Job: Regional Economist

Location: Rome 
Deadline: Friday, 15 November 2013 

Description

Duty Station: HQ, Rome, Italy

Duration of Assignment: Three years fixed-term (renewable)

Organizational Context

IFAD is an International Financial Institution and a Specialized United Nations Agency whose mission is to enable poor rural people to overcome poverty. IFAD's headquarters is in Rome, Italy, and its staff work with poor rural people and their governments, communities and organisations in more than 90 countries to develop and finance programmes and projects aimed at increasing agricultural productivity and incomes.

Division Context

The Programme Management Department (PMD) is responsible for the overall lending programme of the Fund, and is composed of five (5) regional divisions and a Technical Advisory Services Division . The Asia and Pacific Division (APR) is handling with the lending programme and strategic and policy dimension of this region.

Position Title of Primary Supervisor: Director (APR)

Purpose of Position

Within the Asia and Pacific Division (APR), the Regional Economist works with staff to deliver IFAD's services to the rural populations of the region with increasing effectiveness and efficiency by:

1. Providing timely analytical and advisory capacity to staff in appropriate forms to enhance the quality, relevance and effectiveness of APR's work and instruments (Results- Based Country Strategic Opportunities Programmes, projects, grants, policy dialogue, knowledge management, South-South Cooperation, portfolio review and M&E).

2. Developing and implementing strategies, systems and approaches to better integrate the different types of operations, allowing IFAD to enhance its value-addition capacity, its scale of operations, and its impact on poverty reduction in the region.

Duties and responsibilities:

Under the strategic, policy and management guidance of the Director, Asia and Pacific Division and working as part of a regional team with the Portfolio Advisor and Country Programme Managers (CPMs), the incumbent is expected to carry out the following functions:

1. Be co-responsible with Country Programme Managers (CPMs) for the design of Country Strategic Opportunities Programmes.
2. Provide high-level advice to CPMs and consultants to ensure quality design of projects.
3. Coordinate the design of annual grant work plans and the management of the grant portfolio.
4. Facilitate the uptake of evidence-based lessons learned for sharing these experience with IFAD, its partners and policy makers.
5. Participate in all Country Programme Management Teams and provide advice to CPMs on the design of country-specific policy dialogue processes; design and manage sub-regional, regional and international policy dialogue that is relevant and adds value to the work of APR at the country level, including interactions with other funding and technical assistance multilaterals and bilateral. Support Country teams and the Director, APR, in quality control at Concept definition level and for APR documents going to the Executive Board of IFAD.
6. Support the portfolio review process by providing an overview of regional trends and by analysing cross-cutting issues and results to generate inputs for strategic or programmatic decisions.
7. Represent the APR Region in relevant internal strategy-setting and policy formulation processes.
8. Design and manage a programme of regional and thematic analysis that generates relevant, timely and high-quality inputs for the development and implementation of APR's results in the region and to IFAD. This includes developing and managing an informal network of strategic partners in the region and elsewhere that can contribute with specialized knowledge and analysis.
9. Liaise with Regional Economists in the other regional divisions and work closely with divisional focal points (gender and youth, environment, rural finance, farmer organizations, etc), to ensure provision of timely advice and information on key issues of country policy dialogue to country program teams (with particular emphasis on decentralized staff), through CPMTs, participation in missions and in response to direct requests, including helping to identify relevant expertise within and outside IFAD. Share knowledge and experience generated through activities such as investment projects, analytical work and regional grants within and outside IFAD for increased IFAD visibility.
10. Provide on-demand position papers, substantive inputs and talking points relevant to the work of IFAD in the region.
11. Lead and present policy papers to IFAD governing bodies as requested.
12. Create and expand a network of peers outside IFAD to keep completely up-to-date on activities in the Region and for knowledge sharing; serve as a focal point for collaborative activities with regional institutions, policy think-tanks and civil society.
13. Provide support to the Director on all strategic planning in the division.
14. Carry out other related tasks as assigned by the Director.

Qualifications and Skills Required

• Advanced university degree (Master's level or equivalent) and preferably at the PhD level, in agro-economics, economics or any related field.
• At least 10 years of relevant post qualification professional experience with International Financial Institutions, international NGOs, rural development/financial institutions, Foundations or government services in applied research and policy design and analysis in fields directly relevant to the mission of IFAD.
• Excellent knowledge through direct work experience of APR's rural sector and policy environments.
• Experience as high-ranking manager of staff, team builder/leader and member; ability as a manager of strategic relationships.

Technical/functional competencies:

• Analytical skills: you will have very strong analytical and numerical capacities and experience in quantitative and qualitative analytical methods as well as the capacity to lead specific analytical work.
• Leader and team worker/builder: you will possess excellent management skills, and will be able to deploy these in a multicultural setting. You will have the capacity leading results based teams with a capacity to deliver high quality products within tight deadlines to achieve stretching objectives;
• Planner and organiser/decision-maker: you will have excellent judgement and the ability to think strategically, assessing andresponding to new challenges in rural development. You will be able to set clear priorities within a boundless and often challenging agenda with tight deadlines.

Languages and other skills:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, including the ability to set out a coherent argument in presentations and group interactions.
• Working knowledge of French is an asset.
• Excellent communicator, who can deliver analytical and policy messages clearly and convincingly; ability to communicate with rural development practitioners from the international to the grassroots level.
• Excellent working knowledge of Microsoft packages and electronic communication.

Other information

Applicants should note that IFAD staff members are international civil servants subject to the authority of the President of IFAD, and they may be assigned by him/her to any of the activities of IFAD, including field assignments and/or rotation within IFAD.

IFAD reserves the right to appoint a candidate at the appropriate grade commensurate with experience and knowledge.Interested candidates are requested to apply by completing IFAD's Personal History Form (PHF) in English. A separate CV may be attached if you so desire, only as a supplement and not a substitute to the PHF. THE APPLICATION SHOULD BE MADE THROUGH THE ONLINE SYSTEM ONLY.In the interest of making most cost effective use of funds and resources, we are only able to respond to applicants who are short-listed for interview. Candidates who do not receive any feedback within three months should consider their application unsuccessful.Candidates may be required to take a written test and to deliver a presentation as well as participate in interviews.

More Info and Application