Five countries in the Eastern and Southern African region, namely Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles and Zimbabwe (hereinafter, the ESA 5) signed an Interim Economic Partnership Agreement (iEPA) with the European Union in 2009, which is being implemented since 2012. The ratification of the iEPA for Comoros occurred only in February 2019, and since then the Comoros formally joined the ESA 5 group.

The global objective of the current assignment is to enhance the technical knowledge and capacity of the ESA 5 countries for a successful deepening of the iEPA.

The specific objectives are as follows:

• Build capacity of officials from the ESA 5 countries in technical areas that are relevant to the EPA negotiations,
• Provide short term expertise to the ESA 5 countries to develop their negotiating positions in highly technical areas on a demand driven basis.