TOR – Expert Statistician

AFRICAN PEER REVIEW MECHANISM

TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR) FOR EXPERT STATISTICIAN

TOWARDS IMPROVING THE APRM’S STATISTICAL CAPACITIES IN GOVERNANCE-RELATED PROGRAMS OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY

Country: Republic of South Africa

Duty Station:  Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Description of the assignment: Statistical Expert

Period of assignment/services: Six (6) months

1. BACKGROUND

The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is a specialised agency of the African Union developed and led by Africans for the African People. It is a self-monitoring mechanism that was launched in 2003 by member states of the African Union who acceded voluntarily. Through the exchange of experiences and best practices, it seeks to encourage the adoption of policies, standards and practices that promotes political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development and accelerated regional economic integration. The APRM undertakes governance assessments in four thematic areas; Democracy and Political Governance, Economic governance, Corporate governance and Socio-economic Development. Currently, 38 countries have voluntarily participated in the APR mechanism.

The AU Constitutive Act (2002) commits Member States to respect democratic principles, human rights, the rule of law and good governance; promote gender equality, social justice for balanced economic development; respect for the sanctity of human life; and condemnation of unconstitutional regime change. At the 28th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union, held on 30–31 January 2017 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Heads and States and Government took a Decision (Assembly/AU/Dec.631(XXVIII)) on the Revitalization of the APRM resolved as follows:

1. Welcomes and Supports the recommendation contained in the Report on the Institutional Reform of the African Union by H.E Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, that the African Peer Review Mechanism should be strengthened to track implementation and oversee monitoring and evaluation in key governance areas on the continent and requests the APRM to take necessary steps towards the attainment of this Goal.
2. Repositioning of the APRM to play a monitoring and evaluation role for the African Union Agenda 2063 and the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs).

This expanded mandate gives strategic importance to the Mechanism whose area of remit now transcends APRM member countries to include every single African Union member state, which is obviously a daunting challenge the Mechanism must rise to.

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

The APRM is a strategic lens and engine for African Union programme coherence, as well as for its operation, efficiency and effectiveness. As the apex governance assessment tool of the African Union, the APRM’s architectural design is to identify key indicators that will drive the strategy for conformity as regards political, economic and corporate governance in pursuit of socio-economic development. To meet the requirements of the APRM, this lens and engine has to harvest informational assets responsible for driving socio-economic development. The APRM has to be exposed to an array of a hierarchy of statistics, data and reports that have causal and correlate effects on socio-economic development. Of note which often is not appreciated, is the role APRM played in ensuring that ultimately governance is a measurable Sustainable Development Goal.

In the main the lens of state informational systems is organised by the national statistics institutes which have a legal mandate to collate official statistics. In this system, the national statistician relies on administrative records as well as surveys to inform state development which is often scattered across the four thematic areas of the APRM. Over the past decades, different statistical frameworks have evolved. Among these, at the global level, was the International Comparisons Programme (ICP). Sadly, with all these developments that were positive, by 2015, Africa began to slumber, losing the gains it had made a decade before. The lapses have nothing to do with financing of statistics but have a lot to do with organisation and line of sight to the strategic.

The sibling rivalry amongst the pan-African institutions undermine the possibility of raising statistical and informational value created to the highest authorities. In this regard, despite gone through rounds of the International Comparisons Programmes (ICP), this strategic informational platform, in particular for Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement has not seen light of day for use in the posturing of Africa’s free trade agreement. This is a serious disservice to the continent. In the architecture of African programmes in particular the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement, a strategic gap is not so much in the data, but rather in how such data is made visible and used. Further, these gaps that need to be addressed include among others positioning and demand for core set of indicators the APRM should demand from statistics agencies; leveraging the APRM for not only the Strategy for the harmonisation of statistics in Africa (SHaSA) as an aligned strategy but as an instrument for achieving APRM objectives;  long term planning strategies for Africa and scenario building.

Additionally following a successful African regional workshop on effective governance for sustainable development that was held from the 30th October to 1st November 2019 in Pretoria, South Africa, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) resolved to undertake a baseline study on the status of implementation of the eleven (11) UN CEPA principles of effective governance for sustainable development in Africa. The UN CEPA principles of effective governance for sustainable development were developed to facilitate the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda in harmony with the aspirations of the African Union (AU), as contained in its Agenda 2063 ‘The Africa We Want.’

In the context of addressing these strategic gaps among leading other statistical programmes and facilitating public sector improvements towards efficient, effective, accountable, and transparent institutions reporting in the context of the UN SDG 2030 Agenda and AU Agenda 2063, the APRM intends to recruit one (1) Expert Statistician toward achieving strategic and operational effectiveness and efficiency, for which these Terms of Reference (TORs) are prepared.

3. OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSULTANCY

1. The main objective of the consultancy is to lead and coordinate the overall discussions on the application of statistics towards achieving strategic and operational effectiveness and efficiency of APRM.
2. Provide a comprehensive and actionable account of the state of public administration in selected AU member states.

4. SCOPE OF THE SERVICES

Related to APRM Governance Statistics, the Expert Statistician will work closely with relevant APRM staff to:

1. Assist APRM in highlighting and presenting a critical analysis of Africa Governance-related statistical and informational architecture, prospects, gaps and challenges.
2. Assist the APRM in strategizing and auctioning a programme targeting the role the APRM should play in the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and what informational resources it should harvest.
3. Contribute to shape the agenda for harvesting the governance indicators in Africa by bringing together the few countries spear heading the governance indicators.
4. Lead in the exploration of scenario-building and embedding model-based planning to underpin Africa’s forward-looking agenda (Agenda 2063) against which APRM can measure
5. Lead the political discussion and penetration of APRM Governance Index including the Framework.
6. Lead in the political discussion of the harmonisation of the APRM Governance Indicators with other stakeholders.
7. Coordinate and strengthen APRM relation with the African Union Pan-African Institute for Statistics (STATAFRIC) and other institutions responsible for statistics.

Related to the UN-CEPA Study, the Expert Statistician shall work closely with relevant APRM staff to:

1. Work with APRM team to ensure the provision of a comprehensive and actionable account of the state of public administration in selected AU member states.
2. Develop a framework for evaluating the implementation of the 11 UN CEPA principles in selected number of African countries.
3. Gather relevant information based on the developed framework on the implementation of the 11 UN-CEPA principles baseline study.
4. Analyse the gathered information towards the implementation of the 11 UN CEPA Principles.
5. Highlight best practices as well as challenges for building effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels.

5.      REPORTING

The high-level expert consultant shall report directly to the Director of the Monitoring and Evaluation Coordination and will submit all deliverables as per the ToR.

6.      DELIVERABLES / EXPECTED OUTCOMES

Related to APRM Governance Statistics, the Expert Statistician will deliver the following outcomes:

1. A draft comprehensive document that highlight critical analysis of Africa Governance-related statistical and informational architecture, prospects, gaps and challenges.
2. A well design integrated programme which can attract potential funding targeting the role the APRM should play in the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement.
3. Proposed basket of governance indicators in Africa by bringing together the few countries spear heading the governance indicators such as Benin, Cape Verde, etc.

Related to the UN-CEPA Study, the Expert Statistician consultant will deliver the following outcomes:

1. Comprehensive Framework for assessing the implementation of the 11 UN CEPA principles of effective governance for sustainable development in Africa;
2. Report of the baseline study with actionable recommendations for the implementation of the 11 UN CEPA principles produced.
3. National Strategies for the implementation of the 11 UN-CEPA Principles of Effective Governance for Sustainable Development in Africa.
4. Reporting Framework for countries on the implementation Status of the 11 UN-CEPA Principles of Effective Governance for Sustainable              Development in Africa.

7. FACILITIES AND SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED BY THE CLIENT

The APRM Secretariat shall:

1. Provide access to all information and stakeholders necessary for the consultant to carry out the assignment adequately; and
2. To the extent a meeting may be necessary between the consultant and the staff of the APRM, facilitate travel and pay other related expenses from APRM resources.

8.      PERIOD OF THE ASSIGNMENT AND PAYMENT

The Expert Statistician will be for six (6) months based on deliverables. Payment shall be made based on deliverables.

9.      LOCATION AND GENERAL INFORMATION

The consultant shall be based at the Office of the APRM Continental Secretariat, Midrand, South Africa. APRM shall facilitate the travelling of the consultant (i.e. DSA and Air ticket) based on the APRM’s policy where needed. All consultancies will be advertised on an equal opportunity basis. The performance criteria to be used to assess the consultant shall be based on the deliverables and scope of work defined in this ToR.

10. LANGUAGE OF ASSIGNMENT

The Expert Statistician must be in position to deliver the service in either English or French. Knowledge of other recognized official AU language may be an added advantage.

11. RESERVATIONS AND CONFIDENTIALITY

APRM reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/output is incomplete, not delivered, or for failure to meet deadlines. In the event of the producer ending the contract prior to delivering all agreed upon products, a portion of the payments shall be returned to the APRM.

The consultant undertakes to maintain confidentiality on all information that is not the public domain and shall not be involved in another assignment that represents a conflict of interest to the prevailing assignment. The Expert Statistician shall undertake to refrain from promoting any political or religious beliefs in the documentary movie which is the subject of this contract.

12. EVALUATION CRITERIA

The selection will be done based on the following criteria:

Closing date : 26 March 2019 at 1700 hrs RSA time.

Applicants should submit the following;

1. Proposal
2. Expression of Interest;

All applications should be submitted to: [email protected]

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