Multi Criteria Decision Analyst/Expert

Job Description

Background

The Dominican Republic (DR) is a signatory to various international trade agreements (WTO, CODEX, IPPC, OIE) that require compliance actions and investment in capacity building to achieve internationally recognized SPS Best Practices. However, the DR faces multiple and formidable demands for the improvement of its Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) capacity.

SPS capacity building needs are usually associated with obtaining, maintaining, and/or enhancing access to export markets in the face of increasingly stringent food safety and animal/plant health regulations and standards. The DR wants to increase exports and take advantage of its advantageous geographic position for fresh produce exports to the US and the EU. Both markets have increasingly stricter SPS requirements that have to be met. The DR also has a significant international tourism sector and internal market that demands equal or greater attention to the food safety of the domestic market. Finally, its agricultural sector requires protection and surveillance against the threat of the introduction of several exotic pests.

Available resources from the national budget and donors are insufficient to meet all needs and priorities, and decisions have to be made between competing capacity-building options. Decision-makers need to establish priorities in a manner that involves stakeholders, is objective, accountable, and ensures resources are used in an efficient manner. This requires hard choices to be made between competing investments that may all be likely to bring appreciable benefits.

SPS compliance actions and capacity building needs are diffused across multiple food safety, animal health and plant health regulatory and support entities. In the DR, the National Committee for the Application of SPS Measures (CNMSF) was established in 2005 to coordinate the DR’s response and compliance to international SPS commitments with an emphasis on the export sector. It is composed of 14 different public line entities in 5 different Ministries, 3 autonomous public entities, and 2 private exporter/producer associations. The Ministry of Finance, which manages national budget allocation, is not officially part of the CNMSF.

The challenges for economic analysis in the area of SPS capacity enhancement are further enhanced by the fact that, while the preservation and/or enhancement of exports is often the most direct objective, decision-makers also need to consider wider and less direct impacts, such as agricultural productivity, domestic public health, environmental protection, and livelihoods, especially of small farmers, women and other disadvantaged groups. Focusing on changes in the value of exports alone is tempting because of the associated analytical simplicity, it may fail to capture all impacts on producers and/or consumers.

The Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methodology allows capacity building options to be prioritized based on a wide range of decision criteria such as cost and complexity (upfront investment, ongoing costs, difficulty of implementation); trade impacts (change in export value, diversification, reputation); domestic impacts (agriculture productivity, public health); and social impacts (employment, poverty, vulnerable groups). These decision criteria are not measured (or even measurable) using the same metrics. The challenge in defining the choice set of potential SPS capacity building needs is to gather and interpret the information provided by the various indicators. Use of multiple indicators helps to prevent the definition of the choice set from being driven excessively by interest groups that are more vocal and/or politically influential.

The Standards and Trade Development Facility of the WTO has developed a signature MCDA methodology entitled Prioritizing SPS Investments for Market Access (P-IMA). It allows for establishing priorities across broad areas of SPS capacity. It involves the following steps:

• Definition of the set of capacity-building options to be considered.
• Collection and assembly of information on pertinent decision criteria.
• Translation of measurements on decision criteria, individually or in broad categories, into spider diagrams that illustrate the key areas in which each of the capacity-building options performs relatively well/badly.
• Derivation of a numerical prioritization of the options being considered.

General Objective

Strengthen the National Committee for the Application of SPS Measures (CNSMF) capacity to conduct a multi-stage participatory Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) exercise to identify and prioritize SPS issues that require multi-agency, public-private action. The consultant will have the additional responsibilities of ensuring that strengthening the CNSMF to engage in an evidence-based approach to strengthen SPS decision-making will have the additional benefits of:

• Facilitating public-private dialogue;
• Supporting project design and resource allocation;
• Increasing high-level awareness of the value of SPS investments; and,
• Greater resource efficiency linked to national policy objectives.

Specific Tasks

The consultant will employ a Multi-criteria Decision Analysis methodology such as the Prioritizing SPS Investments for Market Access (P-IMA) framework developed by the Standards and Trade Development Facility of the WTO. The methodology used must allow for establishing priorities across broad areas of SPS capacity and it must be participatory in that it involves a wide range of stakeholders in the identification of priorities and the definition of criteria that will be used to devise a numerical ranking.

• Compile an Information Dossier on SPS Priorities. The consultant will review the TraSa program summary briefings on priority SPS issues and the recommendations for capacity building and training for the National SPS Committee and the National Trade Committee. The consultant will also take into account the legal and institutional assessments previously conducted by the Inter-American Development Bank and the National Competitiveness Council.
• Identify the full range of SPS capacity-building options. The consultant will conduct a half-day workshop with CNSMF stakeholders to develop a list of SPS priorities that will eventually be subject to the MCDA methodology.
• Define the decision criteria and their respective weights. As part of the stakeholder workshop under Task 2, work with stakeholders to define the decision criteria and weights for analyzing and prioritizing the SPS options.
• Compile information profiles for the SPS capacity-building options. This must include direct and indirect costs.
• Compare the options according to each of the decision criteria.
• Install and train the CNSMF on the use of a software to calculate the priorities using MCDA and diagnose the results. D-Sight is a decision-making software solution recommended for use in the P-IMA methodology and compares options in a pair-wise fashion and calculates positive and negative flows. D-Sight provides a user-friendly interface, backed up by mathematical power, to support decision-making processes. D-Sight can be used to prioritize the different SPS capacity building options included in the choice set and to diagnose the results. Options ranked on basis of net flows.
• Discuss, review and validate the priorities with stakeholders.

Deliverables

• List of SPS investment needs compiled with participation of stakeholders.
• Decision criteria and weights for evaluating SPS priorities reflecting stakeholders and government of the Dominican Republic priorities.
• Installation of decision-making software, such as D-Sight Software.
• Final list of prioritized SPS capacity building options.

Qualifications

• University degree in economics, agricultural economics, trade policy, public administration, public policy, business administration or related field.
• Demonstrated expert knowledge of the requirements of key trade agreements including the WTO SPS and WTO TFA and familiarity with best practices for implementation of those agreements.
• Significant experience working with government officials, international donors, and other key stakeholders, preferably in the Latin America and Caribbean region.
• Strong interpersonal, writing, and oral presentation skills in English and Spanish.
• Expert knowledge of and ability to train others on a data-driven Collaborative Decision-Making (CDM) tool, such as D-Sight.
• Other relevant computer software skills (including, at a minimum, the standard applications in MS Office Suite, e.g. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, etc.).
• Ability to work in English (fluent) and Spanish (fluent or native language).

Preferences

• MA/MS degree in economics, agricultural economics, trade policy, public administration, public policy, business administration or related field.
• Familiarity with the requirements of the WTO SPS agreement, DR-CAFTA, and other agreements that are part of the DR’s National SPS Committee mandate.

Award of assignment is contingent on donor approval.

About the Organization

IESC is a US-based nonprofit that creates and expands economic opportunities, helping to lift those we support out of poverty. We believe that helping enterprises grow is the most sustainable way for communities to have access to jobs and for families and people to have opportunities for a better quality of life. We have helped businesses in a variety of sectors, including trade and agriculture, create or save more than 1.5 million jobs in 137 countries across the world. Our major funders today are the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), among others.