1. Background
The Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation (the Alliance) is a public-private partnership for trade-led growth jointly hosted by the World Economic Forum, the International Chamber of Commerce and the Center for International Private Enterprise, in cooperation with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
The Alliance supports governments in developing and least developed countries to implement the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). It brings governments and businesses together as equal partners to identify trade facilitation challenges and design and implement targeted reforms that deliver practical and commercially quantifiable results.
The Alliance is supported by the governments of Canada, the European Union, Germany and Sweden and works with private-sector partners ranging from small and medium-sized enterprises to the world’s largest multinational companies.
2. Objective of the Assignment
The Alliance’s project portfolio is expanding, with an increasing number of activities across Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. The Alliance is seeking a part-time Technical Lead to provide strategic advice and hands-on support to project teams working with governments, businesses, donors and implementation partners.
The objective of the assignment is to strengthen the Alliance’s technical and operational capacity by supporting the design, quality assurance and implementation of practical trade facilitation reforms. The Technical Lead will contribute to new project development and to the delivery of ongoing projects, with particular relevance to activities in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe.
3. Scope of Services
The scope of services will include the following areas:
Project Design and Implementation
- Provide technical advice on the design and implementation of trade facilitation projects.
- Review project concepts, proposals, workplans, outputs and implementation approaches.
- Help identify practical opportunities to simplify, digitalise and improve border-related processes.
- Advise on customs procedures, import and export formalities, permits, licences, certificates, inspections and other regulatory requirements.
- Support the development of implementation roadmaps, stakeholder-engagement plans and change-management approaches.
- Help identify risks, dependencies and institutional requirements that may affect implementation.
- Provide hands-on support to project teams in addressing technical and operational challenges
Technical Quality Assurance
- Assess whether proposed interventions are aligned with the principles of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement and relevant national and regional priorities.
- Review the coherence between identified problems, proposed solutions, expected outputs and intended results.
- Provide advice on the feasibility, sustainability and scalability of proposed reforms.
- Help ensure that projects are designed around measurable improvements in trade time, cost, transparency and predictability.
- Contribute to lessons-learned exercises and the dissemination of good practice across the Alliance portfolio.
Stakeholder Engagement
- Support constructive engagement with customs administrations, border agencies, ministries, private-sector associations and businesses.
- Help facilitate public-private dialogue to identify operational bottlenecks and develop practical solutions.
- Participate in technical meetings, missions, workshops and consultations, as required.
- Help translate the needs of traders and supply-chain actors into implementable reform measures.
- Support engagement with development partners, donors and international organisations where relevant.
- Build effective working relationships with stakeholders across Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe.
Business and Programme Development
- Contribute to the development of concept notes, proposals, donor submissions and project presentations.
- Support the identification of new project opportunities consistent with the Alliance’s mandate and delivery model.
- Provide technical input to discussions with potential government, donor and private-sector partners.
- Contribute to regional and thematic programme development.
- Help identify opportunities to scale successful approaches across countries or regions.
4. Core Activities
The assignment will be delivered on an ongoing programme-support basis. Specific priorities and outputs will be agreed through the workplan and may evolve in line with the Alliance’s portfolio, funding availability and organisational requirements. Expected outputs may include:
- Technical reviews and recommendations on selected Alliance projects.
- Contributions to project concept notes, proposals and implementation plans.
- Written advice on customs, border-management and trade facilitation issues.
- Inputs to stakeholder consultations, technical missions and project workshops.
- Contributions to monitoring, results measurement and lessons-learned activities.
- Technical briefings and knowledge products for internal and external audiences.
- Support to the development of new projects and partnerships.
- Practical recommendations to strengthen consistency and quality across the Alliance portfolio.
- Monthly timesheets and activity reports summarising activities undertaken, progress, risks, support required and priorities for the following month.
5. Required Qualifications and Experience
- An advanced university degree in international trade, customs, economics, public policy, logistics, law, development studies or a related field.
- At least 10 years of relevant professional experience in trade facilitation, customs modernisation, border management, international trade or related areas.
- Demonstrated experience designing or implementing practical trade facilitation reforms.
- Strong understanding of cross-border procedures, border-agency coordination and the operating environment of traders and supply-chain actors, particularly in developing and emerging economies.
- Experience working with government institutions and engaging effectively with the private sector.
- Experience in one or more of the following areas: customs digitalisation and automation; single window or coordinated border management; electronic trade documents and certificates; trusted-trader or authorised economic operator programmes; regulatory and procedural reform; supply-chain visibility and traceability; trade corridors and cross-border data exchange.
- Experience working with international organisations, development partners, donors or public-private partnerships would be an advantage.
- Strong analytical, drafting and presentation skills.
- Ability to convert complex technical issues into clear, practical recommendations.
- Excellent spoken and written English. French and Spanish would be an advantage.
6. Core Competencies
- Practical judgement and a solutions-oriented approach.
- Strong understanding of how reforms are implemented in real institutional settings.
- Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively with distributed international teams.
- Diplomacy and credibility when working with government and private-sector stakeholders.
- Strong communication and relationship-management skills.
- Ability to manage several assignments and deadlines simultaneously.
- Flexibility to support both strategic and hands-on requirements.
- Commitment to inclusive, sustainable and measurable trade facilitation outcomes.
7. Duration and Location
The duration of the contract will be approximately 12 months from the effective date, with the possibility of renewal.
The proposed assignment would be part-time, with the indicative level of effort to be determined based on the Alliance’s needs and the selected expert’s availability and with reasonable variation depending on programme requirements, travel, project activity and agreed priorities.
The Technical Lead may be based in any suitable location, subject to the Alliance’s contractual and operational requirements. International travel may be required for selected missions, meetings and workshops.
8. Reporting and Coordination
The Technical Lead will report to the Alliance Director and work closely with the Alliance’s project, monitoring and evaluation, knowledge and partnership-development functions.
The Technical Lead will also coordinate with government counterparts, private-sector partners, donors, consultants and other implementation partners engaged in Alliance activities.
9. Payment Terms
The services will be delivered on a time-and-materials basis. The Technical Lead will invoice monthly based on the agreed daily rate and the actual number of days worked.
10. Proposal Submission Requirements
Interested experts should submit a proposal in PDF format to: macarena.torresrossel@weforum.org with the subject line: “Technical Lead – GATF [YOUR NAME]” by 11:59pm on October 31st.
The proposal should include:
- A technical proposal describing the consultant’s relevant experience and proposed contribution.
- A financial proposal clearly presenting the proposed daily rate and any expected expenses.
- A curriculum vitae.
- An indication of availability and preferred level of engagement.
- The names and contact details of two professional references.
Please note that submission of a proposal in the manner described above will deem all terms and conditions of this Request for Services to have been accepted by the Bidder and incorporated into its proposal unless specifically notified otherwise.
11. No Obligation to Award
The issuance of this Request for Services does not constitute a commitment by the Alliance to award a contract to any respondent. The Alliance reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to reject any or all proposals, cancel the process at any time or take no action based on the proposals received. Any appointment will be subject to internal approval, funding availability and agreement on the final scope and terms of the assignment.
