Country Director

The Country Director is accountable for managing IFAD's country portfolio, advocating for rural development policies, and engaging with government and private sector stakeholders to enhance rural poverty reduction and agricultural development. The role involves strategic country programme management, partnership building, policy leadership, and office management.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategic positioning and country strategy development for IFAD's collaboration with governments and stakeholders for agricultural development and rural poverty reduction.
• Manage IFAD programme and related IFAD-funded projects within the assigned portfolio, including design, supervision, loan and grant negotiations.
• Ensure IFAD presence at country-level and catalyse effective partnerships with government, NGOs, donors, civil society, research centres and private sector.
• Represent IFAD on the UN Country Team and contribute to coordination of operational activities for development.
• Contribute to corporate level strategy on core IFAD policy positions and promote constructive dialogue on pro-poor agricultural development policies.
• Support management of human resources, contracting goods and services, financial management, and budget preparation and monitoring.
• Supervise a small team for the Small and Medium Agribusiness Development Fund (SMADF).
• Provide technical and managerial leadership to the assigned country programme(s) and guide Programme Analysts, Officers, and Assistants.
• Serve as IFAD spokesperson in the country and maintain consultations with government, donors, civil society to enhance IFAD operations.
• Originate and manage new country-level projects or programmes, reflecting authoritative technical capacity in country programme formulation and delivery.

Requirements

• Advanced university degree from an accredited institution in rural development, agriculture, rural finance, development policy or other job related fields, with a preference for economics.
• At least eight (8) years of progressively responsible professional experience in rural development, agriculture, rural finance, development policy or other job related fields, with a preference for economics.
• Two (2) years in an international organization, rural development/financial institutions or government services providing support on a global scope.
• Experience may include project design, development, implementation and evaluation preferably in area of implementation and supervision of rural development programmes.
• Required language: English (4 - Excellent).
• Desirable languages: French, Spanish, or Arabic.
• In depth knowledge of IFAD`s governance structure, mandate, strategic priorities and technical work.
• Knowledge of IFAD's partners' functioning and mandate, such as the public sector (e.g. governments and policy, institutions and system), non-state actors (NGOs, CSOs, Foundations, etc.) and private sector actors.
• Know-how in managing performance, learning management, establishing learning plans and ensuring staff supervised meet their development needs while meeting the needs of IFAD.
• Identification and assessment of potential liabilities and risks in IFAD's activities, particularly vis-à-vis third parties; ability to handle risks via contingency and mitigation strategies.
• Ability to deal patiently and tactfully with others (e.g. visitors, clients, callers, etc.), including senior individuals (e.g. high-level meeting participants).
• Know-how in the formulation of concrete and actionable policy recommendations based on hard evidence (going beyond simple data interpretation).
• Know-how in designing loan and grant operations and managing loan and grant preparation process.
• Know-how in the representation of IFAD as a trusted and strategic partner, advocating and promoting IFAD's mandate and vision; effective consultations with IFAD counterparts - like ministries and governmental bodies at all administrative levels, donors, civil society.
• Expertise relevant to the specific role (e.g. For ethics office assistant, procedures outlined in the Code of Conduct, Discipline and Anti-harassment provisions of applicable rules and guidelines).
• Know-how in Project design and evaluation.
• Expertise in inclusive rural finance: i.e. pro-poor rural and agricultural financial services (including savings, credit, insurance, payments, remittances, etc.), customer demand and capacities, financial service providers, financial systems and markets, and policy and regulations (micro, meso and macro level adapted support).
• Know-how in advocacy, to maintain and promote constructive dialogue around IFAD's vision to external actors.

Skills

• Rural Development Policy
• Agricultural Finance Products
• Development Policy
• Project Design
• Project Implementation
• Project Evaluation
• Loan Operations Knowledge
• Grant Operations
• Performance Management
• Learning Management Support
• Risk Assessment
• Contingency Planning
• Policy Formulation Support
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Advocacy
• Partnership Building
• Portfolio Management
• Strategic Planning
• International Organization Experience
• Inclusive Rural Finance

Languages

English, French, Spanish, Arabic