ATPC will require appropriate levels of human and fi-nancial resources to implement the work programme set out in part III of this Business Plan.
A. Budget 2014 – 2018
ATPC will require an estimated $49 million to imple-ment its activities over the2014-2018period. Staff and administrative costs will account for $18million (36 per cent) of this amount, for the recruitment of fellows and short-term experts and consultants.
The$15.2million post resources are based on stand-ard United Nations salary costs. Programme imple-mentation costs, including ATPC support to Africa’s trade initiatives amount to $28.9 million (60 per cent), while governance, monitoring and evaluation, re-porting and outreach costs amount to $2.12 million (4 per cent).
ECA will continue to provide the $3 million needed to cover the Centre’s four professional staff (three P3 and one P2) and two general services staff. This leaves a net sum of $46 million to be financed with support from funding partners.
ECA will also continue to provide logistical and in-frastructural support such as office space, comput-ers, telephone and other items not included in this budget. A detailed breakdown of the budget is at-tached as annex 1.
B. Human resources
In order to fully achieve its core mandate, ATPC will require a core group of staff with the appropriate skills mix to deal with the day-to-day implementation of its programme. With the expertise and technical know-how required, the Centre will have 19profes-sional and two general service core staff as follows:
one coordinator(P6); one chief trade policy advi-sor(P5); one programme management officer and nine trade policy advisors (P4),eight of whom will be working with the eight regional economic com-munities to support the implementation of BIAT and CFTA; a trade facilitation specialist, an infrastructure specialist, a productive capacity specialist, a trade fi-nance specialist, a monitoring and evaluation officer and a communication and knowledge management officer(P3); an associate economic affairs officer (P2);
and two general service staff – a senior staff assistant (G6) and a senior programme assistant (G7).
ATPC will continue the trade fellowship scheme as part of its training activities. Trade fellows will under-take research and organize seminars and training for the regional economic communities and member States. Some of the fellows will be sent to the region-al economic communities after prior preparation at ATPC. They will be employed by the Centre for six months and paid an appropriate stipend.
ATPC will also require temporary and short-term ex-pertise from time to time to meet periodic surges in demand for its services, and in areas where there is no in-house expertise. It will engage the services of consultants on short-term basis to undertake studies, prepare evaluations and assist in seminars and train-ing workshops.
C. Funding
Funding for ATPC is expected to come mainly from the ECA regular budget, as seed funding to support the basic operations of the Centre. This includes fund-ing for six staff positions and provision of operational services and facilities such as office accommodation, some office supplies and equipment and other ad-ministrative support and services.
A greater share of the funding is expected to come from development partners, such as the Canadian International Development Agency, the Department of International Development of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, which have supported the operations of the Centre in the past 10years. It is hoped that they will continue their generous support to the Centre during this plan period. Potential partners such as AfDB, the European Union and Australia have shown an interest in work-ing with ATPC.
More effort will be made to enhance the financial sustainability of the Centre, which will develop a comprehensive resource mobilization strategy to en-sure adequate and predictable financial resources for its operations. This will entail deepening relationships with current funding partners and attracting new
multilateral and bilateral institutions and agencies interested in supporting Africa’s trade development agenda. Funds mobilized from funding partners will complement the regular budget of ECA.
D. Governance structure
Following the restructuring exercise undertak-en by ECA, ATPC has beundertak-en mainstreamed into the Commission’s institutional architecture as a centre within RITD. This internal change does not affect the original mandate and objectives of the Centre.
The coordinator will see to the day-to-day running of ATPC, under the supervision of the Director of RITD, who, in turn, will report directly to the Executive Secretary of ECA and the ATPC Steering Committee.
A solid governance structure is key to managing ATPC effectively and more inclusively. A simple and practical governance structure is required for effec-tive decision-making and ownership at all levels. The ATPC governance structure is two-tiered:
(a) The ATPC Steering Committee (b) The Working Group
(a) The ATPC Steering Committee will be the main organ responsible for providing overall policy direc-tion on the activities of the Centre. It will:
Determine the general policy direction governing the activities and programmes of ATPC, in line with the outcomes of the African Union Conference of Ministers re-sponsible for trade as well as Conference of African Ministers in charge of region-al integration, and the ECA Conference of Ministers of Finance, Economic Development and Planning.
Review the annual work programme and budget, and recommend any changes.
Review the annual report of the Centre’s activities and evaluate their effectiveness.
The Executive Secretary of ECA or a designated per-son will chair the ATPC Steering Committee. ECA will be the secretariat for the board and will convene all its meetings. The Committee will also have one dele-gate from AUC, ECA and AfDB; eight from the regional economic communities; a representative each of the
Figure 2: ATPC Governance Structure
ATPC Governance Structure
Implementation
Reporting Policy Direction
The Chief Executives (AUC, ECA & AfDB)
ATPC Working Group ATPC Steering Committee
ATPC Governance Structure
Executive Secretary
Director RITD ATPC Coordinator
funding partners, from civil society, gender groups and the business community.
The Committee will meet at least once a year and the ATPC coordinator will serve as its secretary.
(b) The ATPC working group. This group will com-prise the directors of trade of AUC, ECA and AfDB. Its main function will be to:
Coordinate and harmonize AUC, ECA and AfDB programme activities on trade, to en-sure synergy and avoid duplication.
Facilitate communication between the ATPC Steering Committee and the chief
executives of the three institutions, on de-cisions of the Steering Committee and any operational and political issues that may require their attention.
Resolve any urgent operational issues that may be referred to it by the ATPC coordina-tor, the Steering Committee or any of the directors, to ensure the smooth running of the Centre.
The working group will meet at least four times a year.
The chair person and venue of the Group will rotate among its members. The host will chair the meeting.