Consultancy to Develop a Methodology to Produce AfCFTA Country Business Index (ACBI)

1. Background The Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) signed in Kigali, Rwanda, on 21 March 2018 is a key milestone in Africa’s integration Agenda. The scope of the AfCFTA covers trade in goods, trade in services, investment, intellectual property rights, competition policy and possibly e-commerce. This wide scope moves the Agreement beyond the requirements of a traditional free trade area. In order to ensure the realization of the full potential of the AfCFTA, trade rules, regulations and policies which undermine markets functionality need to be identified and addressed. These bottlenecks are expected to be addressed by the effective implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement. There is therefore a need to develop tools and instruments that help countries capture the effectiveness of measures undertaken to implement the AfCFTA with a view to increase business competitiveness. In this regards, establishment of an AfCFTA Country Business Index (ACBI) that will be used at country level to assess and monitor constraints faced by the private sector is proposed. The proposed Index will differ from various existing and new tools to monitor Africa’s regional integration, by relying on unique primary data obtained through surveys from businesses and it will specifically focus on the AfCFTA. It is in this context that the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) solicites a consulting firm to support the development of a methodology to be used in the production of the AfCFTA Country Business Index. 2. Objective of the consultancy include: The objective of the consultancy is to develop a sound methodology to produce AfCFTA Country Business Index as a tool to monitor and evaluate AfCFTA implementation efforts and impacts on business environment in support of policy formulation. The Index is expected to be mainly informed by primary data collected through surveys from the businesses. The Index is expected to allow for cross-country comparisons to help creating a more enabling business environment throughout the Continent. The ACBI is expected to be a robust index that will measure and monitor how businesses experience AfCFTA at the country level and in identifying shortcomings and ways in which implementation can be improved. The Index should include dimensions that capture aspects of AfCFTA implementation, easing trade in Africa, trade for development, and AfCFTA Impact among others. 3. Scope of the assignment Specific tasks in developing the ACBI will include, but are not limited to: a) Engage with various AfCFTA related stakeholders (ECA, AUC) to define the scope of the index and its specific objectives; b) Develop draft methodology for the AfCFTA Country Business Index to be reviewed through an Expert Group Meeting (EGM); The methodology should define dimensions and indicators on various aspects of AfCFTA implementation, easing trade in Africa, trade for development, and AfCFTA Impact among others; c) Test the proposed ACBI methodology to validate its proposed survey instruments for further refinement and final validation;