Regional Tourism Consultant

Regional Tourism Consultant

Job Opening ID: 287166
Category and Level: Affiliate Personnel – Consultants/Individual Contractors, CON
Recruitment Type: Consultant
Duty Station: KIGALI
Department/Office: Economic Commission for Africa
Date Posted: Oct 27, 2026
Deadline: Nov 2, 2026

Result of Service

• IGAD STMP implementation progress report, highlighting key achievements, challenges, and actions required to achieve the STMP's intended outcomes.
• IGAD tourism classification and standards report

Work Location

Kigali

Expected duration

4 months

Duties and Responsibilities

Background

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), with technical and financial support from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), has developed the Sustainable Tourism Master Plan (STMP) 2024–2034 as a continuation of over a decade of regional tourism cooperation. The Plan, formally adopted by IGAD Ministers responsible for Tourism in September 2024, reflects strong political commitment to leveraging tourism as a driver of economic growth, regional integration, and shared prosperity across Member States. Anchored in continental and global frameworks such as Agenda 2063, the African Tourism Strategic Framework, and Agenda 2030, the STMP provides a comprehensive and coordinated roadmap to position the IGAD region as a competitive and sustainable tourism destination.

However, while the STMP establishes a clear strategic vision, its successful implementation faces structural, institutional, and capacity-related constraints. Experience from the previous STMP (2013–2023) highlights persistent gaps in coordination, uneven policy alignment, and limited technical capacity across Member States, which have hindered full realization of regional tourism objectives. These challenges are compounded by fragmented tourism policies, weak regional branding, inadequate data systems, and barriers to intra-regional travel. At the same time, the Addis Ababa IGAD Ministerial Tourism Communiqué underscores the need for strengthened institutional support, enhanced resource mobilization, and inclusive, coordinated implementation mechanisms, while emphasizing tourism’s catalytic role in advancing broader regional initiatives such as the African Continental Free Trade Area and free movement of persons. In response to these challenges and building on a formal request from IGAD in April 2025, there is a clear and urgent need for targeted support to operationalize the STMP 2024–2034. This project is, therefore, designed to bridge the gap between strategy and implementation by providing technical assistance, strengthening institutional and human capacity, and promoting policy harmonization and regional coordination.

Accordingly, the main objective of this consultancy, therefore, is to extend technical support to a number of Member States in Eastern Africa and to IGAD towards enhancing the implementation of the 10-year Sustainable Tourism Master Plan for the period 2024-2034.

Objectives: Support the operationalization of the IGAD Sustainable Tourism Master Plan (STMP) 2024-2034, assess the status of implementation, and to formulate IGAD Tourism Classification and Quality Standards.

Responsibilities

This consultancy is located in the Sub-regional Office for Eastern Africa (SRO-EA) of UNECA. Under the direct supervision of the Programme Manager, the regional Tourism Consultant will:

• Prepare an inception report on the understanding of the terms of reference for the project and assessment report of the existing tourism quality and standards in the IGAD region;
• Facilitate a capacity building workshop on implementation of the IGAD STMP 2024-2034, including workshop report on the progress of implementation;
• Prepare an implementation status report detailing progress, highlighting key achievements, challenges, and actions required to achieve the intended outcomes of the IGAD STMP.
• Prepare draft IGAD tourism classification and standards report;
• Facilitate a stakeholder validation workshop of the IGAD STMP progress report and IGAD tourism classification and standards, and prepare final reports.

Qualifications/special skills

Advanced University Degree (Ph.D. preferred) in tourism, economics or any other relevant area. Good evidence of research and publications on tourism related issues. Knowledge of tourism strategy formulation in at the national, regional and continental levels in Africa will be required. Demonstrated experience in formulating tourism development instruments at the national, regional and continental levels in Africa are required for this post. Publications in the field of sustainable tourism development in Africa is required for this post.

Languages

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this post, the preferred language is English.

Additional Information

Not available.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.