The International Trade Centre (ITC) assists developing and transition economy countries to take advantage of expanding trade opportunities in an increasingly complex global environment. ITC supports Trade Impact for Good, promoting sustainable and inclusive development goals through trade. The Sector and Enterprise (SEC) Section of the Division of Enterprises Competitiveness and Institutions (DECI) helps developing country MSMEs address the challenges around sustainable value-chain development, catalysing sector-wide transformation, and improving market linkages – including using new digital channels. The section develops proprietary methodologies for value-chain analysis and upgrading, as part of its efforts to improve the international competitiveness of MSMEs through the delivery of specialized advisory solutions. The section manages ITC’s Value Added to Trade and e-Solutions programmes, directly linked to ITC’s strategic focus area of connecting MSMEs to value-chains.

The Packaging team develops and implements methodologies to support MSMEs in the improvement of their packaging systems, and to support the packaging ecosystem as a sector at national and regional levels. The team builds capacity, trains, advises and coaches partners and enterprises, and manages initiatives to improve the access of MSMEs to packaging service providers to improve their alignment and compliance to market requirement along the supply chain.

This post brings specialized expertise, project management and communication skill in support of several projects in the EAC countries, and potentially beyond in Africa.

The Associate Programme Adviser will be responsible for the support to projects implementation in the packaging value chains and support the communication with key partners.

Under the direct supervision of the Senior Program Officer of Packaging and the general guidance of the Chief of Sector and Enterprise Competitiveness the incumbent will be responsible for the following duties:

• Coordinates activities related to programme delivery and progress reports
• Carries out research on selected aspects of packaging related value chain analysis, operations, compliance and other activities, etc., to include collecting, analysing and presenting information gathered from diverse sources.
• Regularly organize and conduct meetings with relevant actors and partners to monitor the progress of trade facilitation initiatives as required by the project objectives and timelines.
• Participate in and/or organize field missions of the Trade and Investment Facilitation team, including providing substantive and administrative support, data collection, etc.
• Participates in the development of training workshops, seminars, etc.; participates in and makes presentations on assigned topics/activities.
• Participates in field missions, including provision of substantive support, data collection, etc
• Assists in performing consulting assignments, in collaboration with the team assigned to the project, by planning and facilitating workshops/delivering training and coaching
• Participates in mobilizing stakeholders in the packaging ecosystem; assists with the design of data collection tools, issues data collection tools, reviews, analyses and interprets responses, identifies problems/issues and prepares preliminary conclusions
• Contributes to the preparation of various written outputs, e.g. draft background papers, analytical notes, sections of reports and studies, inputs to publications, etc
• Works with key clients to facilitate the development, implementation and evaluation of assigned programmes/projects, etc.; monitors and analyses specific aspects of programme/project development and implementation; reviews relevant documents and reports; identifies problems and issues to be addressed and recommends corrective actions; liaises with relevant parties; identifies and tracks follow-up actions.
• Performs other duties as required.
  NOTE – The selected candidate must be available for duty travel for short periods to other countries in the region.