Senior Agribusiness Specialist- Istanbul, Turkey
| Job #: | 132290 |
| Title: | Senior Agribusiness Specialist |
| Job Stream: | Finance & Private Sector Development |
| Location: | Istanbul, Turkey |
| Closing Date: | 11/03/2013 |
| Background / General description: | |
| The Investment Climate Advisory Services of the World Bank Group help governments implement reforms to improve their business environment, and encourage and retain investment, thus fostering competitive markets, growth and job creation. Funding is provided by the World Bank Group (IFC, MIGA, and the World Bank) and over fifteen partners, working through the multi-donor FIAS platform. The Investment Climate department (CIC) serves as an integrator across a wide range of activities between the IFC investment climate business line programs (IC) within regions, the Bank Financial and Private Sector (FPD), Sustainable Development Network (SDN, Agriculture) and Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) networks and regions, and with MIGA’s investment facilitation technical assistance agenda. Investment Climate Advisory Services and Regional Advisory Services are strengthening and scaling up their approach to support agribusiness in our client countries. This effort builds on a portfolio of ongoing projects across most regions and is focused on achieving measureable impacts in terms of investment and increased sector outputs. Work in this area supports the World Bank Group Agriculture Action Plan (FY2013–2015) which projects an increase in support (from IDA, IBRD, and IFC) to agriculture and related sectors from a baseline average support in FY2006–2008 of $4.1billion annually to between $6.2 and $8.3 billion annually over the next three years. IFC has growing activities related to agribusiness across a number of key commodities, involving working along the supply chain with brands, processors, traders and farmers to improve and strengthen farm management, productivity, post-harvest processing and certification, access to finance and market links. It is a direct response to IFC’s corporate strategy of unlocking sustainable investments in agribusiness and its institutional development goals of increasing or improving sustainable farming opportunities in particular, its focus on “addressing constraints to private sector growth in the food supply chain”. CIC is looking for an individual to serve as a global technical specialist in agribusiness for providing knowledge leadership for our clients that builds upon a private sector driven focus to agribusiness development and investment climate transformation for the sector. The position is based in IFC’s Operations Center in Istanbul, Turkey, alongside some 200 investment, advisory, and corporate staff, and is a key part of IC’s Global Agribusiness team comprised of regional and global product specialists stationed around the globe. The position is also expected to utilize strong linkages to East and South Asia. | |
| Duties and Accountabilities: | |
| • Contribute to the development of a global practice through support and guidance to management and staff within the Investment Climate Department and IFC Regional Advisory Services on strategy, policies, project design and implementation, impact models and potential interventions that would contribute to agribusiness development in emerging economies; • Serve as a global/regional technical specialist in agriculture and agribusiness providing integrated World Bank Group solutions to clients; • Participate in developing the “proof of concept” for sub products that define the CIC offering in agribusiness. Namely: input market reform, alternative dispute resolution, contract farming, crop receipts, regulatory reform for post harvest infrastructure, among others. • With other technical specialists on the global team, support implementation of CIC’s “mature core competencies” of food safety, investment promotion in agribusiness and public-private dialogue, Warehouse Receipts, and regulatory and competition reform of output markets. • Work closely with the global business line team in Washington HQ to leverage global team’s experience and expertise to enhance delivery of services and results to clients. • Contribute to the development and maintenance of a knowledge management framework (covering the intersection of investment climate issues and agribusiness development in emerging economies) with a view to: o increasing staff capacity to identify, design and implement agribusiness projects, in close collaboration with WBG partners in client countries and regions; o contributing to the Global Team’s development and housing of a suite of tools (from diagnostics & implementation to monitoring and evaluation) to aide project development and execution, o disseminating best practice and implementation experience, o increasing knowledge transfer to clients, and o improving the overall quality of projects executed. • Monitor the World Bank’s lending and technical assistance operations and IFC investment operations and advisory services related to commercial agriculture and agribusiness to determine trends, opportunities for project development and coordination in project delivery. • Support the regional (IFC and WB) efforts to develop a pipeline of new projects and supervise existing projects to further the growth of agribusiness in emerging economies, primarily in South Asia and other regions on a “needs basis”. Work in close coordination with investment departments, country managers and other advisory services business lines to identify advisory opportunities and provide relevant expertise to develop a pipeline of projects. • Conduct detailed appraisals/ diagnostics of IC agribusiness projects, develop reports which include recommendations for internal and client use, support the implementation of projects to ensure overall quality control in line with corporate monitoring and evaluation requirements. • Support on scoping and designing a growing portfolio and pipeline of agribusiness projects in South Asia that either work directly with a specific investment client or take a broader programmatic approach. Project design would include providing and/or sourcing technical expertise and overall quality control. This will require developing close relationships with investment services colleagues and across Advisory business lines. • Establish and maintain close collaboration and communication with peers from other regions, the Global Product Specialists and Industry Specialists in entire IC BL as well as with the relevant regional agribusiness Investment Services and Advisory Services teams across business lines. • Serve as a member of the core agribusiness practice group, actively supporting knowledge management and dissemination. This could include peer reviewing project concepts/documents from other regions, supporting new staff recruitment and on boarding, sharing best practice, participating in broader learning and knowledge sharing events, and developing deep knowledge in at least one area of global importance for IFC agribusiness AS and serving as global resource for the topic. | |
| Selection Criteria: | |
| • Masters or PhD in Agricultural Economics or related discipline or other post-graduate degree (MBA, Finance, International Affairs/Development) with strong technical work experience • At least 10 years of experience on agribusiness development issues, with a mix of policy work direct experience in the private sector in agribusiness • Demonstrated technical knowledge of best practices related to agriculture development with a private sector focus • A track record of managing successful agriculture development projects, preferably in a developing country context • Strong technical knowledge and implementation experience • Strong project management skills and experience • Strong analytical, writing and communication skills – with the ability to communicate ideas clearly and confidently, articulate issues and recommend solutions • Well-developed client relationship skills and sensitivity in dealing with development partners and government authorities • Proven leadership abilities with project management experience and ability to coach/mentor more junior staff. • Experience in designing country- and region-wide advisory/technical assistance programs in emerging markets • Ability to lead and work with multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams across several regions • Ability to foster collaboration across the World Bank Group and multiple partners • Willingness and ability to travel extensively • Fluency in English is required. Fluency in French is very desirable | |
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