Consulting

Improving competitiveness of industries lies at the core of private sector development. It is essential for economies to identify industries that not only would increase production and create jobs but also would also ensure sustainable and inclusive growth.

I apply a holistic approach towards identifying such industries by evaluating both demand and supply factors and assessing the impact on environment and society. Based on this identification, I carry out in-depth assessment of markets and assess opportunities and constraints.

My expertise includes application of ‘markets for poor’ (M4P) tools to design innovative and win-win solutions that would drive systemic and long-term changes.

Specific consulting services include –

• Sector selection
• Market assessment
• Intervention design for pro-poor growth
• Spatial growth strategies
• Industry specific vision and competitiveness strategy
• Evaluation of market-systems programs using Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) methods

I have experience in providing these services in sectors such as agriculture (including value chains of fisheries, shea butter, livestock, gum acacia, palm oil, coffee, tea, tropical fruits), textiles and garments, fast-moving consumer goods, e-commerce, IT and IT-enabled services, higher education and tourism.

Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) are mechanisms that help governments meet the rapidly growing infrastructure needs in emerging economies. Depending on the risk appetite of the governments and private sector, the two parties form partnerships to finance, construct and maintain infrastructure projects. The implementation of a PPP is a highly complex process and requires multidisciplinary teams of consultants to work closely with the government and private sector.

I leverage on my economics knowledge and experience in PPPs from India to help clients with specific advisory services –

• Economic feasibility assessment of industrial infrastructure projects such as free trade zones or special economic zones
• PPP institutional assessment
• Post-award PPP governance assessment
• Capacity building of public sector staff to govern PPP projects

Countries strive to climb up the rankings of World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business Index’ or the World Economic Forum’s ‘Global Competitiveness Index’. These rankings determine the willingness of private sector to penetrate and expand into new markets, and hence play an important role not only at the national level but also at the sub-national level. I advise governments or donors funding programs in business environment or investment climate reform to identify parameters, construct customized indices and design survey methodologies for annual assessment. While governments implement business environment reforms, in several cases, such reforms are identified and advocated by the private sector. I work with companies (local and multinational) to assess policy and regulatory constraints that are hindering their businesses and draft white papers that can be used for policy advocacy.

Specific areas of my expertise include –

• Construction of indices to assess business environment or investment climate (in particular, I leverage on my experience in understanding socio-political factors such as change in government, security, corruption, refugee crisis and among others)
• Drafting white papers for businesses and industry associations to advocate policy reforms

Demand for jobs need to match the supply of labor both quantitatively and qualitatively. Without a skilled workforce productivity cannot be enhanced and inclusive growth cannot be achieved. While carrying out market systems assessment, I give a special attention to the existence of labor and its capacity. Training institutes need to be kept abreast with industrial and technological changes and must work towards filling up the gap in skills among laborers.

Through my experience of carrying out ‘skills-gap’ assessment of textile and higher education sectors in India, I help clients to develop analytical models for labor market assessment and identify high-level constraints.

Increased openness among economies either regionally or across the globe has encouraged flow of goods and services, fostered economic growth and reduced poverty. A small-scale entrepreneur based at the cross border of a country would prefer selling products to the neighboring market than building complex unaffordable supply chains to sell to local consumers living thousands of miles away. It is necessary to create porous market structures that reduce time and costs for all actors involved in the market system. Such structures comprise of an enabling export policy, regional integration, cross-border infrastructure (including ports) and efficient trade facilitation mechanisms.

I bring in strong experience of working with industry associations, donors and governments to identify constraints in cross border trade and design interventions that would make export possible and sustainable.

Services include –

• Market assessment of export sectors/products
• Export strategy
• Cross border infrastructure assessment and intervention design
• Impact assessment of trade regulatory barriers