Senior advisor embedded to the Ethiopian PPP Unit

Senior advisor embedded to the Ethiopian PPP Unit

Technical assistance program to support the economic reforms in Ethiopia.

Overall project

Expertise France is the French public agency for international technical assistance. It aims at contributing to sustainable development based on solidarity and inclusiveness, mainly through enhancing the quality of public policies within the partner countries. Expertise France designs and implements cooperation projects addressing skills transfers between professionals. The agency also develops integrated offers, assembling public and private expertise in order to respond to the partner countries’ needs.

At the request of the Federal and Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, a technical assistance program (TA program) has been designed to support the implementation of the Ethiopian second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II), especially regarding the public-private partnership (PPP) reforms.

The TA program is financed by Agence Française de développement (AFD), the French public development bank.

The TA Program is composed of the following three (3) components:

• Component 1 – PPP program support;
• Component 2 Capacity development program on SOE governance;
• Component 3 – Contribution to the economic reforms

Component 1 – PPP program support

The Growth and Transformation Plan highlighted an infrastructure deficit in Ethiopia. Therefore, recommendations have been made to support, encourage and incentivize the private sector to play a role in infrastructures development. Recognizing the potential of such partnerships, the government has adopted a PPP Directive, a PPP Proclamation and a pipeline of PPP projects (focused on energy projects). This PPP legal framework establishes a PPP unit at the Ministry of Finance, also referred to as “Directorate General for PPP (DG for PPP)” to manage the PPP framework in the Country.

The PPP TA Program will be conducted by Expertise France who will mobilize a team of experts, respectively based at the PPPDG (Public-private Partnership Directorate General), and at EEP (Ethiopian Electric Power) and tentatively composed of:

• Embedded to the PPPDG: a senior PPP advisor and additional on-demand experts for short period of times.
• Embedded to EEP: a senior expert in solar energy projects and additional on-demand experts for short period of times.

This document aims at describing the objective, scope of work, and required skills and experience of the senior PPP advisor embedded to the PPPDG.

Assignment

The selected expert will be required to provide its support to the PPPDG in order to:

• Support the PPPDG to exercise its mandate: Facilitate the emergence of sustainable PPPs, for the ongoing projects, and contribute to the preparation of starting new projects.
• Reinforce PPPDG capacity and share best practices: Provide advice and methodological support, organize training sessions

1. Reinforce PPPDG capacity and share best practices

Capacity building is the process of optimizing individuals’ and institutions’ qualifications/ capacities. The selected expert shall promote the reinforcement of the PPPDG’ capacities on a long-term basis.

As a result, the selected expert shall involve the PPPDG in all project activities and implement a « learning by doing » method. Indeed, the appropriation of knowledge by the PPPDG is a pillar objective of our approach and will guide the entire implementation of the project.

The selected expert will be required to undertake the following tasks:

Provide advice and methodological support: The selected expert shall provide advice and disseminate knowledge through the organization of working group or individual sessions within the PPPDG and/or the production of notes for the PPPDG. In this scheme of action, the structure is supported on a daily basis by the selected expert, the availability of the assistance is permanent and the transmission of knowledge is done through an active pedagogy process in order to build skills in professionally realistic situations. In addition, the selected expert share its knowledge and work methods to enable the PPPDG members to roll them out in autonomy.

Organize training sessions: The selected expert shall organize various training sessions for the PPPDG.

• The action-learning training session is a process to foster learning by working on real topics and actually implementing solutions. Thus, the PPPDG members improve skills through exercises and trainings based on the current cases they might have to deal with, allowing them to go from theory to practice immediately. The selected expert shall demonstrate a great capacity of adaptation, flexibility and reactivity to match these training sessions to the PPPDG’ working plan.
• Regular training on pre-identified themes, teach recipients to deal with key subjects to be implemented for a successful PPP. As part of a global training plan, these training sessions aim at allowing the PPPDG to acquire a global 360° perspective on the subject and its issues. The selected expert will be required to implement the training plan and to organize training sessions to the PPPDG and others identified ministries/structures.
• The training of trainers supposes to transfer to the PPPDG the techniques and tools allowing them to share knowledge. The PPPDG thus trained will then, in turn, be able to support other institutions (the Board, the Contracting Authorities and others ministries on all PPP related matters) as defined in its duties and responsibilities.

2. Support the PPPDG to exercise its mandate

The selected expert will provide its support to the PPPDG in a day-to-day basis implementing the learning by doing approach exposed at the previous point. The approach we favour is aimed at supporting the beneficiary both at a technical and an organizational level. Therefore, the technical assistance will carry out the activities identified below and may, in the event the PPPDG has seized a request to this effect, support the management of the structure (for example for the realization of organizational charts, job descriptions, tools to help the management of the structure, etc.).

Based on the PPPDG duties and responsibilities issued by the PPP proclamation and PPP Directive, the selected expert could be asked to implement the following activities:

• Assist the identification and preparation of starting new projects : Identify a public service activity that may be carried out as a PPP ; Update the list of potential PPP projects ; Determine the list of projects that shall be submitted to the Board for a pre-approval ; Prepare guidance related to projects’ preparation ; Evaluate feasibility studies conducted by the Project Management team that have to be submitted to the Board for approval ; Carry out additional studies  which likely be requested by the Board in order to give its approval to the project ; Provide technical assistance to review the admissibility of unsolicited proposal.

• Assist the preparation of consultation documents: Issue request for qualification; Prepare request for proposals; Establish a contract notice setting out the contracting authorities’ need and requirement in the competitive dialogue; Prepare the description of the contracting authorities’ need and requirement in the direct negotiation process; Setting out application and award criteria in all the procedures; Support the application and proposals’ evaluations.

• Assist PPP transaction process : Hold one-on-one or group meetings with prequalified bidders ; Hold one-on-one or group meetings with prequalified bidders ; Evaluate the final bids ; Conduct negotiations ; Conduct the two-stage bidding process (holding on meeting with candidates, review initial request for proposal)  conduct the competitive dialogue process ; conduct the direct negotiation procedure; processing unsolicited proposals ; Draft evaluation reports for any process;  Receive and process the complaints.

• Assist the follow-up of implemented PPP: Coordinate PPP projects implementation; Monitor and evaluate the progress of implementation of PPPs; Ensure PPP project visibility.
• Inputs for PPP coordinator’s reporting requirements: deliver the inputs requested for the elaboration of the quarterly and annual report

Additional information

• Mission area: Public-private partnership.
• Duration: 36 months (3 years).
• Starting date: Octobre 1st.

• A senior project management expert with financial skills and general knowledge of PPP.

• Advanced degree in finance, investments, or economics.
• Ability to conduct on-the-job training in his/her area of experts and to transfer key PPP project and transaction management skills to other staff members of the PPP DG.
• A strong team player with excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work in a high profile environment.
• Strong oral and written communication skills with a capacity to communicate effectively to a wide variety of audiences, including conducting periodic presentations.
• Fluency in English is required.
• Fluency in Amharic is appreciated.

• Minimum of 15 years of international experience advising on the PPP Projects (management), and financial skills (structuring PPP transactions, transaction advisory, (with at least 3 years’ experience in developing countries).
• Recent project experience in PPP transaction related to energy and transport sectors;
• Strong experience with analysing, structuring, and financing public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure investments, including:

1. Experience with preparing, structuring, and negotiating project financing transactions;
2. Experience with preparing or bidding on international competitive procurements for large capital investment projects;
3. Experience in appraising investment projects, such as conducting due diligence reviews for investors and lenders;
4. Experience with designing and reviewing financial feasibility studies and tariff-setting analyses for long-term infrastructure investments;
5. Experience with conducting and reviewing Public Sector Comparison (PSC) and Value for Money (VfM) analyses for large investment projects.