Senior Technical Trade Advisor

Overview of ATI Activity

The USAID Africa Trade and Investment (ATI) Activity is designed to bolster the U.S. Government’s ability to boost trade and investment to, from, and within the African continent. The continent-wide program is USAID’s flagship effort in support of the Prosper Africa initiative and will expand and accelerate two-way trade and investment between African nations and the United States.

Driven by market demand, ATI embraces innovative approaches to achieve its goals. ATI is designed as a small, core set of centrally coordinated technical and institutional support activities, and a large, flexible performance-based subcontracting and grants under contract facility designed to support the needs and opportunities that USAID Missions and the private sector identify.

Background

USAID Kenya and East Africa (KEA) Mission works with the Government of Kenya and the private sector to increase trade among East African countries and globally. The Mission promotes two-way trade and investment linkages between Kenya and the U.S. and help Kenyan and American firms take greater advantage of trade opportunities provided by the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and other initiatives. USAID/KEA supports a range of trade-related areas including capacity building, building a private sector enabling environment, better market access, increased food security, and export promotion.

Through ATI, the USAID/KEA Mission will provide technical support to the Principal Secretary’s Office of the State Department of Trade, Kenya by embedding a Senior Technical Trade Advisor.

Overview of Job Description

The Senior Technical Trade Advisor will provide direct support to the Office of Principal Secretary (PS) for Trade, Kenya on the scope of activities as outlined in the responsibilities section below. This role will work collaboratively and in conjunction with USAID/KEA and ATI to coordinate and deliver agreed upon technical trade and business enabling environment activities as per the priorities of the Office of the Principal Secretary (PS) for Trade, Kenya through a responsive, demand-driven implementation.

Responsibilities and Duties

• Identify and prioritize the three top sectors to support to maximize the growth of Kenyan exports.
• Identify key constraints and unknowns, in close collaboration with private sector leaders on the identified three sectors.
• Draft the terms of reference (scopes of work) for the design of a maximum of three action plans and route to market strategy (one per sector). The scopes of work will be reviewed by the PS for Trade, ATI and USAID
• Under the auspices of the PS for Trade, convene and manage sector-specific meetings, including PSE representatives (including women and youth) to inform the action plans.
• Collaborate closely with ATI to produce the MEL matrix to monitor and report on the key performance indicators in all three-sector action plans.
• Oversee development of sector action plans, present finalized action plans to government and private sector audiences and oversee their implementation.
• Collaborate with ATI in the collection and reporting of impact data in line with the action plan metrics during initial stages of action plan implementation.
• Other activities as assigned by the Office of the Principal Secretary for Trade, Kenya or ATI in support of furthering U.S.-Kenyan trade relations.
• Reporting to ATI and KEA with recommendations for enhancing the impact of the work.

Reporting

The Senior Technical Trade Advisor will have dual reporting responsibilities. There will be a reporting line on technical matters to the Principal Secretary (PS) for Trade, Ministry of Industry and Trade and Investment of Kenya and a reporting line on project management and activity administrative matters to ATI’s Activity Manager.

Indicative Deliverables

• Brief report explaining the justification for the selection of the top three sectors to support the growth of Kenyan exports.
• Report on key constraints and unknowns to support trade in three selected sectors.
• Schedule of sector-specific meetings and summary of learnings from meetings with private sector leaders to inform and produce action plans.
• Scope of work developed, and action plans generated for each of the three sectors identified.
• Provide leadership in presentation and implementation of the action plans for each sector.
• Regular reports on agreed key performance indicators, including impact data in line with action plan metrics and MEL matrix; and
• Written periodic updates to ATI and KEA for each of the three sectors including ways to enhance the impact of the work undertaken in implementing the sectoral action plans.

Qualifications

• Postgraduate degree in international development, trade, and private sector development or relevant university degree that demonstrates complementarity to the scope of requirements.
• Demonstrated technical expertise in trade and business enabling environment programming and processes, preferably under USAID-funded programs.
• At least 12 years of demonstrated experience supporting, leading, designing, and/or supporting projects that contribute to significant trade and business enabling results in Africa.
• Minimum 12 years of experience working to develop and maintain strategic trade partnerships with African government institutions, U.S. Government agencies, international and regional economic bodies in Africa, and trade service providers.
• Experience and knowledge of trade and business enabling environment issues and how they link to U.S. Government priorities, with the ability to identify trends and strategically adapt activities to improve impact.
• Experience working in African countries to implement trade and private sector development strategies, with a preference for experience working with the Government of Kenya.
• Strong analytical, organizational, written, and oral communication skills, attention to detail, and ability to prioritize tasks and work efficiently.
• Solutions-oriented, customer-service motivated team player who is also able to work independently and on own initiative.

ABOUT DAI

DAI is a global development company with corporate offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, EU, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Palestine and project operations worldwide. We tackle fundamental social and economic development problems caused by inefficient markets, ineffective governance, and instability. DAI works on the frontlines of global development. Transforming ideas into action—action into impact. We are committed to shaping a more livable world.

DAI and its employees are committed to confronting racism and holding ourselves accountable for positive change within the company and in the communities, cultures, and countries in which we live and work. DAI is committed to attracting and retaining the best employees from all races and backgrounds in our continued effort to become a better development partner.

DAI upholds the highest ethical standards. We are committed to the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment as well as other ethical breaches. All of our positions are therefore subject to stringent vetting and reference checks.