La BAD recherche des Consultants individuels pour le projet de Modélisation dette -investissement – croissance et marché du travail en Afrique – Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

La BAD recherche des Consultants individuels pour le projet de Modélisation dette -investissement – croissance et marché du travail en Afrique – Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

Détails :

• Department making the request: ECMR/ECMR.1
• Place of assignment: Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire
• Period of assignment: August 2019 to February 2020
• Expected start date of the assignment: 30 August 2019
• Last date for expression of interest: 09 August 2019
• Expression of interest to be submitted to: m.abah@afdb.org / alesse@afdb.org
• Any questions/clarifications should be addressed to: l.balma@afdb.org

Description of the assignment :

The African Development Bank in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund have extended and adapted the standard Debt-Investment-Growth (DIG) model in an on-going collaborative project to capture important features of African economies and use it as a tool to guide policy decision-making in the RMCs. The key features of the extended model (herewith the DIG-Labor model) are summarized below:

• The DIG-Labor model is an open-economy perfect foresight general equilibrium model with three private sectors: tradable agriculture, non-tradable formal and non-agriculture informal sectors.
• Segmented labor market prevails in the three sectors.
• Firms in the formal sector pay efficiency wage, while flexible wage prevail in agriculture and non-agriculture informal sector.
• The formal sector features involuntary unemployment. Other variants of the model allows for involuntary unemployment and underemployment in the informal secto
• The model incorporates skilled labor and public investment in human capital; maintenance investment as well as new investment in infrastructure; and sector-specific taxes on wages, profits, and consumption.
• The model allows for different government financing options. Grants and concessional borrowing flows are exogenously given as well as public investment in infrastructure and human capital. Thus, given the path of grants and concessional borrowing, the government is allowed to take on external commercial borrowing and domestic borrowing and some fiscal adjustments in order to finance its plan for public investment.
• The model tracks the paths of several macroeconomic variables including sectoral outputs, real GDP, private investment, private consumption, unemployment, real wages, public capital, public debt, indirect rand direct taxes and transfers.

Background :

The Macroeconomic Policy, Forecasting and Research (ECMR) Department through its Macroeconomic Policy, Debt Sustainability and Forecasting Division is responsible for undertaking research on macroeconomic policy issues; conducting debt sustainability analysis and forecasting for policy analysis within the Bank’s broad developmental work and operations support to the Regional Member Countries (RMCs).

Specifically, activities of the Department focus on the following, inter alia:

• Undertake policy research on the Bank’s High 5s and macroeconomic issues in order to strengthen the Bank’s operations and interventions and improve the quality of policy dialogue and advocacy in the RMCs;
• Conduct debt sustainability analysis using innovative methodological tools in order to improve the Bank’s macroeconomic surveillance and understanding of sovereign debt risk profile and the policy tools RMCs can deploy to contain debt distress;
• Conduct macroeconomic forecasting and economic outlook for the RMCs;
• Provide cutting-edge analytical support to Senior Management through timely economic intelligence work.

Duties and responsibilities of the consultants :

The work on the extension of the model is almost completed and a computer programme has been developed for country application of the model. However, except for practitioners, the computer programme is not easy to understand by a wider public. Therefore, the Bank seeks to recruit consultants in order to help in the development of user-friendly materials which can be used for country applications and training purposes. Specifically, under the overall guidance by the Manager of the Macroeconomic Policy, Debt Sustainability and Forecasting Division, and working closely with the task managers, the Consultants’ tasks include, but not limited:

• Write VBA programmes that would convert the DIG-labor computer programmes to Excel applications, which can be used by the department as a simplified tool to guide its policy dialogue with the RMCs.
• Compile data needed for the calibration of the model and scenario building
• Develop training materials and a how-to guide which can be used for training purposes.
• Contribute to the preparation of knowledge products such as African Economic Outlook (AEO); African Development Report (ADR); Economic Frontier Research and Bank Policy briefs; books, reports, etc.
• Contribute to constructing a suite of structural macro-econometric models, DSGEs, CGE and develop user-friendly GAMS-Excel and Matlab-Excel templates, and web-based IT platforms.
• Carry out simulations and forecasts based on the models developed and participate in the disseminating of results to the Bank’s senior management and RMCs to strengthen policy dialogue.
• Publish research output in the Bank’s working paper series and reputable peer reviewed journals.
• Perform any other duties as may be assigned by the Manager or Task Manager.

Duration and location :

The consultants will work full time and will be based at the Bank’s Headquarters in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire for an initial period of 6 months from 30 August 2019 to 1^st February 2020. The contract may be renewed based on the need of the department and the performance of the consultants.

Selection criteria :

• At least a master degree (or its university equivalent) in Economics, preferably Macroeconomics/Econometrics, Applied Statistics or a related field
• At least 5 years of relevant professional and practical experience in macroeconomic analysis, preferably gained in a development/policy oriented institution in Africa or low-income countries
• Proven practical experience in solving DSGE and CGE models for macroeconomic forecasting and simulation in an African context
• Familiar with VBA programmes and other excel applications
• Client and results oriented individual, with strong analytical and communication (both verbally and written) skills, sense of accuracy, attention to detail and read to work in a multicultural setting
• The working languages of the AfDB are French and English. For this task, fluency in English is required; knowledge of the other is desirable.

Remuneration for the Assignment :

The consultants will be paid a monthly lump sum commensurate with the number of years of experience and deliverables and in line with the Bank’s guidelines for engagement of individual consultants. The Bank will also cover travel expenses in line with the Bank Travel Policy for consultants.

Application process :

Please attach a detailed CV with the list of publications and any relevant material you may have developed.