COMESA aims to develop and promote a comprehensive end-to-end digital value chain, relying on
state-of-the-art digital tools and best practices for integrated energy planning, digital MRV, and
process management. Individual countries will be encouraged and supported to adopt digital tools
selectively, based on their specific needs and practices, while a regional digital MRV platform will
support aggregation of results across countries. The Energy Access Digitization Expert will support
COMESA to advance on both country-specific and regional platforms.
The Expert is expected to work within COMESA’s ASCENT PIU and closely collaborate with the
World Bank operations teams and government officials from ASCENT countries. As part of the
extensive outreach required for the country needs assessment, the Expert will also support COMESA
in structuring the dialogue with the relevant ASCENT countries, including identifying champions in
each institution with the view of creating a national digitalization working group.
The main tasks and responsibilities of the Expert include:
I. Support Countries in Identifying their Digital Needs and Potential Solutions.
i. Lead on an extensive outreach to ASCENT countries for awareness raising on the
benefits of digital tools
ii. Design and conduct a comprehensive needs assessment to review current practices
(tools and processes), as well as government capacity and potential gaps, based on
existing plans, governance arrangements, regulations (e.g., PII, data sharing, etc.),
and other relevant initiatives or infrastructure that can be leveraged. The exercise will
also assess the adequacy of existing digital infrastructure, as well as the applicability
and potential benefits of incorporating components from ASCENT’s end-to-end digital
value chain will also be determined, along with technical assistance activities required
to enhance capacity for adopting the new tools.
a. Interview relevant institutions to identify existing systems, policies and practices,
potential gaps and opportunities to deploy and/or improve digital solutions.
b. Formulate recommendations related to priority areas for digitalization, suitable
solutions and potential procurement approaches.
c. Identify how ASCENT can best support the implementation of these
recommendations, particularly through COMESA’s regional platform.
iii. Develop a unique digitalization strategy in each country specifically designed to suit
the needs of the country, stakeholders, and programs involved.
II. Advocacy and Coordination:
i. Spearhead COMESA’s work in advocating for digital solutions.
a. Structure the dialogue with ASCENT countries, including identifying a focal point
for digitalization in each institution and a main national champion who can lead the
work. Support the creation of national working groups to advance digitalization in
each country.
b. Facilitate high level meetings with MS and organise capacity building webinars
and workshops.
c. Promote data sharing and the harmonization of practices through provision of
continued awareness raising and capacity building activities.
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ii. Document lessons learned to capitalize on the demonstration effect, as ASCENT
countries adopt digital tools and transfer knowledge between ASCENT countries.
iii. Explore feasible options for COMESA to facilitate the contracting of leading digital tool
providers at the national level.
iv. Create a roster of experts able to support adoption of digital tools (in particular digital
MRV) at the country level through technical assistance (TA)
III. Technical Assistance to Create and Sustain an Enabling Digital Environment
i. Support the adoption or improvement of relevant digital practices/tools in interested
countries throughout the digital value chain
ii. Support the adoption of the COMESA regional digital MRV platform by countries with
active ASCENT programmes to monitor ASCENT at a regional level and provide TA
to national ASCENT PIUs (and relevant stakeholders) on the regional digital MRV
platform.
a. Ensure that data required from ASCENT countries (listed in their financing
agreement with the World Bank) is ingested by national ASCENT PIUs into the
regional platform to facilitate reporting at the regional level.
b. Support the development/refining of dashboards for tracking progress under
ASCENT, data visualization, and information dissemination.
iii. Facilitate and promote sharing of best practices on data security collection, storage,
transfer and general usage to assure data owners on the security of their data.
iv. Create multi stakeholder working groups to reflect implications of interoperability.
v. Maximize interoperability of digital tools.
vi. Deliver continuous capacity building and technical assistance to sustain the
adoption of best digital practices and leverage digitals tools for planning and regulatory
oversight
IV. Leverage digital MRV for Energy Access for Carbon Credits Issuance
i. Contribute to designing the regional digital MRV platform in a way which enables the
issuance of emission reduction credits.
ii. Support COMESA’s Climate/Carbon Expert in designing and implementing an
Outreach and Communication Strategy, to raise awareness of ASCENT countries in
the opportunity to leverage the regional digital MRV platform for accessing climate
finance.
iii. Work closely with the climate/carbon expert to develop/maintain an ASCENT Carbon
Market Platform (CMP) implementing the following steps:
a. Design/Maintain CMP
▪ Oversee development/maintenance of technical, non-technical and
functional requirements of ASCENT CMP
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▪ Oversee elaboration of strategy for development, deployment and
maintenance of CMP
▪ Oversee development of tools and processes to monitor CMP performance.
▪ Identification of issues and optimization of performance.
b. Operationalize the ASCENT CMP
▪ Oversee roll-out of the platform to production servers
▪ Follow good practices for deployment and release management
▪ Oversee development and conducting of user training.
iv. Work closely with the climate/carbon expert to implement and maintain MRV protocol
and engine linked to the digital MRV platform implementing the following steps:
▪ Collaborate on Protocol Updates: Regularly review and update the MRV
protocol to ensure compliance with evolving carbon market standards and
methodologies.
▪ Data Integration and Accuracy: Ensure accurate data inputs by overseeing
the integration of field data, sensor readings, and third-party data into the
MRV engine.
▪ System Calibration: Work with the expert to calibrate the MRV engine’s
algorithms and models, ensuring they accurately reflect real-world emissions
and sequestration.
▪ QA/QC Processes: Implement rigorous quality assurance and quality control
(QA/QC) procedures to maintain data integrity across the platform.
▪ Platform Performance Monitoring: Track and optimize the performance of
the MRV engine, identifying areas for improvement and implementing
updates as needed.
v. The expert will provide support to other relevant COMESA-led activities when and
where needed.
7.2 QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
a) Candidates must have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in IT, economics,
engineering, or related field.
b) Possession of a master’s degree in any of the above fields or related fields will be an
added advantage.
c) At least 8 years’ experience, of which 3 years should be working on relevant IT
solutions and 5 years working on energy access or other relevant market-oriented
development solutions in developing countries.
7.3 SKILLS
a. Prior experience in both on and off-grid energy access projects and good understanding
of their respective stakeholders, including typical processes and tools used for energy
planning, tender and contract management, and MRV.
b. Practical experience with modern relational and object related database systems such as
SQL and Timescale DB. Knowledge of modern internet Software programming languages
such as Python and Ruby.
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c. Proven knowledge of Linux or Unix based operating systems and server infrastructure
layouts.
d. Tangible understanding of web-based applications, open-source software projects and
scalability of data networks.
e. Familiarity with carbon finance desirable.
f. Prior experience working in Eastern and Southern Africa desirable.
g. A track record of teamwork and ability to produce high-quality results and outputs with
minimal supervision
h. High level of energy, initiative and flexibility in quickly adjusting to changing work program
requirements