Apparel Sector Consultant

Job Description

IPOP is a 4-year, regional activity, that provides the Asia Bureau Washington and Regional Missions with a flexible on-demand mechanism to facilitate rapid, sustainable, and equitable economic growth by enabling USAID to bring a systems approach to addressing PFM objectives under the Indo-Pacific Strategy. IPOP will implement activities that improve the macroeconomic policy environment to promote sustainable economic growth and prosperity, improved regional economic cooperation, sound management of institutions, and good governance while also leveling the playing field for business in the region.

Description of Apparel Industry Regional Assessment

The USAID Asia Bureau wants IPOP to assess Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam’s textile and apparel industries. Specifically, the Asia Bureau needs to understand how complying with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is affecting these countries’ garment industries. The country assessments will inform a greater understanding of opportunities and challenges facing the textile and apparel industries as they transition to ethical sourcing of inputs. The in-country work should primarily focus on cotton traceability. Knowing the sources of cotton, and cutting out or minimizing unethically sourced inputs in the supply chain while capitalizing on the industry’s built-in strengths and minimizing potential disruptions are key focuses of the assessment. Garment exporters possessing proof of ethically sourced cotton will prevent their shipments from being held up at borders and diminish lost profit. The country assessments will identify potential measures, such as establishing cotton testing and tracing agencies, aimed at minimizing the adjustment costs as textile and apparel firms transition to ethical inputs.

Objectives

• Identify current cotton tracing procedures and/or methods along the value chain in the host country, from the field (foreign or domestic) to the ginnery, and then from the ginnery to spinners, weavers, knitters, cut and sew exporters, and finally to the end consumer. The consultant will use existing secondary data sources from national statistical offices and cotton, apparel, and garment associations, as well as by purposively sampling and interviewing representative small, medium, and large firms.
• To determine the potential economic impacts for companies, laborers, and consumers in each country of eliminating the sourcing of cotton and cotton-derived products from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and other regions where forced labor is known to be taking place.
• To identify policies, procedures and practices that enable apparel supply chains to eliminate their use of cotton, artificial fabrics, cotton derived inputs, and other textile inputs from the XUAR and other regions where forced is taking place.
• To mitigate the impacts of COVID-19, as well as any interventions proposed to address the Xinjiang supply chain issue, on labor and trade policy and promote decent work, especially for women garment workers
• To propose to USAID recommendations, interventions, and potential pilot activities that focus on strengthening supply chain integrity while upholding decent work and the competitiveness of the sector.

The Apparel Sector Consultant will support efforts to develop in-country assessments on current trends in the garment industry and apparel trade. Country assessments will provide information and policy suggestions about supply chain traceability and ethical sourcing of inputs. Specific duties include:

• Under the direction of the Project Director and Lead Technical Advisor, lead consultation with relevant in-country stakeholders to include Government officials, chambers of commerce, textile and apparel business associations, NGOs, private firms, and international cooperating partners (for example, ILO).
• Analyze each country’s sourcing of cotton from XUAR and examine potential solutions for traceability at all levels of the cotton supply chain includingidentifying the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of technical traceability options in addition to paper trails such as molecular tagging, third party testing, and others.
• Analyze with qualitative and quantitative methods the economic implications (i.e., impacts on labor market, supply chains, current account balances, etc.) of enacting mandatory processes for supply chain transparency and traceability for all entities from raw materials to delivery. Provide qualitative and quantitative analysis of interviews, focus group discussions, existing secondary sources of national statistics, and documents provided by firms and associations related to sourcing cotton derived inputs and other textile inputs including but not limited to cottonseed oil and other intermediate cotton products, polyester, and viscose rayon. The consultants must use the methodologies agreed upon with the Project Director and Lead Technical Advisor, while also tailoring information gathering approaches to the local context.
• Map the supply chain levels from raw fiber production to yarn spinning, fabric, and garment sewing for all inputs produced in, imported to, or exported from XUAR.
• Assessment of existing in-country and international legislation to ban products from XUAR.
• Integrate gender equality and women’s economic empowerment approaches into country assessments and recommendations.
• Identify potential opportunities for USAID to leverage existing private sector, international governmental, and non-government organizations’ initiatives.
• Document lessons learned and the potential for leveraging improved practices along the supply chain.

• A minimum of a bachelor’s degree with 10 years of relevant experience or a master’s degree with seven years of relevant work experience in development, economics, supply chain management, or a related field.
• Demonstrated expertise and knowledge of supply chain management, garment sector, and apparel trade in the Indo-Pacific region.
• Ability to read and comprehend legal documents, such as contracts or import/export agreements.
• Excellent teamwork, inter-personal, verbal, and written communication, presentation, and facilitation skills. Demonstrated ability to collaborate and build lasting relationships with external parties.
• Experience designing and leading co-creation processes preferred.
• Fluency in written and spoken English is required.

Vietnamese candidates are strongly preferred.

• A comprehensive country assessment report based on the findings and recommendations from the consultation process (up to 40 pages) related to supply chain traceability, using the methodology described by the Project Director and Lead Technical Advisor. This report must contain an executive summary, a well-researched background section, and a discussion of the specifications mentioned in the “Services Provided” part of this SOW. The final section of the assessment will include actionable recommendations that could inform USAID programming.
• Detailed meeting notes that include stakeholder names, time and place of meeting, contact details of the person interviewed, key topics covered, questions asked, and next steps. The consultants must use the note-taking tool/template provided by the Project Director and Lead Technical Advisor and the associated methodology. Findings from meetings must be integrated into the final report.

  Level of Effort:

  The candidate is expected to work for up to 40 days between May 2022 and August 2022.

This job posting should not be construed to imply that the requirements are the exclusive standards of the position nor will it be the sole basis for any subsequent employee evaluations. Incumbents will follow any other instructions and perform any other related duties as may be required by their supervisor.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, or other status protected by applicable law.

About the Organization

DevTech Systems, Inc. (DevTech) is an international consulting firm dedicated to development, with over 35 years of experience providing advisory services and technical assistance to government, private sector, and civil society stakeholders in more than 100 countries. We are a data-driven evidence-based organization that specializes in informing policy-making by delivering analytical products and services. DevTech core practice areas include Public Financial Management, Economic and Data analysis, Monitoring and Evaluation, Education and Youth Development, and Gender and Inclusive Development.