Header

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISOR FOR RAMP UP EAST-AFGHANISTAN

Economic Development Advisor for RAMP UP East-Afghanistan

ICMA, the International City/County Management Association, is the premier organization of professional local government leaders building sustainable communities to improve lives worldwide. The organization provides technical assistance to local governments in emerging democracies, helping them to develop professional practices and ethical, transparent governments.

ICMA performs a wide range of grant and donor funded work both in the U.S. and internationally, supported by U.S. government agencies, international development banks, foundations, and corporations. For more information about ICMA, please visit www.ICMA.org.

ICMA is recruiting an Economic Development Advisor who will be working on a USAID funded Regional Afghan Municipalities Program for Urban Populations Program (RAMP UP) in Afghanistan.

The purpose of the Regional Afghan Municipalities Program for Urban Populations - Regional Command East (RAMP UP East) is to create effective, responsive, democratic, transparent, and accountable municipal governance in the fourteen provinces that comprise the International Security Assistance Force’s (ISAF’s) Regional Command East. RAMP UP East will: (1) increase the capacity of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA) municipal officials, (2) markedly improve the delivery of municipal services to citizens in target municipalities, and (3) increase municipal capacity to enable, support, and sustain economic growth. As a result of the RAMP UP East, Afghan citizens will receive better services, understand the responsibilities of municipal leaders, play an active role in the municipal decision-making process, and see local governance structures as legitimate.

Objectives and Duties:

Located primarily in Kabul, the Economic Development Advisor provides support and technical direction to the Municipal Governance Team of the RAMP UP East project and, with the Tax Fee Collection and Revenue Generation Team Leader advises Municipal Team Leaders and embedded Advisors on issues and activities related to local economic development (LED). The Economic Development Advisor will support municipalities in identifying opportunities for stimulating economic growth and strengthen the capacity of municipal staff to plan, design, budget and monitor LED activities. He/she works as closely as possible with municipal and other Afghan government officials, as well as private Afghan partners. The Economic Development Advisor travels regularly to municipalities throughout the Eastern Region.

  • Advises or directs the conduct of the baseline, annual and end of project municipal assessments as they relate to economic development for individual partner municipalities.
  • Advises or directs development of an Economic Development Plan for each municipality and structures and guides the plan implementation subject to annual reviews and revisions.
  • Develops Economic Development elements of the Municipal Improvement Plan and structures and guides implementation of Economic Development elements of the plan.
  • Provides targeted capacity-building for economic development skills that may include, but is not limited to: organizing/managing local public-private partnerships, clarifying roles and responsibilities for business attraction, retention and expansion; establishing business development center or business round table to support economic development initiatives in participating municipalities.
  • Mentors and trains project staff, Afghan government employees at the municipal and key stakeholder groups (local business community, citizens) in best practices in local economic development and including economic development planning.
  • Develops and advises Community Action Committees in each municipality to provide ongoing stakeholder input into both public and private economic development activities.
  • Develops or provides critique and input for curriculum, training and projects developed for enhancing ongoing skills and professional development for economic development.
  • Coordinates with other RAMP UP contractors working on similar topics and works with other donor programs (i.e. UNDP’s Afghanistan sub national governance Program ASGP on revenue enhancement, USAID’s Economic Growth and Governance Initiative EGGI, the Afghanistan Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Development ASMED project, and other relevant projects) to ensure coordination and consistency in approaches to revenue generation and economic development.
  • Works closely with the RAMP UP East Municipal Finance Advisor, Tax/Fee collection and Revenue Enhancement Team Leader, Municipal Governance Advisor, Grants, Subcontracts and Compliance Manager and other senior RAMP Up east staff to ensure that parallel program activities to improve municipal financial management and service delivery capacity are coordinated and synchronized with economic development planning.


Qualifications


Bachelors degree in economic development, business management, finance or other related field; Advanced Degree in relevant field, training and/or development field preferred.

Send coverletter and resumes to recruitment@icma.org. Please put Economic Development Advisor

  • Minimum of 7 to10 years experience in local economic development, or other related field, at least 5 of which are international based.
  • Minimum of 3 years of relevant experience on international development projects; experience on USAID-funded projects preferred.
  • Prior work experience in similar conflict zones preferred: experience in Afghanistan a strong advantage.
  • Highly organized and able to develop and streamline systems for efficient conduct of day-to-day tasks.
  • Strong analytical skills to successfully perform the risk and qualitative analysis.
  • Strong training and oral communication skills to effectively transfer working knowledge of policies and procedures through formal and non-formal training activities.
  • Ability to convey complex concepts through simplified approach and tools.


Contact Details


Contact:
Patricia Eckert
Telephone:
202 962 3672
Email:
peckert@icma.org

Application Instructions


Send coverletter and resumes to recruitment@icma.org. Please put Economic Development Advisor in the subject line