Featured Projects

East Africa’s ‘Trade in Services’ Export Capacity Program

While free movement of goods has witnessed substantial growth in the East African region, trade in services is yet to explore its full potential. With the implementation of Common Market Protocol (CMP), as of 2016, the EAC partner states (excluding South Sudan), on an average, have committed to 58 percent of service sub sectors, making the region a net exporter of services.

However, these exports are only marginally greater than the imports, implying there needs to be a greater push towards increasing exports and foreign earnings. Most of these exports are concentrated in tourism, recreation and culture, air transportation and road logistics services. Sectors such as insurance, business and professional services, health care and education are import-oriented and therefore have a long way to convert into export-driven sectors. These trends necessitate evaluation of services sectors and identify those that can be leveraged on to improvise the narrow trade surplus in EAC’s service sector. In this context, TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) contracted an assignment to evaluate trade in service sectors in EAC and design a program for its Phase II Strategy (2018-23).

Approach:

As a Private Sector Development Consultant to TMEA, I applied ‘Markets Systems Approach’ to carry out following activities –

1. Mapped trade flows in EAC’s service sector and identified 2-3 service sectors (apart from tourism and logistics) that have potential for exports
2. Carried out extensive consultations with stakeholders in EAC to prioritize Information Technology (IT) and IT-enabled services as the key sector
3. Assessed IT and ITeS industries in Kenya and Rwanda to understand opportunities and constraints
4. Designed interventions to promote digital service exports within the region and to foreign markets by (i) increasing capacity and competitiveness of key firms and (ii) advocating for policy and regulatory Challenge to create an enabling environment for businesses

Results:

An 8M$ program to increase EAC’s digital exports was designed for TMEA to be implemented over the next 5-year period. TMEA has initiated implementation work in Kenya and Rwanda.

Post-Award Performance of Public Private Partnerships in India

Challenge:

Since 2000, India has witnessed an unprecedented growth in implementation of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to close the increasing infrastructure gap. While several initiatives and reform practices were being adopted to successfully design and award PPP projects, there was limited awareness about methods to effectively monitor PPP projects. Given the long term nature of these infrastructure projects, a number of uncertainties and operational challenges arise ‘post-award’. The implementing and governing parties often cannot foresee these risks and therefore lack capacity to mitigate them. The post-award governance framework is the first step towards addressing this challenge. Athena Infonomics was contracted by British High Commission (BHC) – New Delhi to evaluate PPP models in urban infrastructure sectors and design a post-award governance framework for the national and select state governments.

Approach:
As one of the consultants executing this assignment from 2013 to 2015, I carried out following activities –

1. Consultations with stakeholders such as the concessionaire, financiers, transaction advisors, and implementing agencies/government to understand pre and post award PPP issues and strategies
2. Review of project documents such as concession agreement, bid papers, lending agreements to document in-depth case studies of PPP projects in water supply, waste management and urban roads sectors
3. Identification of of cause-effect relationship between factors impacting post-award PPP governance and project outcomes
4. Applied Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) technique on the identified factors and outcomes
5. Formulated a ‘post-award governance framework’ for PPPs in urban infrastructure, comprising of institutional, contract management and monitoring strategies
6. Built capacities among urban local bodies in Tamil Nadu and Kerala to implement the post-award governance framework

Enabling Environment for Trade in Digital Services in East Africa

Digital trade is the fastest growing and most dynamic sector in the global economy, Developing countries have a huge potential to benefit from this to promote economic efficiencies and productivity gains. Digital services not only include business in IT-related sectors, but also those in finance, insurance, cultural and recreational industries. East Africa is an emerging digital hub experiencing growth in online transactions and use of mobile technology for domestic trade. While profound consequences of digitization in the region are realized, there exist several challenges and barriers. An enabling regulatory environment to allow hassle free flow of data, goods and services in digital format in East Africa, both within the region and with the foreign markets, is therefore of vital importance.

The International Center for Trade & Sustainable Development (ICTSD) along with TMEA hosted a conference in January 2017 on ‘Leveraging Services and Digital Potential for Inclusive Economic Growth in East Africa’.

I collaborated with Law & Development Partnership to provide research support on the policies and regulatory issues in digital trade in East Africa and draft a white paper drawing out policy implications from recent experiences of firms entering and expanding in this industry within the region.

Workforce Development

Potential and Strategies to Increase Exports from Eastern DRC

Challenge:

The ongoing conflict has eroded the economy of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), diminished the productive and adaptive capacity of households, and discouraged private investment in agricultural activities. Many communities live in fear of ongoing rebel attacks, which destroy their crops, or of being displaced altogether from their land. This deters much long-term planning and investment in agriculture and discourages scaling and commercialization of production, as farmers who are perceived to be successful become targets for pillage.

Furthermore, the lack of structured input markets, transport, logistics and infrastructure affect the productivity of agriculture in Eastern DRC. The two provinces - he North and South Kivu have been established into commercial trade centers importing goods from foreign and neighboring markets. Increased dependence on minerals for income and increased imports have discouraged local production.

TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) has adopted a ‘good neighbor’ policy for its Strategy II (2018 onwards). It intends to leverage on their cross-border trade experience in the East African region to support neighboring countries, including DRC. TMEA contracted the consortium of Partner Africa and Vanguard Economics (Rwanda) to design a borderlands program for Eastern DRC with the objective to increase exports, facilitate trade with EAC, reduce poverty and create resilient jobs.

Approach:

As the Private Sector Development Advisor, I led the consultant team to (a) evaluate various value chains in North & South Kivu with potential increase local production and cross border exports and (b) design interventions for TMEA’s DRC program. Specific activities included -

1. Mapped production and trade flows of potential goods for local production (taking nutrition requirements into consideration) and exports
2. Assessed key constraints in the value and supply chain flow of the identified goods using ‘markets for poor’ approach
3. Identified strategic interventions and investment opportunities for TMEA and designed a 12M$ program to increase exports of coffee, soy and palm oil