EOI – Consultant, Preparation of the Country Diagnostic Note for Sierra Leone (COSL) at the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) Contract

Job Title: Expressions of Interest: Consultant, Preparation of the Country Diagnostic Note for Sierra Leone – COSL

Location: Home Based
Consultant Type: Individual Consultant
Commencement Period: 1st August, 2023 to 31st December 2023
Duration of the Assignment: 5 months
Job Family: Other

Background

• The African Development Bank hereby invites individual consultants to indicate their interest in the following assignment: Preparation of the Country Diagnostic Note (CDN) for Sierra Leone.
• The assignment is required to inform the formulation of the Bank’s new country strategy for Sierra Leone, covering the period 2025-2029.
• Sierra Leone’s post conflict economic recovery was disrupted by series of external shocks including the Ebola virus outbreak and the collapse in iron ore prices in 2014-2015, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, which disrupted the global supply chain leading to higher food and fuel prices causing rapid increases in inflation.
• The public debt increased significantly in the past few years driven by large fiscal deficit, depreciation of the local currency and higher interest rate payments aggravated by multiple shocks. Sierra Leone is also characterized by high levels of poverty, income inequality and high youth unemployment.
• The poverty headcount ratio stood at 56.8% in 2018 compared to 62.4% in 2011 while 4.8 million people (59.2%) were multidimensionally poor in 2020. Structural transformation has been slow while manufacturing, a key driver, remains a “missing link” in Sierra Leone’s structural transformation, as labour migrates from low-productivity agricultural activities in rural areas directly to low-productivity services (informal jobs in the urban areas) without a transformative industrial sector.
• The macroeconomic imbalance and structural constraints continue to undermine economic growth and perpetuate poverty.
• To address the above challenges, the Government of Sierra Leone designed reform programs that include the Medium-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP) 2019-2023, COVID-19 Quick Action Economic Response Programme (QAERP) 2020, and various sectoral policies, programs, and strategies.

Purpose of the Assignment

• The purpose of the assignment is to prepare a comprehensive Country Diagnostic Note (CDN) for Sierra Leone to identify the binding constraints to inclusive growth and sustainable development.
• The CDN will serve as the guide for the Bank’s engagement with the Government of Sierra Leone over the medium-term. It will provide an analysis of Sierra Leone’s socio-economic situation and prospects and discuss the policies that need to be implemented to accelerate inclusive growth and achieve the Bank’s High-5s.
• The CDN will inform the strategic choices for the next Bank’s Country Strategy Paper for Sierra Leone covering 2025-2029 and selection of the areas on which the Bank should focus its interventions over the medium-term.
• The proposed work will use existing national and sectoral reports as well as international data to produce a comprehensive analytical report on growth and sectoral performance and identify emerging issues going forward.
• In this regard, the CDN will serve as guide for forward-looking dialogue with the country’s authorities on areas that policies need to focus on to drive faster, inclusive, and sustainable growth.

Specific Tasks
Under the overall guidance of the Director, ECCE and Deputy Director General, RDGW, and the immediate supervision by the Lead Economist and Task Manager for this assignment (Country Economist), the Consultant will prepare the CDN for Sierra Leone. Specifically, the Consultant will be required to carry out the following:

• Prepare as well as collate macroeconomic and sector inputs and the draft CDN for Sierra Leone, ensuring that the Bank’s CDN guideline is followed and that all required inputs are included and updated, focusing on but not limited to the points below:
  • Undertake a rigorous diagnostic assessment of Sierra Leone’s economic potential and identify constraints to harnessing the potential to drive inclusive growth and sustainable development.
  • Identify the causes and consequences of lack of inclusive economic growth in Sierra Leone amid high poverty, youth unemployment and inequality.
  • Propose policy measures that will enhance good economic governance and foster prosperity.
• Review existing national planning documents, knowledge products produced by the Bank, development partners and other sources to develop a strong context for the CDN and use the same to prepare the CDN. Identify how the strategic development plans can be effectively implemented to harness Sierra Leone’s natural resources to drive inclusive growth and sustainable development on a sustainable basis.
• Review and finalize draft sector/thematic notes prepared by the Bank’s sector departments.
• Incorporate comments from the Bank team to revise and update the entire report to ensure coherence of the story line, interlinkages, and data consistency within and across the different chapters and sections.
• Revise and update the draft CDN following any additional team comments.
• Prepare a full CDN report complete with deliverables outlined above and the schedule of implementation of each component.

Deliverables

• The selected consultant will prepare an inception report on the approach and understanding of the ToR, and envisaged documents to be reviewed as well as a time frame for delivery of the rest of the outputs.
• Draft of a comprehensive and updated Country Diagnostic Note for Sierra Leone for review and discussion with the Bank team.
• Revised final report taking into account comments by the Bank team. This will also include relevant annexes, references, and data sources.

Qualifications and Experience

• At least a Master’s Degree or its equivalent in Economics, Statistics, Social Sciences, Business Administration or a related field. A PhD in the related fields will be an advantage.
• At least 8 years of relevant professional and practical experience in policy analysis and developing diagnostics or strategy documents, preparing technical and analytical reports in related areas is required.
• At least 5 years of demonstrable experience in undertaking similar assignments for international organisations, public sector or large private sector organisations is required.
• Demonstrable understanding of the socio-economic landscape and current policy dynamics of the Sierra Leonian economy is desirable.
• Knowledge of and working on similar assignments in other developing countries will be an advantage.
• Excellent communication skills, including writing and presentation skills, is required.

Duration of Assignment:

• The assignment is expected to be executed over a period of five months (5 months), from 1st August, 2023 to 31st December 2023. The consultant will need to commit effort equivalent to three and a half (3.5) person months for this assignment.
• The Consultant is expected to execute all elements of this assignment during this period, effective from the date of signing the contract.
• The successful consultant will work under the overall guidance of the Director of the Country Economics Department (ECCE) and Deputy Director General (RDGW). The Consultant will be supported by the Country Economist in Freetown, Sierra Leone (Task Manager), under the overall technical supervision of the Lead Economist, based in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire.
• The Consultant is expected to work remotely but should be readily available for coordination and consultation with the Task Team and other stakeholders. Online sessions to present the findings of the work will be arranged by the Bank.

Remuneration

• The successful candidate will be paid in accordance with the Bank’s guidelines for remuneration of individual consultants and will be commensurate with qualifications for the task and satisfactory delivery of all the outputs.
• The cost will be inclusive of honorarium and reimbursable costs. Should the highest scoring consultant’s financial proposal exceed the budgeted amount, the consultant will be contacted for negotiations. If no agreement is reached, the next highest scoring consultant shall be contacted until a suitable financial proposal is realized.

Application Closing Date
5th July 2023 at 17:00hrs (GMT).

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should send their Expressions of Interest (EOI) to: [email protected] copy: [email protected] using “Preparation of the Country Diagnostic Note for Sierra Leone” as the subject of the mail.

EOI Submission and Evaluation Criteria

• The African Development Bank invites individual consultants to indicate their interest in providing the above-described services. Interested consultants shall provide information on their qualifications and experience demonstrating their ability to undertake this assignment.
• This should include a detailed CV/Resume, motivation letter highlighting qualifications, experience in and reference to similar services/ assignments and proposed approaches to the assignment. A detailed ToR is attached for reference, Annex 1. The detailed guidance for each chapter will be provided separately.
• The eligibility criteria, the establishment of a short list and the selection procedure shall be in conformity with the Bank’s Procurement Policy and Procedures for the Recruitment of Corporate Consultants. Please, note that interest expressed by a consultant does not imply any obligation on the part of the Bank to include him/her in the shortlist.
• Only the proposals scoring 70 points or above shall be considered for this assignment. A shortlist will be prepared, with a minimum of three (3) and a maximum of six (6) Consultants to be selected based on their qualifications and professional experience related to the proposed assignment.
• All the Consultants final scores shall be ranked, and the highest ranked Consultant will be selected for the said assignment if his/her fees are within budget limits.
• Should the highest scoring consultant’s financial proposal exceed the budgeted amount, the consultant will be contacted for negotiations. If no agreement is reached, the next highest scoring consultant shall be contacted until a suitable financial proposal is achieved. The detailed evaluation criteria are included in section 7, Annex 1.
• Kindly attach an updated Curriculum Vitae (CV) using the template in Annex 2. This does not prevent prospective applicants from submitting CVs in the format/layout of their choice, in addition to a cover letter, to make the case on their suitability for the position.