REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) Expert

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

Statistics Department (ECST)

Avenue Joseph Anoma

01 B.P. 1387 Abidjan 01 Cote d’ivoire

Email :

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

I              BACKGROUND

The goal of the Statistics Department (ECST) of African Development Bank (AfDB) is to position the institution as the leader and partner of choice for statistical development work in Africa. To that end, its activities focus on: (i) responding to the ever-increasing demand for good statistics to facilitate the design of effective policies and programs and to serve as a tool for monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of development results geared towards fostering more inclusive and transformative growth in African; (ii) providing technical and financial support to African countries to meet the data needs for the AfDB’s High 5s agenda, as well as the post-2015 SDGs agenda; and (iii) paying a close attention to post-conflict and transitional states, which need targeted and customized support for statistical capacity building. The activities of the recruiting division, the Economic and the Social Statistics Division (ECST.1), focus on providing technical and financial support to AfDB’s Regional Member countries (RMCs) in generating data to inform the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development results of policies and strategies. Activities include but are not limited to:

  • Managing and disseminating data for the AfDB’s High 5 and SDGs agenda in RMCs through the Africa Information Highway (AIH) initiative, which aims at revolutionizing data management and dissemination in Africa and serves as a central repository and hub for easy access to real-time development data on African countries;
  • Coordinating the One Bank Data System, once set up, to ensure quality and consistency of the data that inform the Results Measurement Framework;
  • Providing support to RMCs on conducting surveys and generating poverty profiles of RMCs to inform the design and implementation of national poverty reduction strategies;
  • Providing systematic statistical support for country programming and project cycle activities;
  • Building partnerships with internal and external stakeholders and engage at the appropriate levels to coordinate the Bank’s statistical activities to enable consistent monitoring and evaluation of the Bank’s strategic goals;
  • Leading the process of tracking economic and social development on the continent and generating projections of macroeconomic indicators for RMCs for the purpose of informing the African Economic Outlook process and other flagship publications of the Bank;
  • Providing the Bank and member countries with comparative research analysis, socioeconomic data and projections of the most widely used socio-economic parameters relating to Africa’s economy and Bank Group operations; More specifically, the recruited consultant will participate in the implementation of a project jointly funded by the Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and executed by the Bank in twelve pilot countries which include reporting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) data in SDMX format and implementation of SDMX native data management tools implementation.

II            SCOPE OF CONSULTANT’S WORK

This individual consultant will support RMCs with the maintenance of their Open Data Platform by providing technical assistance as needed. Under the Covid-19 situation the Bank is providing remote technical assistance to RMCs, one of the main assignments of this consultancy will be to provide country onsite training and or remote training to RMCs on the use of SDMX for improving data exchange especially for the SDGs data exchange. The Bank is collaborating with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support the Bank implementation of the Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics (SHaSA II). Through this collaboration, target countries will be assisted to implementation SDMX for their data and metadata management. The consultant will as well assist the Bank on implementing the SDMX component under the AfDB and BMGF joint project.

The consultant will as well assist the Bank to install and test key SDMX tools which allow ECST to better organize all statistical data and facilitate its access through the Bank.

III          EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

The consultant will be responsible for completing the following activities:

  • Train countries on the use of SDMX for data exchange and dissemination using the AIH
  • Execute the Bank’s SDMX roadmap on the continent with a special focus on SDGs.
  • Undertake missions to RMCs or regional organizations to provide technical support on SMDX implementation.
  • Assist countries in implementing SDMX as a backbone of their data management flow.
  • Identify needs and sensitize countries about the requirements to implement SDMX.
  • Assist in identifying the best architecture to integrate SDMX within the AIH and help draft tenders for system upgrades.
  • Prepare training materials and tutorials for in-person and online trainings on SDMX.
  • Regularly prepare a storyline for the ECST newsletter after participating in missions that detail the level of implementation.
  • Assist on SMDX tools implementation within the Bank to improve data access for the Bank staff
  • Fulfill any other duties as requested by Task manager and ECST management.

IV The Statistics Department (ECST) 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 (documents, reference to similar services, experience in similar assignments, etc.).

  1. The eligibility criteria, the establishment of a short list and the selection procedure shall be in conformity with the Bank’s Procurement Policy for 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.
  2. The estimated duration of services is Two months (02) and the estimated starting date is 16th June 2021.

VII. Interested Individual Consultants may obtain further information at the address below during the Bank’s working hours: from 08:00 to 17:00 Hours, Abidjan Local Time. Expression of interest must be received at address not later than 10 June 2021 at 15:00 hours Abidjan local time, and specifically mentioning: Consultancy on Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX)

For Attention of Mrs. Rose-Marie Adingra

Statistics Department (ECST)

Avenue Joseph Anoma

01 B.P. 1387

Abidjan 01

Côte d’Ivoire

Phone: (+225) 20 26 46 34

E-mail: [email protected]

Requests for clarifications may be sent to: [email protected]

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SHORT LIST

  1. A shortlist of three to six individual consultants will be established at the end the request of expressions of interest. The consultants on the shortlist will be judged on the following criteria on the basis of their updated resume.
Level of education in general 20%
Educational level compared to the field of mission 20%
Years of experience in general 20%
Number of years of experience relevant to the mission 40%

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Consultancy on the Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX)

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

Statistics Department (ECST)

Avenue Joseph Anoma

01 B.P. 1387

Abidjan 01

Côte d’ivoire

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

I              BACKGROUND

The goal of the Statistics Department (ECST) of African Development Bank (AfDB) is to position the institution as the leader and partner of choice for statistical development work in Africa. To that end, its activities focus on: (i) responding to the ever-increasing demand for good statistics to facilitate the design of effective policies and programs and to serve as a tool for monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of development results geared towards fostering more inclusive and transformative growth in African; (ii) providing technical and financial support to African countries to meet the data needs for the AfDB’s High 5s agenda, as well as the post-2015 SDGs agenda; and (iii) paying a close attention to post-conflict and transitional states, which need targeted and customized support for statistical capacity building. The activities of the recruiting division, the Economic and the Social Statistics Division (ECST.1), focus on providing technical and financial support to AfDB’s Regional Member countries (RMCs) in generating data to inform the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development results of policies and strategies. Activities include but are not limited to:

  • Managing and disseminating data for the AfDB’s High 5 and SDGs agenda in RMCs through the Africa Information Highway (AIH) initiative, which aims at revolutionizing data management and dissemination in Africa and serves as a central repository and hub for easy access to real-time development data on African countries;
  • Coordinating the One Bank Data System, once set up, to ensure quality and consistency of the data that inform the Results Measurement Framework;
  • Providing support to RMCs on conducting surveys and generating poverty profiles of RMCs to inform the design and implementation of national poverty reduction strategies;
  • Providing systematic statistical support for country programming and project cycle activities;
  • Building partnerships with internal and external stakeholders and engage at the appropriate levels to coordinate the Bank’s statistical activities to enable consistent monitoring and evaluation of the Bank’s strategic goals;
  • Leading the process of tracking economic and social development on the continent and generating projections of macroeconomic indicators for RMCs for the purpose of informing the African Economic Outlook process and other flagship publications of the Bank;
  • Providing the Bank and member countries with comparative research analysis, socioeconomic data and projections of the most widely used socio-economic parameters relating to Africa’s economy and Bank Group operations; More specifically, the recruited consultant will participate in the implementation of a project jointly funded by the Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and executed by the Bank in twelve pilot countries which include reporting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) data in SDMX format and implementation of SDMX native data management tools implementation.

  • SCOPE OF CONSULTANT’S WORK

This individual consultant will support RMCs with the maintenance of their Open Data Platform by providing technical assistance as needed. Under the Covid-19 situation the Bank is providing remote technical assistance to RMCs, one of the main assignments of this consultancy will be to provide country onsite training and or remote training to RMCs on the use of SDMX for improving data exchange especially for the SDGs data exchange. The Bank is collaborating with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support the Bank implementation of the Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics (SHaSA II). Through this collaboration, target countries will be assisted to implementation SDMX for their data and metadata management. The consultant will as well assist the Bank on implementing the SDMX component under the AfDB and BMGF joint project.

The consultant will as well assist the Bank to install and test key SDMX tools which allow ECST to better organize all statistical data and facilitate its access through the Bank.

III          EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

The consultant will be responsible for completing the following activities:

  • Train countries on the use of SDMX for data exchange and dissemination using the AIH
  • Execute the Bank’s SDMX roadmap on the continent with a special focus on SDGs.
  • Undertake missions to RMCs or regional organizations to provide technical support on SMDX implementation.
  • Assist countries in implementing SDMX as a backbone of their data management flow.
  • Identify needs and sensitize countries about the requirements to implement SDMX.
  • Assist in identifying the best architecture to integrate SDMX within the AIH and help draft tenders for system upgrades.
  • Prepare training materials and tutorials for in-person and online trainings on SDMX.
  • Regularly prepare a storyline for the ECST newsletter after participating in missions that detail the level of implementation.
  • Assist on SMDX tools implementation within the Bank to improve data access for the Bank staff
  • Fulfill any other duties as requested by Task manager and ECST management.

IV         GENERAL QUALIFICATIONS AND SUITABILITY FOR THE TASK

The successful candidate should have demonstrated superior skills in working effectively with a wide variety of Statistical platforms. He/she must be capable of providing training to counterparts in RMCs and build capacity on management of the AIH.

In addition, the successful candidate should have:

  • A University Degree in Database Management, IT, Statistics or related field
  • A minimum of five (5) years working experience in RMCs
  • Excellent knowledge of Information and Technology Systems, especially as used in developing countries for statistical purposes
  • Excellent knowledge of the Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX)
  • Familiarity with and a supportive attitude towards processes of strengthening local capacities and Statistical agencies
  • Expertise in field data collection, statistical analysis, and data dissemination
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
  • Ability and willingness to travel regularly within Africa

Language

The candidate should have an excellent knowledge of written and spoken English and/or French; and, a good working knowledge of the other language.

Reporting

The Consultant will be required to prepare and submit activity progress reports as appropriate and a Consultancy Report for the period of the consultancy.

VII.        Duration of assignment

The services of the incumbent will be required for a maximum period of 02 months