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Regional Debt Management Adviser , Commonwealth Secretariat

Reference: G/CWG/0445A
Location: Pretoria, South Africa and Kingston, Jamaica
Duration: 3 Years
Closing Date: 27 Jun 2012

Background

The burden of servicing public debt in developing Commonwealth countries in Africa, and the Small (Island) States spread across the Indian Ocean, south Asia, the Caribbean and the South Pacific is a major constraint to their progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. Effective public debt management, aimed at minimisation of long term debt servicing cost and achieving sustainable debt, will therefore ease the financial constraint that debt servicing has on countries and facilitate the progress towards the millennium development goals.

The Commonwealth Secretariat is a recognised leader on debt management issues and solutions. The CS-DRMS system is a highly successful Commonwealth product used in 60 countries. Many of the Commonwealth member countries are currently undertaking reforms to strengthen their debt management policies and institutional arrangements and to build overall capacity for prudent and sustainable debt management. They require assistance from the Secretariat in the above areas. In recent years the Secretariat has seen growing demand for assistance to provide policy advisory support and build capacity on debt management from member countries. Against this background the Commonwealth Secretariat has approved a project providing for the recruitment of five Debt Management Advisers to be deployed in the Commonwealth regions of Africa (Western and Southern & Eastern), Asia, Caribbean and Pacific with the objective to complement the work of headquarter staff in the Secretariat on its debt management programme. In this regard the Secretariat seeks to engage the services of experienced Debt Management Experts for a three year term to complement the assistance provided directly by its headquarters staff on debt management.

Purpose of the project

To assist developing member countries in the Caribbean, East and Southern Africa, West Africa, the South Pacific and South Asia regions in strengthening their debt management capacity -including sub-national debt management- through effective use of CS-DRMS, appropriate reforms on debt management and adoption of prudent debt management policies and strategies. In doing so, this project will develop a pool of sophisticated, locally based debt managers to drive and implement reforms in public debt management and effectively manage the largest financial balance sheet of a country on a sustainable basis.

Scope of Work

Working closely with the Commonwealth Secretariat team and under the supervision of the designated official at the host institution the adviser (Debt Management) will be required to provide advice in a number of areas including debt management strategy and policy formulation, risk management of sovereign debt, development of domestic debt market, and the setting up of appropriate institutional framework for undertaking debt management operations. The Adviser will also be responsible to assist in capacity building activities on debt management in member countries through training and other outreach activities. The main objective would be to strengthen debt management capacity particularly relating to debt analysis and in the design and implementation of debt strategy. The job will involve i travel to member countries within the designated region and also to other Commonwealth regions.

Task Description

The post-holder will be required to:

  • Undertake assessment of status of public debt management in member countries, particularly focussing on institutional arrangements, legal framework and debt management policies. This will also include working in collaboration with the World Bank on using the Debt Management Performance Assessment (DeMPA) tool;
  • Design debt management reform programmes geared to strengthening public debt administration and institutional arrangements, legal framework, debt management policies and strategies, and the development of domestic debt markets;
  • Assist countries in the formulation and implementation of debt management strategies through a cost-risk analysis framework, linkages with macroeconomic policy framework, and market assessment and integration of cash and debt management. This will involve effective utilisation of the PDAT tool which is being released by the Secretariat shortly as also the MTDS toolkit of the IMF-World Bank;
  • Advise countries on effective coordination between sovereign debt management, fiscal management, sovereign balance sheet management, monetary policy and other macroeconomic policies, including financial stability issues;
  • Assist member countries to undertake portfolio review and Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) using the World Bank/IMF Debt Sustainability Framework (DSF);
  • Provide focussed advisory support with a detailed road map for setting up debt offices or strengthening front, middle or back office functions;
  • Provide focussed advisory support with a detailed road map for development of domestic debt market, accessing international capital markets, and guidance on the use of liability management instruments for risk management;
  • Conduct in-country, regional and pan-Commonwealth workshops on a number of cross-cutting debt management issues, including on the application of PDAT, DSA-DSF framework and the MTDS toolkit with a view to building technical capacity in-country and in the regions to facilitate embracing and sustaining sound debt management practices;
  • Assist countries to develop debt bulletins and debt management reports;
  • Engage in policy based research work on sovereign debt management for publication by DMS and also contribute to the DMS website;
  • Contribute to the enhancement of the analytical tools of the debt management systems provided by the Secretariat;
  • Work with member governments and developmental partners like the IMF and World Bank on joint missions to countries;
  • Undertake any other ad hoc assignment as determined by the Debt Management Section and the host institution;

Person Specification

Education:
  • Essential: A first degree and a post-graduate qualification in economics, finance or a related subject.
Experience:
  • Essential: A minimum of 10 years’ debt management experience, gained in government or international organisations, in one or more of the following areas:
  • Public debt policy, including debt management strategy formulation and implementation, especially on market borrowings;
  • Expertise on institutional arrangements, governance framework and legal framework on debt management;
  • Risk management of sovereign debt liabilities, preferably having hand-on experience in risk management tools, including asset-liability management tools, World Bank/IMF MTDS toolkit or any other risk management frameworks applicable to sovereign liability management;
  • Market knowledge related to development of domestic debt market and functioning of international capital markets.

How to apply

Terms and Conditions of Service - Summary

Download the Terms of Reference