In Caribbean countries where the investment climate can be categorized as unpredictable and non-transparent, Investment Promotion Agency (IPA) support could make a significant difference to investors by ultimately influencing their decisions. The most significant resource that countries have in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is the staff of the IPA; the Investment Promotion (IP) professionals. However, constraining budgets and increasing demand on limited resources within the region’s IPAs has severely impacted the capacity of these agencies to effectively provide services as required.
The Caribbean Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (CAIPA) Strategic Plan for 2014-2018 identifies human capacity development as a priority need of CAIPA members. Most of the IPAs in the region have small professional staff complements, often with a high turnover rate. This creates a twofold challenge of limited staff, as well as the drawbacks associated with the inability to retain institutional capacity. These IPAs are also relatively young, with institutions formalised over the past 5-7 years. There are also a few regional IPAs made up of relatively larger teams of professionals with a stronger history of investment promotion and the needs of these agencies include expertise that can assist them in advancing their country’s development objectives through the attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI).
The objective of this consultancy is to develop a capacity building programme that offers certification for Investment Promotion Professionals within the CARIFORUM region which directly responds to their human resource development needs and aims to further build capacity within the agencies, ultimately increasing the attraction of FDI to the region.
For full details of the requirements please download the Terms of Reference here.
Interested and suitably qualified candidates are required to submit a project proposal (technical and financial) as well as a detailed CV electronically to Suzette Hudson – Senior Investment Promotion Advisor at shudson@carib-export.com and copied to Alana Reilly at areilly@carib-export.com.
The deadline for submission of proposals is August 14, 2015 at 4:30p.m. Atlantic Standard Time (AST).