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Home > Jobs > Employment Opportuni... > Professional/Technical

Job #	092012
Job Title	Operations Officer
Job Family	Agriculture & Rural Development
Location	Washington, DC
Appointment	International Hire
Job Posted	09-Nov-2009
Closing Date	01-Dec-2009
Language Requirements	English [Essential]; French [Desired]; Portuguese [Desired]
Appointment Type	Term (Duration: 3 yrs)

Background / General description

The Agriculture and Rural Development Department of the World Bank has recently signed an agreement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to undertake an action research project designed to formulate and test a manageable yet robust set of proxy indicators that best explain the competitiveness of agro-based enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).   

General areas of interest include the economic and enabling environment, rural conditions (broadly defined), the ease of doing both investment and commercial transactions, and evident agricultural development strategies.  Specific topics to be examined include the business climate, the agricultural policy environment, the state of hard and soft infrastructure, the functioning of input and output markets. the extent of value system integration and coordination, the efficiency of targeted supply chains, and pathways to productivity enhancement.  
The underlying development hypotheses of this action research are that: (1) key success factors for selected agricultural commodity subsystems can be identified, measured and improved; (2) for any given commodity subsystem such factors persist over time and across development domains; and (3) the conventional “Doing Business” approach of the World Bank Group can usefully be adapted to provide meaningful findings and results at the commodity subsystem level for a single sector even when the locus of economic activity is rural rather than urban. If these hypotheses are borne out, scale-up possibilities include repetition over time, coverage of additional commodities, and/or geographic expansion within and across developing countries. 
Just begun, the pilot effort will span a three-year period in order to capture two full agricultural years.  Six target countries will be selected from among IDA countries in Sub-saharan Africa, and another two non-IDA African countries will be selected as comparators.  Initially three types of commodity system (one cash crop, one staple grain crop, and one high value crop category) will be studied.  Commodity and crop selection will occur during the start-up phase, i.e. in parallel with recruitment of the project team.  The core team will consist of three full-time professionals based in Washington, DC:  the Program Coordinator, an Operations Officer, and a Survey Research Specialist.  Field work will be largely carried out by researchers from host or third-countries.     
Although the ARD anchor unit will manage this pilot, the initial choices of country, commodity subsystem, and indicators to be trialed will be informed by a peer review process supported by subject matter specialists drawn from other WBG units and external centers of excellence.   Survey research design and implementation will also benefit from lessons learned and guidance provided by staff from the Global Indicators Analysis Department of the joint Bank/IFC Finance and Private Sector Development Vice-Presidency.

Duties and Accountabilities

The vision for success of this pilot has been defined as: “Guidelines promulgated for achieving a more productive, competitive, and inclusive agroenterprise sector in Sub-saharan Africa through a public/private policy dialogue, policy change, and investment process built on the foundation of a proven methodology for assessing key indicators on doing business in agriculture”.

In support of that vision, the main result expected of the Operations Officer will be successful planning, organization and implementation of the work plan presented to Gates Foundation within the original grant application.  Success will be judged on: (a) timely finalization of action research cooperation agreements needed for each target and comparator country; (b) timely recruitment and contracting of appropriately qualified short-term consultants required to carry out field work; (c) effectiveness of arrangements for policy dialogue; and (d) timely completion of all required administrative reports and final publications.  

The anticipated length of assignment for the Operations Officer is 33 months (i.e. three years for the project itself less 3 months for the start-up phase during which recruitment is occurring).  
Specific tasks for the Operations Officer will include, but not be limited to the following: 

1.	Following up on the information collection carried out during start-up to shortlist countries and commodity subsystems
2.	Helping the Program Coordinator to convert preliminary choices and discussions with respect to target countries into ratified agreements on which (survey research and ensuing policy dialogue) action can be taken
3.	Helping the Program Coordinator to meet with and finalize negotiations with counterparts at the country level within each cooperating country government, with each Bank Mission, and with the Africa Region as a whole

4.	Taking the lead in arranging a policy dialogue process in the target countries
5.	Take the lead in knowledge management, including (a) creating, launching and maintaining a Doing AgriBusiness (DAB) project website; (b) getting a summary report for each target country on findings, recommendations, and resulting actions produced, published and widely disseminated; (c) capturing and describing cross-cutting lessons learned with respect to methodology; and (d) helping to formulate and disseminate guidelines for future DAB efforts
6.	Taking the lead in monitoring progress against work plan and expenditures against budget 
7.	Helping the Program Coordinator to complete and submit in a timely manner all trust fund and other progress, financial and administrative reports required by the Bank and the Gates Foundation

Selection Criteria

•  General grasp of the main issues in agricultural and rural development, broadly defined

•  M.A,, M.S. or M.B.A. in a relevant area of social sciences or in business with at least 5 years of relevant research, consulting and operational experience in international agricultural and rural development 

•  Professional experience in Sub-saharan Africa is desirable
	
•  Basic familiarity with econometrics and statistics will be viewed as a plus  

•  Demonstrable capacity to work independently

•  Good verbal and written communications skills, including the formulation and delivery of presentations to development peers

•  Demonstrable track record in producing development publications of high quality

•  Demonstrable ability to adhere to deadlines for major deliverables

•  Familiarity with Bank operational procedures and policies for trust funded operations is desirable

The World Bank Group is committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, nationality, culture and educational background.  Individuals with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply.  All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.

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