Senior Economist

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Description

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• Leads, or participates in, multidisciplinary teams to assist governments in the identification and preparation of investment and finance support initiatives in the fields of food and agriculture, rural development, natural resource management and agro-processing, and participates in pre-appraisal and appraisal missions.
• Leads, or participates in, multidisciplinary teams for the implementation support and the preparation of final evaluation of investment and finance support solutions.
• Advises governments in the preparation of food and agriculture, rural development, natural resource management and agro-processing studies and strategies, and in the formulation of national sector and/or sub-sector investment plans and programmes.
• Advises on developing inclusive and sustainable food systems, involving producers, their organizations, other private sector actors, civil society organizations and governments.    
• Leads the formulation and delivery of capacity development initiatives in the areas of food and agriculture, rural development, natural resource management and agro-processing investment support to government staff, non-state actors and private sector organizations. 
• Prepares documents in accordance with FAO, government and financing partners’ requirements.
• Advises on task organization, selection of consultants and preparation of terms of reference and in ensuring the quality of outputs.
• Represents the Organization at international and inter-governmental meetings and conferences, advocates for strategic partnerships, best practices and effective policy dialogue; develops and negotiates effective working relationships and agreements with international and national partners. 
• Establishes, promotes and maintains relationships with relevant Strategic Programmes, FAO Technical Units and Decentralized Offices in order to ensure best synergies between investment, policy and innovation work in support to Member countries.
• Leads or participates in resource mobilization activities in accordance with the FAO Corporate Strategy.
• Provides guidance, mentoring and advice to junior staff.

• Leads and/or provides substantial contributions for the design of sovereign lending operations financed by partner financial institutions in close collaboration with local public institutions; including investment and finance support projects and programmes in agricultural and rural development topics.  
• Assesses the feasibility and viability of different public investment options both from an economic perspective and in terms of institutional capacity and their suitability to be implemented at local level. 
• Leads and/or participates in reviewing the performance of sovereign lending projects or programmes financed by partner financial institutions during implementation making recommendations for their enhancement, and assesses their impact after completion in order to inform the design of future operations. 
• Conducts policy analysis (including potentially public expenditure reviews and market price support analysis) to identify opportunities to improve public investment and promote more and better private investment for agrifood systems transformation towards greater sustainability. 
• Leads and/or participates in the preparation of public investment plans, strategies and other guiding public documents in agriculture and rural development or specific sub-sector. 
• Leads and/or participates in conducting studies which support the identification of investments and improve sectoral policies. 

• Advanced University degree in economics, agricultural economics, natural resources economics, or a closely related field.
• Ten years of relevant experience in the practical application of economic and financial analysis to development issues, including analytical studies, and/or in the formulation and implementation of food and agriculture, rural development, natural resource management and agro-processing investment and finance support programmes in developing countries and/or countries in transition.
• Working knowledge (proficient – level C) of English and limited knowledge (intermediate – level B) of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) 

• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions, is essential.
• Extent and relevance of public and private sector professional experience in areas such as agriculture, agribusiness, agro-processing, natural resource management and greening of agrifood systems; 
• Extent and relevance of experience in leading/preparing analytical and feasibility studies on topics related to agrifood sector investments; 
• Extent and relevance of experience in leading and/or contributing significantly to policy work related to agrifood sector investment (analytics and policy processes). Sound knowledge of policy analytical tools such as public expenditure reviews and market price incentives analysis is an advantage.
• Extent and relevance of experience in leading, or participating in the preparation of strategies and investment plans and other pre-investment work related to agrifood sector.
• Extent and relevance  of experience in the formulation, implementation support and evaluation of investment operations related to topics such as food security, agriculture, rural development, natural resource management, agro-processing and finance;
• Knowledge of investment criteria and procedures of international development finance institutions is an asset; 
• Extent and relevance of experience in leading, or participating in, multidisciplinary teams; 
• Knowledge of the context as well as partners and institutions of Sub-Saharan Africa would be an asset, as well as work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions.
• Extent and relevance of experience in dealing with public and/or private sector stakeholders such as senior government officials, as well as development partners and other country stakeholders.
• Demonstrated capacity to write quality technical reports in English. 

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