Job: Program Coordinator (Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture)

Location: Washington
Deadline: Wednesday, 07 August 2013 

Description

Background / General description:

Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture (BBA) is a new initiative being jointly implemented by the Finance and Private Sector Vice Presidency Global Indicators and Analysis Department (FGI) and the Agriculture and Environmental Services Department (AES) of the Sustainable Development Vice Presidency. The overarching goal of BBA is to leverage positive policy change to better enable the emergence of a commercial agricultural and agribusiness sector around the world. With a particular focus on encouraging the emergence of a commercial family farming sector through an enabling environment that includes policies, regulations, infrastructure and the necessary network of supporting businesses. The project responds to urgent analytical needs to catalyze modernization in global food production and to enable policymakers to identify and prioritize regulations that enable beneficial agricultural growth. The project will address these needs in three ways: (1) through a comprehensive platform of indicators to measure and benchmark business regulatory barriers and market constraints to agribusiness, and support global agricultural policy reform; (2) through measures of the laws and regulations affecting the business of agriculture across countries via the development of Doing Business in Agriculture indicators; and (3) through in-depth "˜Deep Dive' examination of a broad range of measures and factors that affect agricultural productivity, market access, and the policy environment for agriculture. BBA has completed a research phase to select appropriate indicators, and will begin pilot efforts to collect data and develop indicators in 10 economies in 2013, scaling up to 80 economies by 2015.

A highly motivated Program Coordinator is invited to join the Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture team. The position requires a mix of managerial, operational and analytical skills, as well as the demonstrated ability to work harmoniously in a team and meet deadlines. The Program Coordinator role can be conveniently divide into two,

(i) day to day coordination and technical support for both the Doing Business in Agriculture (DBA) sub-group and the Deep Dive (DD) teams, and

(ii) with particular responsibility for day to day management of the Deep Dive reporting teams and the representatives from the AES Department.

The role of the Program Coordinator can be divide into:

(i) assist the Program Managers in day to day coordination,

(ii) technical support for both the Doing Business in Agriculture and the Deep Dive teams, and

(iii) with particular responsibility for day to day management of the Deep Dive reporting teams and the representatives from the AES Department.

The Program Coordinator will be based in Washington, DC and report to the AES Program Manager. The candidate will work closely with FGI members of the BBA team, as well as with other units of SDN, FGI, the Investment Climate department, and staff in other HQ departments and field offices.

Note: If the selected candidate is a current Bank Group staff member with a Regular or Open-Ended appointment, s/he will retain his/her Regular or Open-Ended appointment. All others will be offered a 2 year term appointment.

  Duties and Accountabilities:

Duties will include, but not be limited to, the following:

1. Provide Agricultural Expertise to the BBA team, most especially to the group focusing on the Deep Dive reports, but also subject matter expertise to the DBA team;

2. Work closely with the DBA team Program Manager to ensure teams work is meshed together and that synergies between the work of both groups are brought out in their work and a holistic product is delivered;

3. Develop a deep understanding of the policy issues involved in leveraging positive change or those that constrain agricultural development and to use this knowledge to develop techniques and methodologies to be able to communicate clearly with the multiple stakeholders and to better able to evoke policy changes. ;

4. Coordinate regular meetings of both teams, and in the absence of either of the TTL's to chair those meetings and enable BBA team members to share lessons, co-ordinate their activities and have a unified purpose;

5. Assist in the annual delivery of the report combining the results from the DBA and DD work into a single, clearly articulated documents for widespread.

6. Manage the Deep Dive and AES elements of the team to ensure that - the individual topic reports are well organized, properly resourced, that the required skills are brought to play and that the reports are delivered in a timely fashion.

7. Work with the project editor/ writer to deliver 3 Deep Dive report annually and one combined BBA report that is well presented, easily understandable and of a high technical quality.

  Selection Criteria:

Selection Criteria & Competencies :

• Knowledge and Experience in Development Arena - Translates technical and cross-country knowledge into practical applications and contributions to country and sector strategies; interacts with clients at the policy level.
• Policy Dialogue Skills - Anticipates needs and requests in the field and conducts independent policy discussions with representatives of the government and non-government partners.
• Integrative Skills - Understands relevant cross-sectoral areas how they are interrelated; able to undertake cross-sectoral work in lending and non-lending operations.
• Client Orientation - Maintains client relationships in the face of conflicting demands or directions and provides evidence-based advice and solutions based on sound diagnosis and knowledge.
• Drive for Results - Identifies the needed resources to accomplish results involving multiple stakeholders and finds solutions to obstacles affecting key deliverables.
• Teamwork (Collaboration) and Inclusion - Shows leadership in ensuring the team stays organized and focused, and actively seeks and considers diverse ideas and approaches.
• Knowledge, Learning and Communication - Leads in the sharing of best practice, trends, knowledge and lessons learned across units and with clients and partners, articulating ideas verbally and in writing in a clear and compelling way across audiences of varied levels.
• Business Judgment and Analytical Decision Making - Gathers inputs, assesses risk, considers impact and articulates benefits of decisions for internal and external stakeholders over the long term. 
  OTHER SELECTION CRITERIA
• Advanced degree in economics, business, agricultural science, public administration, law, or related field, with a focus on agriculture or agribusiness preferred.
• At least eight (8) years of relevant experience in private sector or agricultural development is required, with a clear demonstration of understanding of substantive issues in comparative institutional and regulatory analysis;
• Knowledge of the Doing Business and experience in cross country data collection and analysis is desirable.
• Ability to present internationally the findings of the combined BBA report and communicate a compelling case for policy changes suggested by the BBA results.
• Ability to convert the vision of what the BBA project is aiming to achieve into a practical and planned program with specific deliverables achieved on time and at an acceptable quality.
• Ability to select, direct and motivate teams to deliver high quality results on time and within budget. Provides inspiration and guidance for individual members to do their best. Manages change throughout the project life cycle.
• Fosters strong relationships with internal and external partners. Encourages collaboration, knowledge sharing, and participatory decision making. Respects diversity and brings different skills together to achieve results.
• Demonstrates a keen understanding of regulatory and policy related aspects, and how business regulation reforms improve the quality of business regulation, reduce regulatory burdens for starting and operating business, build the government capacity to effectively enforce smart regulations,, utilize information and communication technologies for streamlining business processes and increasing transparency.
• Willingness to travel regularly.
• Fluency in English required. Fluency in French, Spanish, and other languages will be helpful.

More Info and Application