Smita’s work centres around conducting research for diverse consulting assignments spanning international trade, investment, public policy and monitoring and evaluation. Additionally, she is engaged in project implementation, preparation of technical offers and business development.
Expertise
Economic Research, Statistics, Monitoring and Evaluation, Trade Agreements Analysis, Economic Diplomacy and Project Management.
About Smita
Smita works at the nexus of the Consulting and Project Management teams. She is involved in the technical delivery of projects through rigorous research encompassing market dynamics, economic analysis, and statistical insights. Recent assignments that she has contributed to include:
- Conducting in-depth analyses of commercial and investment prospects for European businesses within the framework of the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement;
- Investigating the market access conditions of ECOWAS Member States for the ECOWAS Annual Trade Report Study;
- Preparing sectoral studies focused on trade in services to support the Indonesian Ministry of Trade with the EU-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA);
- Working on the Stocktaking Exercise of the Trade Facilitation Support Programme (TFSP) to evaluate performance, extract lessons learned, and propose recommendations;
- Designing the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for the West Africa Unique Identification for Regional and Inclusion (WURI) Programme;
- Preparing a sectoral study to guide negotiations on educational services within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA);
- Evaluating the economic impact of technical standards in Peru’s garment and fruit production industries.
Smita is also involved in all phases of the project management cycle, from support in the preparation of proposals to implementation, coordination, and quality control. Smita is a Trade Policy Fellow at the Africa Trade Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing regional and continental trade and investment in Africa. She is also a member of the TradeExperettes network. Before joining International Economics, Smita worked as Economic and Commercial Specialist at the U.S. Embassy to Mauritius and Seychelles for six years, and as Trade Analyst at the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Smita holds a BEng (Hons) in Biomedical Engineering from Imperial College London and an MSc in Finance from London School of Economics and Political Science. She has also completed a short course on “Economic Challenges for African Development” at the University of Cape Town and a post graduate program in Data Science and Business Analytics from the University of Texas at Austin.
Languages
- Native in Mauritian Creole
- Fluent in English and French
- Knowledge of Hindi
