Senior Operations Officer - Industry Investment- Nairobi, Kenya

Job #:	112463
Title:	Senior Operations Officer - Industry Investment
Job Stream:	Technical Assistance & Advisory Services
Location:	Nairobi, Kenya
Closing Date:	01/12/2012
Background / General description:
Improving the investment climate in Africa is one of three core priorities of the IFC/World Bank Group strategy in Sub-Saharan Africa. IFC manages the Investment Climate Advisory Services of the World Bank Group, which comprise staff based in the regional hub offices of Nairobi, Dakar and Johannesburg and across the continent, who work with a team of product specialists based in Washington, DC and Istanbul. The Investment Climate Advisory Services have been supporting Sub-Saharan African countries to design and implement investment climate reform programs for nearly a decade, and have scaled up their efforts significantly in recent years. The programs assist client countries to implement a range of investment climate reforms, including economy-wide reforms of aspects of business regulation, supporting international trade and investment, regional integration as well as addressing obstacles to private sector investment in leading industries, such as agribusiness, infrastructure, tourism and health. The team’s objective is to support African countries’ efforts to create a positive investment climate to increase their competitiveness and private sector investment. The program is seeking to recruit an experienced Senior Operations Officer in Industry Investment to support the management and delivery of its projects to assist client governments in designing and implementing policy reforms that make the country more attractive for investment. The position will be based in Nairobi.
Duties and Accountabilities:
The Senior Operations Officer will be involved in supporting technical assistance and advisory work in the following areas: •Serve as a private sector development specialist in the real sectors of the economy working closely with the Industry Practice in the Investment Climate Department of the World Bank Group, providing knowledge leadership for clients building upon a private sector driven focus to business development and economic growth. •Contribute to the development of the World Bank Group’s Investment Climate 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 real sector development in emerging economies. •Participating in project missions and promoting policy dialogue related to real-sector development with client countries, including consultations with local government officials; •Working with the global and regional Industry team on the monitoring and evaluation Industry work. •Coordination and collaboration on the real sector investment climate work program with related units within the IFC’s advisory business lines, World Bank Group’s FPD Competitive Industries Service Line, and MIGA’s guarantee operations, among others. •Contribute to the development and maintenance of a knowledge management framework (covering the intersection of investment climate issues and real sector development in emerging economies) with a view to increasing staff capacity to identify, design and implement projects, disseminate best practice and implementation experience, and increase knowledge transfer to clients. •Monitor the World Bank’s lending and technical assistance operations and IFC investment operations and advisory services related to determine trends, opportunities for project development and coordination in project delivery. •In conjunction with IFC Regional Advisory Services support the development of a pipeline of new projects and supervise existing projects to further the growth of agribusiness in emerging economies.
Selection Criteria:
•Advanced degree in economics, law, public policies, international finance, political science or business. •A minimum of 10 years’ work experience, at least 4 of which should be in the area of private sector development and investment policy issues in a developing country context. •Experience with designing and implementing investment climate reform projects, in transition, developing and post-conflict economies; specific experience with investment generation in Sub-Saharan Africa is an advantage. •Good knowledge of business environment indicator products, as well as a solid general technical understanding of indicator construction and benchmarking techniques. •A solid understanding of the drivers of private sector investment. Well developed client relationship skills and sensitivity in dealing with development partners and government authorities •Experience in and understanding of private sector business operations, either through direct experience or through academic study. •Excellent written and oral communication skills in English, with fluency in French an added advantage. •Strong interpersonal and team skills with the ability to develop effective relations with clients. •High degree of self-motivation and proven ability to work independently under limited supervision. Ability to multitask and work effectively in multidisciplinary teams. •Comfortable working in a fast-paced environment with a capacity to deliver high-quality outputs and results under tight deadlines. Women are particularly encouraged to apply.
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