Operations Officer - Product Specialist, Agrifinance- New Delhi, India

Job #:	121644
Title:	Operations Officer - Product Specialist, Agrifinance
Job Stream:	Technical Assistance & Advisory Services
Location:	New Delhi, India
Closing Date:	10/30/2012
Background / General description:
About IFC: The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector investment arm of the World Bank Group, pursues its mission of reducing poverty and improving people’s lives by promoting private sector development through investment and advisory services. IFC’s Access to Finance business line aims to increase the numbers of people and small businesses with access to basic financial services, to increase the diversity of financial services available to poor households and small businesses, and to lower the costs of essential services.  Access to Finance in South Asia: IFC defines the South Asia region as India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. The Access to Finance (A2F) business line includes projects in microfinance, e-banking, affordable housing finance, leasing, SME finance, agrifinance, sustainable energy finance, trade finance, insurance, payment systems, credit bureaus, and capital markets. The A2F program has grown significantly over the past two years, and the team is actively engaged with more than 55 projects across the region. Agrifinance is a growth area in the region. Agrifinance in IFC: In developing countries today, agribusiness constitutes a large market with a large financing gap. The lack of broad access to financial services limits opportunities for agribusiness enterprises and small holders to adopt efficient technologies and efficient resource allocation. The Access to Finance (A2F) Global Agrifinance Advisory product aims to reduce the agribusiness finance gap in emerging markets and achieve large scale impact on the availability of financing for agriculture and food supply-chain by leveraging IFC's long track record of investment and advisory services in banking, its network of 500+ Financial Institutions (FIs), agriculture market participants (real sector) through agribusiness sector expertise, A2F knowledge management, field delivery and institutional building skills. The Global Agrifinance Advisory Program contributes to this overall target by increasing access to finance to the agriculture supply chain from the small farmer to commercial farms to micro and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the agribusiness sector. Its main clients are FIs and Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs) that support the whole agricultural supply chain; key beneficiaries are local SMEs in the agricultural supply chain / sector (local input suppliers, producers, traders, processors, storage, etc.).  The Program’s objective is to foster a measurable increase in the availability of agriculture finance in IFC clients' portfolio globally, by promoting appropriate risk mitigation products and building of necessary skills. This objective will be achieved through the development of a set of products, tools, institution building services, and senior expertise support to enable FIs to efficiently expand lending to the agricultural sector, benefiting in particular SME agribusinesses and farmer organizations.  The initiative is expected to have a strong developmental impact, namely by: (1) addressing the agribusiness finance gap; (2) helping to develop a sustainable agribusiness finance sector through institution building and dissemination of best practices; (3) helping to deepen and broaden the financial markets services offering; (4) generating employment through the resultant growth of agribusiness SMEs / farmers; (5) promoting the adoption of better environmental and social standards in agriculture through funding incentives; and (6) addressing the global food security challenge by helping emerging markets grow and develop their agricultural sectors.  Reporting Line: This position reports directly to the South Asia Regional Business Line Manager for Access to Finance, with a secondary reporting line to the Global Head of Advisory for SME Finance. Scope of Work: IFC is seeking to recruit a highly-motivated Agrifinance Product Specialist, with experience in agriculture, agrifinance, risk management, and small and medium business finance. S/He will be part of a global team with regional focus in South Asia. The main responsibilities of the Product Specialist will include:  • Providing the expertise and creating a pipeline of advisory projects in agrifinance to assist financial institutions to increase their offering of financial products to the agriculture sector. While the primary focus would be on the advisory services, another important focus will be to assist investment staff with expertise that would combine advisory and investment services focusing on agriculture lending.  • Asserting IFC’s position as a knowledge leader in agrifinance, promoting and supporting IFC’s agrifinance programs and contributing to the design and implementation of knowledge management tools and standards, as well as actively participating in the dissemination of best practices in agrifinance globally. The Product Specialist is expected to be able to convey global best practices to clients in South Asia.
Duties and Accountabilities:
I. Business Accountabilities Strategy • Help design the South Asia agrifinance strategy with a focus on high developmental impact and ensuring the strategy is in line with IFC strategic objectives and with the AS business model;  • Provide technical expertise to regional AS teams and internal clients (investment and/or advisory) ensuring the product meets high quality standards, and has a clear development and exit strategy;  • Contribute to the design of new agrifinance projects in South Asia, reviewing relevant technical aspects of new project proposals for quality control and ensuring that lessons learned world-wide are appropriately taken into account; • Ensure the development of and adherence to a solid measurement and evaluation framework for the agrifinance product in South Asia, in collaboration with M&E staff and in line with AS practices and policies, including setting guidelines for pre-implementation scoping and post-project monitoring. • Liaise with peers from the global agrifinance A2F program to ensure alignment of strategy and exchange experiences and needs between regions and the global program. Contribute to the development of the global agrifinance product strategy.  Knowledge • Participate in regular practice group meetings with peers and report to larger practice groups and networks;  Lead the South Asia knowledge management agenda for agrifinance by taking accountability for gathering, managing and disseminating global best practice and institutional knowledge of the product across IFC;  Contribute to the design and development of internal and external thematic events and knowledge sharing networks to share product lessons and experience and learn from others. Close liaison with the global agrifinance team and with other regional specialists is critical.  Implementation • Monitor implementation and progress of AS agrifinance projects and recommend corrective actions where/if necessary; • Ensure all AS processes by supporting A2F RBLL in the project lifecycle and supervision as required, and provide input to project completion reports; • Ensure project materials related to agrifinance are properly documented and archived, with the objective of building core product expertise and a solid knowledge base. • As required, provide technical support IFC investment teams working on agrifinance transactions. • Business development in South Asia to promote advisory services for agrifinance among existing and new IFC clients in the region.  II. Resource Management Accountabilities • Help recruit and technically supervise the A2F South Asia team working in IFC’s agrifinance client engagements;  • Help ensure proper technical on-boarding of staff working on agrifinance projects, including thorough provision of technical materials and support to appropriate training; • Mentor South Asia staff working on agrifinance projects, promote development of networks and skills, quality assurance and professional development; • As required, provide feedback on performance of specific regional staff; • Recommend allocation and deployment of relevant staff to client relationship teams in South Asia to support IFC’s advisory services (including participation in all procurements for South Asia agrifinance projects). III.Relationship Management Accountabilities • Support the South Asia A2F Regional Manager to develop new initiatives/projects, leading innovation and keeping abreast/influencing industry developments; • Support the Global Agrifinance Specialist in the abovementioned areas, as appropriate;  • Develop and maintain relationships with key South Asia players in the agrifinance area, in coordination with other areas of IFC; • Maintain strong relationships with relevant IFC Managers in the region so that the product strategy is well aligned and projects can be deployed and executed efficiently;  • Foster strong relationships with counterparts in the World Bank Group, as well as in other private and public financial institutions to identify collaboration opportunities and to enhance client and business delivery; • Work collaboratively within the matrix to deliver impact for clients and IFC.
Selection Criteria:
• Earned Master’s degree in economics, finance, business or other relevant discipline. • At least 7 years of relevant senior operational experience in banking in both developed and emerging markets, with strong demonstrated experience in small and medium agribusinesses, value chain finance, and farmer finance in particular, demonstrating understanding of agriculture risks and their mitigation. • Experience in risk management and risk financing, and designing country- and regional agrifinance advisory programs in emerging markets is required. • Recognized South Asian leadership in the banking, consulting or development finance community, particularly in the field of agrifinance. • Technical expertise in agrifinance tools, products and methodologies in developed and emerging markets – including strategy, market segmentation, credit risk management including rating and scoring, NPL management and collections, and product development. • Strong familiarity with international best market practices and global trends in the agrifinance sector. • Track record in project design and implementation. • Proven project management and leadership skills. Ability to manage consultants and IFC staff to deliver high quality results. • Commitment to quality service, drive to exceed expectations, and proactive development of relations with IFC clients • Ability to work independently and to lead and motivate teams to multi-task, deal with conflicting priorities, and deliver high quality work on schedule • Ability to review and evaluate projects and business operations on technical, commercial, managerial, and financial grounds. • Excellent analytical skills, as demonstrated through a track record of qualitative and quantitative research. • Strong interpersonal skills, and demonstrated capacity to network and work with a wide range of stakeholders within and outside IFC / the World Bank Group, including financial institutions, businesses, international organizations, support institutions (such as associations) and government authorities. • Excellent communication skills in English and a second language, preferably a South Asian language. • Willingness to travel regularly within the South Asia region. IFC offers a challenging and rewarding work environment, attractive compensation and excellent career opportunities. All applications will be treated in strict confidence. Interested candidates are invited to visit the IFC website at http://www.ifc.org/careers and apply online at IFC’s JobWorld. You will be required to create your own account to apply/login. No paper mail, email, or faxes will be accepted. Please note that only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.