Lindani Ndlovu

My expertise and more than 25 years' development experience in trade policy and trade capacity building, regional integration and industrial developmentand project cycle management mainly in East and Southern Africa and at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) prompts me to respond to your advertisement for Team Leaders on Trade. I am an independent consultant who has worked for governments, regional and international development organisations, the private sector and civil society organisations.

I have strong analytical skills developed from my qualifications and experience. I hold a PhD degree in trade and industrial development, an honours degree in Economics, a master’s degree in National Development and Project Planning and an MBA in Banking and Finance. I have also attended post-experience courses and professional training in trade policy analysis and policy formulation including the multilateral trading system and mainstreaming gender in trade policy and trade development; project planning and management; regional development planning; and training of trainers as well as banking-related financial management. I lectured Project Planning and Planning Techniques and Methods at the university.

My consulting and advisory experience includes coordinating and managing programme implementation on trade policy and trade capacity building. I have provided technical advice to donor funded trade policy and trade capacity building technical assistance projects. I coordinated trade capacity development as a technical adviser to projects funded by the EU supporting the Ministry of Trade and the private sector in Uganda. I identified trade policy related research issues and managed the research process under a trade research fund at the Uganda Programme for Trade Opportunities and Policy. I supported the development of trade policy institutions under the Technical Support for EPA Finalisation (TSEPAF) project. As the Team Leader and Trade economist at the EPA related Trade and Private Sector Support Programme I guided the work of the technical assistance team and planned worked to ensure Uganda complies with the Sanitary and phyto-sanitary requirements in trade and worked to develop capacity including providing training. My work at UNCTAD as an Inter-Regional Adviser focused on providing technical advice on trade development and mainstreaming trade in national development plans to LDCs related to the Enhanced Integrated Framework support.

I carried out consultancy assignments for organisations such as UNCTAD, UNIDO and the World Bank as well as for a number of non-government organizations (NGOs) in Zimbabwe and Uganda among others. I am currently working on an assignment to identify and develop investment profiles of opportunities in Malawi for the Malawi Investment and Trade Centre. I carried out a number of trade development related studies on African countries on behalf of UNCTAD. I led a team of experts that successfully carried out baseline studies on the industrial development situation and the business environment and complementary factors for industrial development in the Tripartite on behalf of the Tripartite Task Force Sub-committee on Industrial development in the Tripartite region.

Over the last 20 years, I have worked in management, leadership and senior management positions in a university, in a banking and finance conglomerate, in the PTA Bank – regional trade and project finance bank - and in advisory services as a consultant.

I have developed excellent communication and IT skills and I communicate well both in written and spoken English. I have written regular progress reports and made technical presentations. I have been involved in making presentations to launch UNCTAD’s Economic Development in Africa Report 2014 and 2015 and was a discussant at the launch of Economic Report on Africa 2015 here in Uganda. I enjoy reading about current development thinking and engaging others in pertinent discussions on development. I have researched and published a book, a chapter in a book and several papers on trade development issues. I have worked in multicultural environments. I have worked in leadership as well as expert roles and fit well within diverse teams.