AFDB1JP00000110

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After decades of piloting tools and discourses on the immense potential of Africa's natural resources, the time has indeed come to concretize the valuation of natural resources and explore their integration into the formal system of national accounts. This perspective is all the more timely since the SNA 2025 has just been adopted by the international scientific community and addresses natural resources for the first time in depth by making substantial changes including (i) Recording depletion as a cost of production ; (ii) Explicit recognition of renewable energy resources such as solar, hydro, wind, geothermal as economic assets requiring valuation, (iii) Changes in the treatment of single-use biological resources ; (iv) Split ownership of natural resources between Government and private sector; (v) Various changes in the classifications pertaining to natural capital.

As part of the 2025-2027 Implementation Plan implementation of the Community of Practice on Natural Capital Accounting in Africa (NCA CoP), for which the bank has been designated as a host partner for the current period, it is planned to recruit an international consultant to support two pilot countries in updating their System of National Accounts based on the 2025 recommendations and satellite natural resources accounts. The Africa NCA CoP Secretariat, currently funded by the African Development Bank executes day-to-day activities according to the workplans as approved by the Steering Committee and the host Department in the Bank. The main objective is to build on the momentum for mainstreaming natural capital into development planning in Africa, through developing a Community of Practice (CoP) for NCA for African countries. The work continues to draw from the experience of the World Bank WAVES Plus, GPS as well as GDSA and other partner organizations and CoP member countries.

The support to strengthen statistical capacities of African countries in the field of the SNA commenced early 2025, following the launch of the Bank’s policy paper on measuring the green wealth of nations. This has made it possible to not only provide technical assistance to lagging African countries – supporting their migration to the 2008 SNA while also rebasing their GDP, but also to sensitize them on the need to revalue their GDP in line with the provisions of the newly adopted 2025 SNA. Given the magnitude of countries' needs in migrating to the 2025 SNA, the Bank is adopting a pragmatic, sequential approach, targeting 2 pilot countries. The approach consists of testing the robustness and relevance of the new methodological guidelines for the 2025 SNA in a limited field consisting of the two pilot countries and, if the results are positive, extend the application to all 54 RMCs. The main changes related to natural resources satellite accounts are prioritized in this exploratory study.

Under the overall combined direction of the African Natural Resources Management & Investment Center (ECNR) and the Statistical Capacity Building Division (ECST.2) and direct technical supervision of the Principal Statistician, the consultant will provide technical assistance to two (2) Regional Member Countries (RMCs) through direct/bilateral TA and national training workshops to countries so that they can proceed with updating their SNA based on 2025 recommendations and satellites natural accounts. Specific deliverables include:
• Validation of the two (2) pilot countries selected by the Bank according to their level of readiness.
• Diagnostic mission of the natural satellite accounts in the two pilot countries, with a view to assessing the status of the satellite accounts.
• Development of a strategy/guideline document and action plan for updating the SNA based on the 2025 recommendations and natural satellite accounts.
• Training of staff on the main changes introduced by 2025 SNA, focusing on the links between SNA and natural satellite accounts.
• Implementation of natural capital classifications of activities and products (branches of activity, products, transactions, sources, institutional sectors, production methods, etc.).
• Identification of data sources used for updating the SNA (specific surveys, administrative sources, etc.).
• Processing of available source data (using a participatory approach).
• Integration of the natural satellite accounts into GDP.
• Evaluation of the initial results of the compiled accounts.
• Workshop to disseminate the results of the compiled accounts.
• Other specific duties as designated by the Task Manager and Division Manager.

a) The Consultant will be hired for a fixed term of eight (8) months from 15th October 2025 to 15th June 2026.
b) The Consultant will receive a monthly lump sum, following satisfactory performance review of the tasks executed. The Bank’s guidelines on remuneration of consultants will apply, based on the candidate’s qualifications and years of experience.
c) The Consultant is responsible for his/her own health insurance and accommodation costs.

The Statistics Department of the Bank invites Individual Consultants to indicate their interest in providing the above-described services. Interested Consultants shall provide information on their qualifications and experience demonstrating their ability to undertake this Assignment (documents, reference to similar services, experience in similar assignments, etc.).

The Consultant shall be based in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire or will work remotely but should be readily available for coordination with the Team.
The consultant may be required to travel for missions and work-related engagements as needed. The Bank will cover full costs of any required trip/missions if needed and provide per-diem in accordance with rules governing consultant mission travel.