Call for Expert(s) to support firms in developing Export Growth Plans

The FCDO Trade Facilitation and Customs Support programme (Tasdeer) is a £15m programme financed by FCDO and operational from 2020 – 2023. The objective of Tasdeer is to improve the trade performance and customs capabilities in the OPTs. It will ultimately contribute to increased inclusive private sector-led economic growth and fiscal sustainability in the OPTs.  
 
The programme is designed to be flexible and adaptable, and it will work politically and technically to make progress across the four key interrelated workstreams. 

• Work Stream 1 (WS1): Support to expedite the movement of goods and reduce transaction costs.
• Work Stream 2 (WS2): Support to improve Palestinian trade-related institutions and business enabling environment.
• Work Stream 3 (WS3): Support to improve the private sector’s skills and innovation to export and create jobs.
• Work Stream 4 (WS4): Support to improve PA’s Customs readiness to assume functions from Israel to collect revenues from trade-related taxes.

 
The programme is implemented by a Cowater-led consortium on behalf of FCDO. A Steering Committee (including representatives from FCDO, the Ministry of National Economy and the Ministry of Finance) will approve interventions identified and designed by the supplier. Supplier interventions will be reviewed, and quality assured by a Strategic Advisory Panel comprised of experts from the core consortium members.  
 
Our Grants support to Palestinian businesses
We disburse grants which help Palestinian firms to launch and grow their exports in regional and international markets. Our grants support innovative ways of addressing company-level bottlenecks which limit firms’ ability to grow and diversify exports. This will create export-related local jobs. 

 
We support activities that will help and encourage medium and large exporting firms with strong growth potential and clear linkages with domestic supply chains to invest and significantly increase their exports.  We also consider firms whose exports have declined as a result of recent market changes/COVID-19.  
 
We give preference to grants concepts that contribute to women, youth, and marginalized groups’ economic empowerment. We will analyse specific export clusters that have the potential for establishing a competitive export market and support these clusters where high economic empowerment for women, youth, and marginalized groups where possible. 
 
The Opportunity  
We receive grant concepts from interested exporting firms and visit them to collect information, assess the opportunity for growth and exports, before prioritizing them for Export Growth Plan (EGP) development.
 
We are seeking short and long-term Experts to help potential grantees develop their Export Growth Plans (EGPs) for submission to Tasdeer’s Assessment Panel.
 
We expect our Experts to travel extensively to firms within the West Bank and East Jerusalem, developing high quality EGPs from across different sectors and geographical locations.
 
Our Experts will be the sole party responsible for delivery of a specific EGP(s) by Tasdeer and approval by our Assessment Panel. However, the EGP is a plan for the grantee and grantees must own them. Plans must be co-developed with grantees.   
 
Geographic coverage and duty station
The Expert(s) will undertake the assessment from Tasdeer office and the field (West Bank and East Jerusalem) and will be expected to maintain regular contact with Tasdeer, assigned applicant firms, and their suppliers (where applicable).
 
Desired Expertise, Competencies and Skills

• A minimum of a Bachelor degree in Marketing, Business Administration, Economics, Engineering, or related fields. Holding an MBA degree is a plus.  
• At least seven (7) years of practical experience, from which minimum four (4) years of work experience in business development and private sector development.
• Previous experience with donor funded economic growth projects in Palestine.  
• Previous working experience supporting exporting companies develop and implement export growth plans.  
• Exposure to a variety of sectors or specialization in a specific one, including but not limited to: Agriculture and Agribusiness, light manufacturing, and Information Technology. Supplementary experience with SMEs, women and marginalized groups and/or Gaza is also valued.
• Ability to understand the strength and weaknesses of private sector enterprises and help them reach a higher level of global competitiveness. 
• Ability to understand and structure business incentives for exporters / local suppliers enhanced linkages.  
• Strong analytical, verbal and writing skills in English and Arabic. Native English ability in writing is essential as the final document will be produced in English.
• Ability to produce accurate and concise draft reports at pace.  
• Strong team player with ability to adapt to different work styles within the team.  
• Pro-activeness, dedication and a conscientious professional approach. 
• Tasdeer offers equal employment opportunities to qualified women and men, Youth and PWDs. 

  Duration

• Assignments are expected to commence from February onwards and are expected to last for between two and three weeks (part-time).
• One-off or repeat assignments are possible.
• Experts will be contacted and interviewed on a needs-basis and interviews will happen on a rolling basis. Once pre-qualified, Experts may be contacted for repeat assignments.
• Candidates not initially contacted will remain in our pool.
• Unsuccessful candidates will not be contacted.