Senior Portfolio Advisor *Call for interest* - Short term opportunity for 9 months for Temporary Professional Officer

The Senior Portfolio Advisor provides authoritative advice on operational matters related to the divisional portfolio and contributes to relevant corporate processes to enhance the efficiency of IFAD-funded operations. The role involves portfolio management, policy advice, knowledge management, capacity building, and managerial functions within the Latin America & Caribbean Division.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to operational policy advice and support the development and revision of operational policies and procedures to enhance IFAD-funded operations.
• Promote compliance with operational policies and coordinate divisional efforts to ensure quality assurance and consistency of supervision mission deliverables and project completion reports.
• Coordinate divisional self-assessment and portfolio stocktaking exercises.
• Provide authoritative advice on project results-based management and planning exercises to Regional Director and Heads of Multi-country Offices.
• Provide demand-based advice on operational requests such as extensions, suspensions, cancellations, additional financing, and restructuring.
• Monitor portfolio performance and develop project performance improvement plans for projects-at-risk.
• Ensure quality review and clearance of supervision mission and project completion reports and monitor timely disclosure.
• Identify and mitigate risks in operations and report on emerging risks to Regional Director and relevant committees.
• Collaborate with Senior Regional Economist to feed lessons learned into project designs.
• Provide field support during supervision, implementation support, and design missions as required.
• Work closely with PFM and FCD to expedite withdrawal application processing and loan administration tasks.
• Oversee and coordinate IFAD's private sector and equity investment portfolio, providing advice on investment solutions and portfolio quality.
• Manage knowledge and capacity building through peer-to-peer interactions, documentation, analysis, and delivery of training modules.
• Coordinate monitoring and reporting processes on regional portfolio management, performance, and results at divisional, departmental, and corporate levels.
• Coordinate divisional quality assurance processes for supervision, mid-term review, project completion reports, and data/results reporting.
• Provide input to new Country Strategic Opportunities Programmes and loan/grant design based on portfolio performance lessons learned.
• Support compliance with IFAD rules, regulations, policies, and implementation of corporate operational strategies.
• Collaborate with Office of Development Effectiveness and other key partner departments on initiatives and strategies.
• Assist Divisional Director in assigned tasks, coordinate complex processes, provide technical advice, and ensure accuracy and timeliness of outputs.
• Coordinate development, implementation, and evaluation of assignments and initiatives.
• Coordinate preparation and implementation of divisional high-level events ensuring protocol and visibility.
• Serve as a change agent applying principles of change management and acting as a role model for transformation.
• Ensure integrity, transparency, and equity in management of IFAD resources including people management, resource management, and knowledge management.

Requirements

• Advanced university degree from an accredited institution in Rural Development, Finance, Economics, Public Policy or related field is required.
• At least eight (8) years of progressively responsible professional experience, including work with international organizations, rural development/financial institutions or government services, in the area of implementation and supervision of rural development programmes.
• Two (2) years in a multi-cultural organization, rural development/financial institutions or government services, in the area of implementation and supervision of rural development programmes.
• Development finance know-how in debt, lending terms, financial policies including pricing, concessionality and resource allocation.
• Economic analysis know-how in Programme/Project economic analysis.
• Evidence-based policy formulation skills for concrete and actionable policy recommendations.
• Advocacy skills to maintain and promote constructive dialogue around IFAD's vision to external actors.
• Advanced data analytics skills including statistical & econometrics research, forensic and advanced data analytics / data mining.
• Outstanding analytical skills to analyse and synthesize qualitative and/or quantitative information from various sources.
• Data management skills including data collection, cleaning, transformation and consolidation; database architecture & development; data presentation.
• Performance management know-how including managing performance, learning management, establishing learning plans and ensuring staff development.
• Project coordination skills including identification of key priorities, coordination, risk management and resource allocation.
• Risk management skills including identification and assessment of potential legal, reputational, ethical risks and liabilities, and advising senior management on contingency and mitigation strategies.
• Interpersonal skills to deal patiently and tactfully with others including senior individuals.
• Political acumen to conduct sound political analysis and understand complex environments.
• Outstanding ability to synthesize and simplify complex technical information for non-technical audiences.
• Know-how in designing loan and grant operations and managing loan and grant preparation process.
• Policy dialogue skills for effective consultations with IFAD counterparts and representation of IFAD as a trusted and strategic partner.

Skills

• Rural Development Policy
• Financial Policies and Practices
• Development Finance
• Economic Analysis
• Policy Formulation Support
• Advocacy
• Data Analytics
• Statistical Research
• Econometrics
• Data Mining
• Data Management
• Database Development
• Performance Management
• Project Coordination
• Risk Management
• Political Analysis
• Loan Operations Knowledge
• Grant Operations
• Policy Dialogue

Languages

English, Spanish, Arabic, French