEEASA/12619

Job offer type
Experts

Type of contract
Service contract

Activity sectors
Género, derechos y modernización del Estado ; Business facilitation and regional integration ; Technological Innovation ; Economic and financial governance

Deadline date
2025/02/19 23:55

Duration of the assignment
Short term

Contract
Freelancer

Duration
2 mois

Mission description

The Digital for Development (D4D) Hub is a strategic EU platform aimed at fostering digital cooperation between Europe and partners in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Caribbean, and neighbouring regions. It promotes a human-centric digital transformation through multi-stakeholder collaboration, investment, and dialogue. Active in Africa since 2020, the D4D Hub facilitates shared strategic visions, win-win opportunities, and coordinated digital initiatives. 

With its 21 Member states, which represent 600 million people, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is one of the largest markets for trade and investment in Africa. To attain its key objective of a fully integrating and internationally competitive regional economic community, COMESA has already successfully launched key initiatives, notably a Free Trade Area and a Regional Payment System (REPSS). The organization has made trade facilitation, eCommerce, and digital payments priority topics to further facilitate cross-border trade, investments, and regional cooperation and integration.

In particular, the Digital Financial Inclusion (DFI) programme of the COMESA Business Council (CBC) is well advanced and led to the pilot launch of a cross-border digital payments system for digital financial services. The development of an eCommerce platform in the region is also under consideration.

To accompany Africa Regional Economic Communities, the European Union (EU) has launched Safe Digital Boost for Africa (SDBA), a new programme towards sustainable digital development of the African continent. SDBA aims to accelerate the development of a single digital market by boosting continental, regional and bilateral digital trade and eGovernance while developing a robust cybersecurity ecosystem in Africa that safeguards digital operations, infrastructure, and citizens. For the COMESA region, it aims to:

  1. Increase the inclusive and secure use of e-commerce platforms for cross-border trade.
  2. Harmonise national payment systems and improve cross-border ePayments and their interoperability.

In this context, the regional European Union Delegations (EUD) to Zambia and COMESA, in collaboration with the COMESA Secretariat, are planning to work together under the SDBA framework to build on the existing DFI programme and contribute to the development of an integrated regional digital ePayment and eCommerce schemes, while enhancing the collaboration and exchanges with the European Union and its member states.

The recruited expert will support the EUD in Lusaka and COMESA in the preparation and formulation of the concept and approach of the SDBA for the COMESA region.

Project or context description

Overall Objective

Support the EUD to Zambia and COMESA and the COMESA secretariat to define their implementation strategy in view of the formulation of the regional programme Safe Digital Boost for Africa in the COMESA region and provide technical specifications and recommendations to scale up the cross-border digital payments system for digital financial services pilot. 

The analysis expected from the expert will aim at identifying focus areas and activities to be covered by the regional envelope of the SDBA on eCommerce and ePayment components based on the existing state-of-play and linked to the DFI programme’s achievements. In addition, the analysis will provide an overview of the technical upgrades and equipment needed to support the next phase of the pilot.

 

 Specific Objectives

  • Support in the organisation of a workshop aimed at bringing together the EUD, CBC and COMESA’s ePayment and eCommerce key actors as an opportunity to ensure the bridge between the DFI programme – meant to end in July 2025 – and the SDBA one. The support could include the moderation of discussions, preparation of workshop agenda and invitation letters, and logistic preparations. This will also include a workshop report.
  • Review, analyse and support the validation of the current state-of-play of the region and entities’ beneficiaries with respect to the SDBA focus areas. These include eCommerce, ePayment, and digital transformation in general, incl. policies, strategies legislations, standards, technical solutions, capacities and initiatives. This information will be captured in a pre-workshop brief for each working group.
  • Capture and assess ongoing activities and initiatives on eCommerce and ePayment by regional entities and donors to identify gaps and optimize synergies and complementarity of the SDBA and avoid overlaps with other ongoing and planned digital transformation activities. In particular, take stock of the DFI programme’s achievements and propose ways of building on them in the implementation of the SDBA.
  • Produce an after-workshop briefing for potential implementing partners.

 

The consultant is expected to provide best practices, and recommendations based on own experience and knowledge of the field.

 

Activities and Reporting

  • Assess and analyse the achievements of the DFI programme as well as the work that is still to be continued, focusing on:
    • The Regional Digital Retail Payments Platform for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises in COMESA
    • Gap analysis of the existing e-commerce platforms in the region, their interoperability, and supporting infrastructure
    • Gap analysis of regulatory barriers to eCommerce in the region
  • Gather all input sent in advance from participants and merge them into a pre-workshop brief for each of the three working groups (which will include inputs on the status of regulations and standards identified as focus points).
  • Support the organisation and participate in a preparatory workshop:
    • Guide technical discussions
    • Gather key elements emerging from discussions.
    • Supporting logistics and organisation of the workshop.
    • Moderation if needed.
    • Developing nine templates for the collection of data during the workshop (specifically one for each working group for each of the three breakout sessions).
  • Draft and finalize a report on the workshop's outcomes
  • Produce a report for potential implementing partners that include:
    • The three briefs from the three working groups.
    • An overview of the work done under the DFI, with an annexe of all materials produced under the DFI.
    • An explanation of the merger and synergies between the DFI and the SDBA.
    • An overview of the technical specifications needed for the roll-out of the regional payments platform.
    • An explanation of the intended involvement of the three working groups (as advisory boards for each area).

The expert should ensure the SDBA programme in COMESA is aligned with the ePayment and eCommerce strategy of the Continental Pillar, being drafted by the African Union and its partners.

 

Deliverables

  • Pre-workshop briefs for each working group.
  • 9 templates for the collection of information during the workshop (one for each of the three working groups, for each of the three sessions)
  • An after-workshop report containing key elements that emerged from the discussion
  • A report destined to potential implementing partners on how to ensure the link between DFI and SDBA programmes and containing an overview of the overall regional assignment and activities that could be carried out at the regional level on ePayment and eCommerce along with the technical specification, and financial attributes.

 

 Documents to be provided to the expert

-          SDBA related documents

-          COMESA’s digital policy-relevant documents (on ePayment / eCommerce)

-          CBC’s DFI programme-associated resources

-          CBC's initial research findings on eCommerce

Any other available document the consultant needs to fulfil his task

Required profile

Qualifications and skills: 

  • Master’s degree in Telecommunication Engineering, Economics, International Trade, International Law, and/or related fields is required.

General professional:

  • Minimum experience of 10 years related to trade and digitalization and/or digital regulation in the African context.
  • Specific professional experience in private or public sectors with a focus on telecommunications, e-commerce, fintech and digital financial services (banking, microfinance).
  • Experience in EU project management and/or development cooperation will be considered an asset.

Specific experience:

  • Proven experience in private or public sectors at the national/international level with eCommerce/ePayment systems development.
  • Knowledgeable of telecommunication, e-payments and e-commerce regulations, with a focus on fintechs allowing greater financial inclusion such as USSD.
  • Proven experience in strategy, roadmap and/or programme development in EU and/or emerging economies, especially in the targeted region, will be considered an asset.
  • Proven experience of multi-stakeholder consultations in multi-cultural environments will be considered an asset.
  • Experience in conducting mapping and study to develop joint digital projects.
  • Knowledge of COMESA’s digital strategy and ecosystem will be considered an asset.

 

Additional information

The consultant is expected for a total of 14 days. Any additional days will be discussed beforehand.

 

Task

Working days

Meeting with key actors

2

Draft of pre-workshop briefs and templates

2

Support organization and participate in the workshop

4

Draft of the workshop’s report

2

Draft of the final brief for implementing partners

4

 

Workshop's details

Location: to be determined (in Africa)

Duration: 3 days

Tentative date: Week of the 3rd of March

Venue: TBD

Selection criteria for applications

The selection process for candidates will be based on the following criteria :

  • Candidate’s training/skills/experience
  • Candidate's knowledges related to local context (country or region intervention)

Deadline for application : 2025/02/19 23:55

Expertise France is the public agency for designing and implementing international technical cooperation projects. The agency operates around four key priorities :

  • democratic, economic, and financial governance ;
  • peace, stability, and security ;
  • climate, agriculture, and sustainable development ;
  • health and human development ;

In these areas, Expertise France conducts capacity-building initiatives and manages project implementation, leveraging technical expertise and acting as a project coordinator. This involves combining public sector expertise with private sector skills to drive impactful results. 

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