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Bangladesh Consultant: DEMD Subject Matter Expert - Customs & Trade Facilitation

Resonance

WHO WE ARE

Come grow with us! If you are a passionate change agent who thrives in a collaborative, entrepreneurial and inclusive, culture committed to operational excellence, we would like to meet you. 

At Resonance, you get involved in the work, in the field, not just in the deck. Our teams are autonomous and self-sufficient. You get to weigh in with founders and leaders on how to drive change and grow the movement while growing the company. 

Resonance is an award-winning, Certified B Corporation consultancy that delivers market-based solutions to address the world's toughest challenges. We enable a variety of donor, commercial, and investor clients around the world to catalyze lasting impact. Resonance seeks to catalyze large-scale social, environmental, and economic change by fostering new and dynamic forms of collaboration. We do this by fostering public-private partnerships, facilitating sustainable investment, and providing deep analytical insights in frontier markets. 

POSITION MANDATE

The USAID DEMD project is seeking a Subject Matter Expert, Customs & Trade Facilitation. This position is to serve as a team member on the Mid Term Evaluation of the Feed the Future Bangladesh Improving Trade and Business Enabling Environment Activity (The Trade Activity). The Activity is a $20.07 million, five-year contract implemented by International Development Group LLC (IDG) that began in November 2019 and provides technical assistance, training, institutional strengthening, and other direct support to the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) and non-governmental partners. The Trade Activity promotes collaboration between the government, private sector, civil society organizations (CSOs), including social organizations (SOs), research centers, and universities. Since its startup, the Trade Activity has operated through three integrated objectives: 

  • Objective 1 (O1): Improved Trade Facilitation (TF) through the implementation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), capacity building of government officials, and improved food safety procedures. 
  • Objective 2 (O2): Improved Business Enabling Environment (BEE) through streamlining and simplifying processes and digitizing government services to ease business operations and make services more transparent and accessible to men and women. 
  • Objective 3 (O3): Strengthened Business Enabling Infrastructure through direct assistance to private trade facilitators, including logistics operators, clearing, forwarding agents, inland container depots, packers, financiers, and trade aggregators. 

The Trade Activity is currently in Year 4 Quarter 3 (Y4Q3) of the five-year period of performance. 

The purpose of this evaluation is to identify opportunities for final year course correction within the Trade Activity either by USAID, the implementer, or the Government of Bangladesh (GOB). The evaluation will also be used to inform future activity designs for trade activities as well as activities more generally that are centered on government partnerships. The users of this evaluation are USAID, the implementer, and the GOB (specifically the National Board of Revenue, Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms, Local Government Division). 

This position serves as a core member of our evaluation team providing senior level technical guidance on approaches to evaluate and make recommendations to improve customs and trade facilitation programming.

OUTCOMES / ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

This consultant will be responsible for support to the evaluation as part of the evaluation team, specifically in supporting the following tasks/deliverables: 

  1. Attend kickoff meeting, identify any further individuals that need to be included in initial introductions to ensure local understanding. 
  2. Provide inputs to the evaluation design to ensure the team takes local considerations into account. Special attention will be paid to providing background on trade facilitation and customs activities, identifying the correct stakeholders, data collection methods, sampling, and consent scripts. They will contribute to data collection tool design including or revising questions or facilitation techniques. 
  3. Conduct field research with the team, as needed with special support to ensuring data collection tools and evaluation products contribute to useful products that improve trade facilitation programming. 
  4. Analyze qualitative data as needed. 
  5. Lead findings, conclusions, and recommendations discussions. 
  6. Draft report sections clearly presenting findings, conclusions, and recommendations. 
  7. If needed take part in presentations on findings to key stakeholders. 

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN & TIMELINE 

The period of performance is between October 2023-January 2024 

Deliverables: 

  1. Provide inputs to the evaluation design inputs 
  2. Field research daily notes 
  3. Qualitative data analysis 
  4. Section drafts of evaluation report 

Scheduled and Approved Level of Effort: The maximum level of effort for this assignment is 42 days. 

REQUIRED EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

  • Master’s degree or higher in a field related to economics, international business, international relations, law, public policy or similar. 
  • Minimum of 10 years of experience in trade facilitation and customs activities
  • Experience serving on research teams and collaborating with evaluation experts.
  • Experience with trade programming in Bangladesh preferred.
  • Must be fluent in English.
  • Experience with business enabling environment programs preferred.
  • Experience working on USAID projects preferred.


TRAVEL EXPECTATIONS 

The consultant must be able to travel domestically– at least one trip planned for this role. 

WORK ENVIRONMENT & PHYSICAL DEMANDS 

This position operates in a professional office environment, and routinely requires the use of standard office equipment such as computers, phones, printers, photocopiers, and filing cabinets. 

The physical requirements described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. 

As a part of the responsibilities for this job, the employee is required to communicate, detect, converse with, discern, convey, express oneself, and exchange information orally and in writing with others. The employee must be able to remain in a stationary position, sitting at a desk for prolonged periods, move or traverse inside the office and facilities; operate, activate, use, prepare, inspect, place, detect, or position computers and other office equipment, such as a calculator, copy machine, furniture, and computer printer. The employee must be able to make substantial repetitive motions of the wrists, hands and fingers. The employee must be able to lift and move up to 15lbs at times. 

WORK AUTHORIZATION / SECURITY CLEARANCE

N/A 

SALARY RANGE

Candidate to propose daily rate commensurate with experience. 

AAP/EEO STATEMENT

The Equal Employment Opportunity Policy of Resonance is to provide a fair and equal employment opportunity for all associates and job applicants regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity or expression, and sexual orientation) parental status, genetic information (including family medical history) political affiliation, military service, age, veteran status, disability, or marital status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. These protections extend to all management practices and decisions, including recruitment and hiring, appraisal systems, promotions, training, and career development programs. Consistent with these obligations, Resonance also provides reasonable accommodations to employees and applicants with disabilities and for sincerely held religious beliefs, observances, and practices.

Resonance believes that employees should be provided with a working environment which enables each associate to be productive and to work to the best of his or her ability. We do not condone or tolerate an atmosphere of intimidation or harassment based on any of the above-mentioned characteristics.

We expect and require the cooperation of all employees in maintaining a discrimination and harassment-free atmosphere.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Only candidates selected for interviews will be contacted. No phone calls or emails please.

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Confirmed 15 hours ago. Posted 30+ days ago.

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